For the paraprofessional, support staff, or childcare worker already devoted to children. This is the first step to growing the skills to best serve every child.
A Gracelyn Success Coach will walk you through the program, answer every question, and help you decide with confidence, before you commit to anything.
A Success Coach will reach out within one business day.
You show up every day. You notice which children are struggling. You notice which ones light up when someone slows down and pays attention. The question is not whether you care. It is whether you have the preparation to serve every one of them the way they deserve.
Jasmine had been a paraprofessional in an early childhood classroom for three years. She knew every child's name, every family situation, and which child needed a little extra time before they were ready to try something new. She stayed late. She brought things from home. She never stopped thinking about the children even after she left the building.
What she had never considered was whether she could do more for them.
Then one afternoon, her director, Ms. Perry, asked if she had a few minutes after the children left. "Jasmine," she said, "I have been watching you for a long time. The way these children trust you. The way you never give up on any of them. The way you are always looking for a better way to reach the one who is hardest to reach. I want to nominate you for the Associate of Science in Transformational Education at Gracelyn University. What you already do can become a practice. You can have the skills, the preparation, and the credential to serve every child in your care more fully."
Jasmine was quiet for a moment. "I was not very good in school," she said. Ms. Perry smiled. "But you can build trust and relationships with every child. Gracelyn University was built for people who can do this and want to grow so they can have an even greater impact."
As a paraprofessional, support staff member, or childcare worker, you have something most education students do not: real daily experience with real children. You have seen what they need. You have built the relationships. The ATED program builds your skills and your credential on top of that foundation, not from scratch.
You care as much as anyone in that building. But there are children in your care right now who need more than what your current preparation gives you. A child struggling with reading. A child with needs you do not yet have the tools to fully meet. This program is how you close that gap.
What would it mean to walk into work tomorrow with the evidence-based skills to reach every child in your care, not just the ones you already know how to help? Not someday. With the preparation you are building right now. That is what the ATED program is designed to give you.
When you think about the children in your care right now, how many of them do you feel like you are not fully reaching? And what would it mean for them if you could?
The educators who change children's lives are not always the ones who came through traditional pipelines. They are the ones whose leaders watched them closely enough to say: this person is ready to grow. Your nomination is that recognition. This program is what comes next.
Every year you wait to grow your skills is another year the children who need you most fall farther behind.
Before we designed a single course, we asked people just like you what they actually needed. Every course in the ATED program builds on the experience you already carry and gives you the specific skills to serve every child in your care more fully.
"Before I built a single course at Gracelyn, I asked one question: what do the people already in rooms with children actually need to serve every one of them more fully? The answer is what the ATED was designed to give."Dr. Matthew Flippen, President, Gracelyn University
Not theory developed at a distance. Practical skill, grounded in evidence, that you can take back to the children in your care before you ever graduate.
Have you ever watched a child struggle and felt something in you that wanted to help, but did not yet know exactly how? The Science of Reading and child development courses give you a precise, evidence-based answer: not a general approach, but the right one for each specific child in front of you.
What about the child who needs more than you currently know how to give? The child whose first language is not English, or whose needs go beyond what a typical day addresses? ATED equips you with specific strategies for every child, not just the ones who are easy to reach.
Develop a foundational understanding of how children grow, develop, and take in new information. Know not just what to do but why it works, so your instinct has something precise and proven to stand on.
Strong educators are strong communicators. Your ELAR courses develop your ability to write, speak, and connect across cultures, skills that directly strengthen every interaction you have with children and families.
Every course is built on the conviction that serving children is a calling, not just a job. Your Christian Life courses give you a biblical foundation for understanding the dignity of every child and the purpose behind everything you do.
Every credit you earn in the ATED transfers directly into the Bachelor of Science in Transformational Education. You are not starting over. You are building forward, and your Success Coach will have both degrees mapped out with you from day one.
The Associate of Science in Transformational Education is designed as the first chapter of a longer story. Every one of the 60 credits you earn transfers directly into the BTED program. Your Success Coach will help you plan both degrees before you take your first course, so you always know where you are and where you are going.
All 60 ATED credits apply directly toward the 120-credit BTED bachelor's degree.
Your Success Coach maps both degrees with you before you enroll in your first course.
Completing the associate's first does not slow you down. It prepares you for everything that follows.
Graduate with an associate's degree, then continue straight into the bachelor's, with momentum already behind you.
They were already in the room, already devoted to the children. Someone saw it. They said yes. Here is what changed.
General education with a purpose. Every course is chosen not just to fulfill a requirement but to strengthen you as a person and as an educator. 20 required courses across 6 content areas, each one a deliberate investment in what comes next.
