It's as if Stefanie Chang has a magnet inside her.

Wherever she goes, her tiny charges at Kuhio Park Terrace's Early Head Start program nestle close to her, seek eye contact and climb into her lap when she sits down for circle time.

It wasn't always this way. Chang remembers being hesitant when she first came to volunteer at the class of 2- and 3-year-olds.

"Ohmigosh, they're all shorter," the 18-year-old Punahou senior thought. "I'm going to run one over."

Months later, with her last day of school-mandated community service not far away, Chang, an only child, is already growing wistful.

"It's going to be hard when you have to go," she said. "I have a feeling I'm going to be back."

At first, the children were wide-eyed around her, too. To them, she's like another teacher. But they've since warmed and, as one teacher noted, they grow excited when they hear it's a "Miss Stefanie" day.

When asked if they know that, like them, "Miss Stefanie" also goes to school, one girl — who looks like a Bratz doll come to life, complete with kewpie eyes, pouty lips and a spaghetti-strap top — grows surprised.

Really? This full-grown person also goes to school?

Then "Miss Stefanie" nods.

"But BIG school!" the little girl adds.

It's hard for Chang to wipe the smile from her face after that.

"I'm used to thinking of someone else as the teacher, and now I'm the higher power," she said.

The Parents and Children Together program sees a host of volunteers, explains Kehau Aina, the family services coordinator for Early Head Start.

There are schools like Punahou that require their seniors to do a certain amount of community service. There are residents, who are expected to put in a certain amount of hours as part of their housing. There are court-ordered community service volunteers. And don't forget the pediatric nursing students, either.

"Anybody's welcome to volunteer," Aina said, adding potential volunteers must clear certain screening procedures.

"Miss Stefanie" spent two hours last Wednesday reading with the wee ones, helping them make Mother's Day cards and paint kites for Boys Day.

During lunch, she sat at the shin-high red keiki chair, knees up to her chest, helping one sweet-faced young boy operate serving tongs.

Many of these early Head Start keiki learn a variety of skills in the classroom setting, said Brenda Kaahanui. Besides socialization and early educational skills, there are special challenges for this class.

About three-quarters of them are from immigrant families, mostly Chuukese and Micronesian, who speak a different language at home, Kaahanui and Aina explained. Most came into the class at the beginning of the school year speaking no English. These days, they chatter away fluently in their new language.

And there are cultural differences, too. The Chuukese boy and others like him often eat with their hands at home.

Like everything else, lunchtime is lesson time.

"What's this?" the boy asks Chang, indicating something green in the noodles.

"Vegetables."

"Oh."

He eyes them for a moment, then tries them.

"Want a little bit more?" she asks. He nods.

Chang also encourages them to drink their milk, another thing they may not be used to at home.

Another note: Many in this transitional class began the school year in diapers, but as of now, all are potty-trained, Kaahanui proudly reports.

The experience has widened the horizons for Chang, too, who is heading off to college in New York in the fall.

While she hasn't decided on a course of study, gravitating toward something in the field of science, she's now thinking she might even consider teaching.

"This (volunteer program) is what turned me that way," she said. "It makes me want to go into something with children. They're actually a lot of fun."