The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship will begin its first ever Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship in two weeks with 20 qualifying fellows participating in the inaugural class at Ball State University — one of the first sites chosen by the foundation.
The program is being offered at four universities in Indiana — Ball State University, Purdue University, University of Indianapolis and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis — and will provide fellows with a $30,000 stipend.
Ball State University will use the fellowship to build upon two of its programs, the Teacher's College and the College of Science and Humanities.
"We are pleased that four of Indiana's top schools of education are committed to work with the Woodrow Wilson Foundation to recruit excellent candidates and enhance their educational programs so that they focus more on student learning," Vice President for Education at Lilly Endowment Inc. Sara B. Cobb said.
Cobb gave a $10.1 million grant to help fund the Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship.
Participants will earn a master's degree in secondary education as well as licensure in mathematics, physics, physical science, or life science.
The one-year program includes one summer session on campus followed by an entire academic year spent at a partner high school. Upon completion of the one-year program, fellows will teach three years in selected high-need urban or rural school districts throughout Indiana.
Although the high-need schools are still being selected, Laurie Mullen, associate dean for teachers education at Ball State University, said areas near Wayne County, as well as northwest of Fort Wayne are being considered.
Competition in the fellowship is high and applicants must be at least undergraduate seniors with impeccable resumes and transcripts, or career changing professionals. In the introductory fellows class, 97 percent majored in one of the disciplines known as STEM (science, technology, engineering or mathematics), 27 percent hold advanced degrees, 15 percent recently completed their undergraduate study in the spring and 85 percent are either career-changers who have never taught or are returning to the teaching profession.
Transforming teacher education; getting teachers into high-need schools; attracting the very best candidates to teaching; and cutting teacher attrition and retaining top-teachers are four goals of the Fellowship established by the foundation's officials. However, the main objective is to enrich the lives of students by placing them under the supervision and leadership of the best quality teachers the state of Indiana has seen, Cobb said.
"Indiana students who will have these fellows as teachers will undoubtedly benefit from their subject matter expertise in the STEM disciplines and their enthusiasm and creativity," said Cobb.
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