Across 6 content areas, each chosen for the educator you are becoming.
All 60 credits transfer directly into the BTED bachelor's program.
Fully online, flexible 8-week sessions built for working adults.
Gracelyn created its institutional scholarship because a financial barrier should never be the reason a calling goes unanswered. No application fee. No enrollment fee. Books included. A 0% interest payment plan. For most nominees, the scholarship rate applies.
For most nominees, the scholarship rate means the full associate's degree costs less than a single semester at a traditional university. Your Success Coach will confirm your eligibility before you commit to anything.
Scholarships are institutional awards and are not guaranteed to all applicants. Eligibility is determined during the admissions process. Monthly payment plans may be available to eligible students. All tuition and fees subject to change with appropriate notice. Gracelyn University does not participate in federal financial aid programs.
You do not have to feel fully ready. You just have to be willing to take one step. A 15-minute conversation with a Gracelyn Success Coach will give you everything you need to decide with clarity, no pressure, no obligation, just honest guidance from someone who understands this calling.
Every year you wait to grow your skills is another year the children who need you most fall farther behind.
A Success Coach will reach out within one business day.
The ATED program is for the person who is already in rooms with children, already giving everything they have, and is ready to build the skills and the credential to serve those children more fully. The person we are looking for does not yet have the credential. They already have the character.
A principal, director, superintendent, or other education leader who has observed your work nominates you and attests to your readiness. If you are not sure who would nominate you, your Success Coach has helped many people start exactly that conversation. It is simpler than it sounds.
No prior college credits required. No entrance exam of any kind. This program is designed for those who are ready to begin, even if they are starting from zero.
You are currently working as a paraprofessional, support staff member, childcare worker, or in another role that puts you alongside children every day. That experience is part of what makes you ready.
A brief reflection on why you feel called to serve children, what you already see in them, and what you believe you could give them with the right preparation behind you.
The person we are looking for is already showing up for children every day. These are not qualities we develop from scratch. They are qualities we recognize, formally equip, and credential.
If the people around you would describe you this way, you belong here.
They gravitate toward children naturally. Children trust them without being told to.
The nomination surprised them. That is often the clearest sign they are ready.
They know they do not know everything yet. That drives them forward rather than stopping them.
Shows up consistently. Does the right thing for children without waiting to be recognized.
Their influence over children comes from who they are, not a title they hold.
They feel the gap between what they can give right now and what they want to give.
You do not have to figure this out alone. Here is exactly what the path looks like from where you are right now.
You are already holding the first step. Schedule a call with your Success Coach. No commitment. No obligation. Just an open door.
A real person, an experienced educator who understands this calling, will call you within one business day. They will answer every question, confirm your scholarship eligibility, and help you plan your full path, including how the ATED connects directly to the bachelor's degree.
Complete your application and invite your director, principal, or supervisor to submit the nomination letter. If you are not sure who to ask, your Success Coach will help you think through that conversation. It is simpler than it sounds.
Start the coursework that equips you to serve every child in your care more fully. Fully online. Built for working adults. With a Success Coach beside you every step, and a clear path forward already mapped before you begin.
Gracelyn University is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and CHEA. Your degree carries national credibility.
Every education course in the ATED program is aligned to recognized standards for teacher preparation, ensuring that the credits you earn are respected when you continue to the bachelor's degree and beyond.
Before you graduate, you will complete a supervised field experience placement in a real PK-12 or early childhood classroom. Your associate's degree is not purely academic. It is proven in practice.
Every ATED student has a dedicated Success Coach who walks alongside them from enrollment through graduation and helps plan the full path to the bachelor's degree. You are never navigating this alone.
Every course is fully online and designed to fit inside the life of someone who is already working with children every day. You do not have to pause your life or leave the children you serve to begin.
Gracelyn was built for people exactly like you. Not for students who already have everything figured out. For the devoted, experienced, faith-rooted person who is already in the room with children and wants the preparation to serve every one of them more fully.
Before we designed a single course, we asked the people already doing this work: what do they actually need? The answer shaped everything, from the curriculum to the scholarship to the Success Coach model.
Your leader said your name because they have watched you closely enough to believe you are ready. We built this program to honor that confidence and to give you the strongest possible foundation for every child who will one day depend on what you know.
You did not show up for these children by accident. That calling is real, and it deserves to be honored with the best possible preparation.
Your leader has been watching. They said your name because they have seen enough to believe that what you already carry, with the right skills and a credential behind it, could change what is possible for every child in your care.
Those children are not waiting for the most credentialed applicant. They are waiting for the most devoted one, fully prepared.
Every year you wait to grow your skills is another year the children who need you most fall farther behind.
A Success Coach will reach out within one business day.
