At the beginning of this year, Texas A&M University-San Antonio opened a unique child care that’s free of charge for single parents and Pell Grant-eligible students attending the university on the South Side of San Antonio.
The Young Jaguars center, which is the first step in an extensive effort to improve the child care quality and availability in San Antonio by the growing university, has been life-changing for parents like Monica Tijerina, a single mother working full time and studying business at the college.
The more expansive program is called Campus CARES and is made possible with a $1.75 million Department of Education grant. As part of the program, the university is developing Educare San Antonio, a $19.7 million, 26,000-square-foot on-campus facility that will provide child care for TAMU-SA students, staff and Bexar County residents.
It’s scheduled to open in the summer of 2026 and will be the permanent home of Young Jaguars.
Tijerina is in her second semester at TAMU-SA, where she transferred after obtaining an associate’s degree from a local community college. Juggling work, studies and seeking child care options was emotionally draining at the time, she said.
“I would think a lot of times, ‘Is this even worth it?'” she said. “I’m getting my degree, yes, to better myself and to have a better future. But I just felt like it was at the expense of my daughter. I felt like I was neglecting her. So it was very hard.”
She would often drive across town to drop her daughter off at her mother’s or sister’s house , only to sit in traffic and end up in classes hungry and tired. And when her daughter was there, she would often sit and watch TV, Tijerina said.
With Young Jaguars, she has been able to study and attend evening classes free of guilt. In lieu of watching TV, her daughter is in a high-quality early education center with engaging activities and curriculum.
“She loves it. Even this morning, she told me, ‘Are we gonna go to Young Jaguars today?'” Tijerina said.
“They have all the games and the books … everything is geared toward their development,” she said. “And they also get their toys that I can’t afford to buy, like … learning toys.”
Children attending the center, which is currently open in the afternoons from 3:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday, are not the only ones learning new things.
A learning lab
Students from business majors to kinesiology majors and those studying early childhood education could all learn from different aspects of the center.
Catherine O’Brien, the center’s director, and the larger child care efforts at the university called the program a “buildable, multigenerational model.”
“We think about the students who are the parents who need care, we have the students who need experience and opportunities to learn hands-on, and then we have the children who are coming onto a university campus and being able to see, ‘This is a place that I can belong as well,'” she said.
Melissa Jozwiak, a professor in the Department of Educator and Leadership Preparation, said that is part of the lab school model envisioned for the TAMU-SA students studying childhood education.
“It is a place that currently early childhood students are going to, and they are spending time observing children, they are planning experiences,” she said. “Then, the exemplary teachers that are employed in the classrooms are giving our university students feedback.”
The program is part of an effort by the university to professionalize the early childhood education industry.
Other learning opportunities include those for business students, who might “want to understand the impact of state licensing regulations on an operating budget,” Jozwiak said so “they work with the program director to understand that intersection.”
Kinesiology students could also observe human gait or agility by observing students on the playground or working through obstacle courses.
“Across all majors, we’re actually hoping all of the colleges will take advantage of having students come in and learn in the space with us,” Jozwiak said.
