The Westview News

Press Release
Employee of the Month
Date
June 17, 2025

      Dominique Sortwell attained Westview’s May 2025 Employee of the Month recognition. Dominique performs her responsibilities as a teacher at Westview Child Care Center—specifically, in the Infant Room. She started at the Dayville, CT child care facility in September 2023, and feels thoroughly prepared for this role as a result of her own experiences growing up. Being the eldest grandchild in her family offered many opportunities over many years to shepherd over her younger kith and kin. Looking after little ones is a natural instinct to Dominique, and her understanding of the professional protocols in a child care setting has been strengthened throughout her employment experiences.

     Ever since Dominique became a big sister at age 10, she has been accumulating a caring predisposition towards young children. As the years carried forth, she acknowledged an emergent desire to pursue childcare as a career path. She knew her ultimate goal was to work in a daycare facility, but first wanted to gain experience through children’s extracurricular activities. One of her first experiences working within a children’s setting came through an after-school program promoting youth soccer while she lived in Virginia. As a result, Dominique spent time around elementary school children promoting active lifestyles within a wholesome structure, and she became further inspired to work in youth development. When Dominique and her family moved to Massachusetts, she continued working with kids in an after-school capacity through the area’s YMCA. Here she nurtured Kindergarten through 5th Grade groups during the school year, and was heavily involved in the facility’s summer program.

     All the while, Dominique was gaining the understanding that working with children means working with families. When her own family moved to Connecticut, she started her professional tenure at Westview Child Care Center and felt confident about her abilities to work with younger students there. Dominique knows that caring for infants surely calls for clear and coordinated communication with the families: “You get to know the parents as well as well as the children over time, so it gets easier and easier. It’s wonderful to build those relationships as the year goes on. It really helps to understand where they are coming from.” In receiving this designation Dominique elaborated on the personal joy she receives as a supportive spectator, adding “I’m honestly very surprised and very honored to receive the Employee of the Month recognition. Watching our students grow is my favorite thing to do. Seeing these children develop from a little human being to a person that is sitting up, crawling, standing, walking, talking—it’s amazing to watch! I get so excited every single time I see a new stage.”

     Currently living in Brooklyn, Connecticut, Dominique is close with her mother and father Crystal and William, and she is very proud of her aforementioned sister Lillian. Han, the family’s beloved Husky-mix, has been a comforting canine companion to them since their time in Virginia. Dominique carefully curates a personal collection of Japanese cultural items consisting of numerous katanas, chopsticks, and art pieces; some artifacts being handed down through generations of family. To nurture her creative side, Dominique likes to draw, paint, and photograph scenes in nature. She looks for any opportunities to apply bold uses of color and creative designs to decorate the infant classroom at Westview Child Care Center as a further expression of her artistic ideas. Her notable window designs show seasonal concepts and themes with playful imagery and brighten the spaces.

     Westview Child Care Center Director Katy Holzer appreciates Dominique’s focused efforts in the child care setting, commenting: "Dominique brings such a thoughtful, steady presence to our Infant Room. She blends her natural instinct for nurturing with professionalism, creativity, and an incredible attention to the individual needs of each child in her care. From supporting early milestones to maintaining an impeccably clean and welcoming space, her work reflects true dedication. We are so fortunate to have her on our team."

Westview Health Care Center is a 103-bed inpatient skilled nursing facility, which includes a distinct and self-contained 28-bed sub-acute short term rehabilitation unit and outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapies including: Sports Medicine, Adolescent/Pediatric, Adult, and Aquatic Outpatient Centers, all dedicated to providing outstanding quality health care services. The Dayville, Connecticut facility is consistently ranked among the top nursing facilities in the nation, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as well as U.S. News and World Report, consecutively for the past years.