Governor Announces Inaugural Class of Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows
Montclair State to prepare 12 Fellows to teach in high-need schools
Posted in: Uncategorized
With Montclair State University’s College of Education and Human Services Dean Francine Peterman and students in attendance, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced the inaugural class of 50 Woodrow Wilson New Jersey Teaching Fellows at the New Jersey State House in Trenton on June 10. The highly competitive program recruits both recent graduates and career changers with strong backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and math – the STEM fields – and prepares them specifically to teach in high-need secondary schools.
“With today’s announcement, we are reaffirming our commitment to investing in teacher talent with a new pipeline for recruiting highly qualified teaching candidates and training them so they can generate the greatest positive learning outcomes for our children,” said Governor Christie. “By preparing these Fellows to be top-quality educators, we will be helping more than 15,000 students to contribute and thrive in a knowledge-based, global, digital economy and workforce.”
Each Fellow receives $30,000 to complete a specially designed, cutting-edge master’s degree program based on a year-long classroom experience. In return, Fellows commit to teach for three years in the urban and rural New Jersey schools that most need strong STEM teachers. Throughout the three-year commitment, Fellows receive ongoing support and mentoring.
“We are delighted to partner with the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship program and support the advancement of math and science teaching and learning in several of New Jersey’s most high-need school districts,” said Peterman. “This partnership underscores our continued commitment to Newark and Orange public schools as well as our commitment to recruiting, preparing and retaining the next generation of urban educators.”
The 50 Fellows are attending one of five institutions – Montclair State, The College of New Jersey, Rowan University, Rutgers University – Camden and William Paterson University – that partner with local school districts, where they will learn to teach in real classrooms from the beginning of their master’s work.
The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship program at Montclair State is an innovative, 12-month, apprenticeship-based program for individuals with a deep commitment to teaching mathematics or science in an urban school district. The curriculum intentionally supports the Fellows and the program provides year-long professional development for those in-service teachers working as mentor teachers for the Fellows.
Among the 50 new Fellows announced by Governor Christie are eight Montclair State alumni: Sue-Anne Alonso ’14; Caitlin Ament ’09, ’11 MS; Aline De Sousa ’14; Bradley Gold ’14; Danielle Kinloch ’14; Steven Kuipers ’14; Eric Nyabeta ’11 MS; and Jillian Varner ’14. Alonso, De Sousa, Gold and Varner are part of Montclair State’s 2014 Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows class, and Ament, Kinloch, Kuipers and Nyabeta will attend William Paterson.
Joining the four alumni as Fellows in the Montclair State program are Wahab Ashraf, Eric Clementelli, Jessica Ferreira, Brian Moshofsky, Evangelina Pena, Veronica Pistoia, Shannon Quirk and Jaquil White.
“We’re extremely impressed by the 12 exceptional math and science Fellows who joined us this summer.” Peterman says. “With this first cohort, we know that we are one step closer to bringing New Jersey’s students the great math and science teachers they deserve.”
Biographies of all Fellows as well as more information about the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship are available at the Woodrow Wilson website.
Read about the event in The Star-Ledger.
