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<p>Gov. Pence recognizes 2014 class of Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows.</p>

Gov. Pence recognizes 2014 class of Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INDIANAPOLIS — Ten aspiring teachers — including an oil industry engineer and a product development and quality control officer from the manufactured housing industry — will enroll at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis as members of the 2014 class of Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows.

Now in its sixth year at IUPUI, the Woodrow Wilson program is designed to prepare recent college graduates or working professionals with strong backgrounds in the STEM fields  – science, technology, engineering, and math — to teach in high-need secondary schools.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation recently named a class of 45 2014 Indiana fellows. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence recognized the selected fellows June 9 during a Statehouse press conference attended by officials from the foundation, IUPUI and the other participating universities: Ball State University, Purdue University, University of Indianapolis and Valparaiso University.

“Attracting talent in science, technology, engineering and math to the teaching field will help our students better understand and be successful in these fields, which are so important to our state’s future success,” Pence said.

The Woodrow Wilson program at IUPUI is an interdisciplinary program between the IU School of Education, Purdue School of Science and Purdue School of Engineering and Technology. The IUPUI program offers a residency in which students are paired with a master teacher as a mentor for an full academic year.

“We feel this is the best way to prepare exemplary and experienced teachers for today’s diverse schools,” said Pat Rogan, executive associate dean of the IU School of Education at IUPUI. “Our program has been successful in preparing a total of 66 secondary STEM teachers over the course of five years, and these teachers have secured jobs in high-need schools — primarily in Marion County.

“We continue to attract incredibly talented candidates who want to teach in high-need schools.  Our program prepares them to be successful via in-depth content expertise and leading-edge teaching and learning practices, intensive clinical experiences, strong mentorship and support during their first three years of teaching — all in partnership with our middle and high school partners.”

The teaching fellowship, started in Indiana, is now established in Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and Georgia. Each Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow receives $30,000 to complete a specially designed, leading-edge master’s degree program based on a yearlong classroom experience. In return, fellows commit to teach for three years in the Indiana schools that most need strong STEM teachers. Throughout the three-year commitment, fellows receive intensive ongoing support and mentoring.

“At IUPUI, we have designed our Woodrow Wilson STEM teacher preparation program to reflect teaching as a practice-based profession, much like a medical residency,” said Kathy Marrs, director of the IUPUI Woodrow Wilson Program. “Woodrow Wilson fellows at IUPUI complete a master’s degree program that combines a solid academic base, a strong one-year clinical teaching residency in our local urban schools, a three-year new teacher induction experience, and ongoing opportunities such as Project Lead the Way or special education dual certification.”

The IUPUI program is the only Woodrow Wilson Fellowship program in the country that offers dual certification in both STEM and special education certification.

The 10 IUPUI 2014 Woodrow Wilson teaching fellows, listed with previous graduation dates and majors, are:

  • Jonathan Bernardi: Amherst College ’99, Russian

 

  • Justin Bush, IUPUI ’13, biology

 

  • William Johnson: Purdue University ’07, mechanical engineering technology

 

  • Danielle Lord: Albion College ’08, geological sciences; University of New Mexico ’13, M.S., earth and planetary sciences

 

  • Tamara Markey: Purdue University ’94, industrial engineering

 

  • Donovan McCubbins: Bellarmine University ’13, chemistry

 

  • Taylor Mobley: Indiana University Bloomington ’14, chemistry

 

  • Katherine Russo: Indiana University Bloomington ’12, human biology

 

  • Daryl Traylor: Eastern Kentucky University ’13, biology; IUPUI ’14, M.S., biology

 

  • Lauren Wyatt: IUPUI ’13, biology

Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation contributed to this article.