Early childhood education bachelor’s coming to Yuba College

Institution teams up with Sac State to offer degree

Yuba College’s Denice Burbach understands that for most students enrolled in the early childhood education program, the obligations of work, family or the inability to travel restricts or completely deters them from pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the subject.

Starting in the fall, the choice will become a bit less muddled, as students will be able to attain a bachelor’s degree from Sacramento State University’s early development, care and education program at Yuba College.

“Our department has been working on this for the last eight to nine years,” Burbach, coordinator of the early childhood education program at Yuba College, said. “Most of our students are working, especially if they are working in an early childhood education path. Many of them are receiving financial aid and can’t afford to travel, so this affords them a great opportunity.”

Burbach said there is an interesting development in the early education industry, where places like Head Start are asking for people with more advanced Jacob Crouse, 15, holds horse Romeo before a lesson through the Birch Valley Ranch program at D&B Stables in Sutter on Monday.

N● icole Gates walked around the pastures and lanes of D&B Stables in Sutter on Monday morning – a huge feat since her breast cancer diagnosis last year.

“Chemo really wears you out,” she said. “I haven’t always looked this cool,” she said with a laugh as she pointed to her red-dyed pixie hair cut and her false eyelashes.

Gates, along with daughters Michayla and Megan, teach riding lessons on the property through their program, called Birch Valley Ranch. But the lessons go beyond techniques learned on horseback, including grooming, emergency veterinary care, horse anatomy, physiology and psychology.

“That’s why our tagline is ‘science-based horsemanship.’ Owning and taking care of them requires more than what it takes to care for a cat or a dog,” Gates said.

She said many horse owners underestimate the time and money it takes to keep the animals healthy. She said an example is some may keep their horse too warm – blanketing them when it is not necessary. As horses eat, the fiber in roughage, including hay, releases heat as the animal digests.

Most of the six horses owned by Birch Valley are rescues that have come from homes in Alaska, where Gates and her family lived before moving back to Gates’ hometown area of Yuba-sutter. Some came to them in poor health due to