After completing her Master of Arts from Brandeis University, Catherine Novas began a teaching career she thought would fulfill a lifelong desire to work with her community’s youngest members.
“But something felt unfinished,” she said. “As if I were only brushing the surface of my purpose.”
Then tragedy struck. Her devoutly religious father passed away from COVID-19. Novas immediately felt an urgent need to build something meaningful in his memory.
Recalling her childhood home “filled with children from my mother’s day care,” Novas landed on opening a day care in his honor, taking over the former site of the Tri-County Head Start program in North Providence along with her fiancé and business partner, Jeremy McGurn, in August.
The couple is building the explicitly Christian program on principles of “faith, family and purpose,” Novas said.
The Nova Learning Center has a total capacity of 47 students and offers learning programs for infants, toddlers, pre-kindergarten students and school-age children.
Novas said starting the business has been “challenging,” but the initial feedback has been positive.
“They tell us how much it means to have a center where children are seen and nurtured fully,” she said.