Woodrow Wilson News & Publications
FOR RELEASE: June 24, 2010
CONTACT: Beverly Sanford | Vice President for Communications | (609) 945-7885
INDIANAPOLIS TO HOST FIRST-EVER GATHERING OF WOODROW WILSON TEACHING FELLOWS
Nearly 200 top teacher candidates convene on July 8-9 to learn Indiana lessons
PRINCETON, N.J.—Fellows from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation’s three major teaching fellowship programs will gather on Thursday and Friday, July 8 and 9, for an intensive session of professional development and networking.
The event will mark the first joint convening of Fellows from the national Leonore Annenberg Teaching Fellowship, the Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship, and the Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund (WW-RBF) Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color. Program directors from participating Indiana universities and from a range of new partner institutions in Michigan and Ohio will also attend.
Close to 200 Fellows are expected to participate, said Constance K. Bond, the Foundation’s Vice President for Teaching Fellowships, including more than 120 Indiana-based Fellows from the 2009 and 2010 classes of the state’s Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships, as well as Fellows from other institutions nationwide.
“This event will bring new and veteran teachers and university faculty from around the country to Indianapolis to learn from the successes of the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship in Indiana,” Dr. Bond said. “We think it’s an extraordinary opportunity to showcase the leadership role that Indiana is playing.”
The program features keynote addresses by Foundation president Arthur Levine and by noted education reformer and activist Bob Moses, head of the Algebra Project. Dozens of practical workshops for the new teachers will be facilitated by expert teachers from across Indiana and around the country. Program leaders will also have the opportunity to learn about the innovations in teacher preparation currently underway at the four Indiana partner universities— Ball State University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Purdue University, and the University of Indianapolis.
In addition to the Indiana campuses, fourteen other institutions will also take part:
- for the Annenberg Fellowship, Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, the University of Washington;
- for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship, Eastern Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Western Michigan University; and
- for the Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellowship, John Carroll University, The Ohio State University, the University of Akron, and the University of Cincinnati.
The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships are designed to recruit, prepare and retain effective teachers for the students and schools who need them most. Fellows receive $30,000 stipends and attend enriched, specially selected master’s-level teacher education programs, complemented by intensive mentoring during the first three years of teaching at high-need urban and rural schools. The Fellowships focus on four goals: transforming teacher education; getting strong teachers into high-need schools; attracting the very best candidates to the teaching profession; and cutting teacher attrition by retaining top teachers.
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Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops leaders and institutions to address the critical challenges in education. It supports its Fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American institutions, and also supports innovation in the institutions they will lead.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family—J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons J.K. Jr. and Eli—through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. The Lilly family's foremost priority was to help the people of their city and state build a better life. Although the Endowment also supports efforts of national significance and an occasional international project, it remains primarily committed to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.