UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School Awarded $125,000 Grant
In his letter accepting the grant for UC Santa Barbara, Chancellor Henry Yang wrote, “This new fund will attract and support high caliber students to become our nation’s secondary school science and math teachers. We are excited about creating a cohort of Hearst Teacher Scholars – the ‘cream of the crop’ – who will educate and inspire secondary school students to focus on science and mathematics and consider careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), helping our State and Nation.”
UCSB’s Division of Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences and UCSB’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education have collaborated to build a successful five-year CalTeach at Santa Barbara program – the purpose of which is to actively recruit and better prepare STEM undergraduates for careers as science and mathematics teachers (Gevirtz School Dean Jane Close Conoley plays an important leadership role for the State as chair of the UC Cal Teach Executive Committee). The Gevirtz School strives to award each science and mathematics teacher candidate a scholarship for enrolling in the teacher education (credential plus M.Ed.) program. Currently, the Gevirtz School’s fifth-year, 13-month Teacher Education Program prepares 16-20 science and mathematics teachers each year. The availability of additional annual scholarships from the new Hearst Scholarship Fund will enable the school to increase our average number of science and mathematics teacher graduates to at least 25 per year and help strengthen the diversity of these future math and science teaching cohorts.
“Wonderful teachers can have life changing effects on young people,” says Dean Jane Close Conoley. “Our country has a critical need for more terrific math and science teachers. We are grateful to the Hearst Foundation for supporting our effects to attract the best and brightest math and science majors into secondary teaching. These Hearst Scholars will make a significant difference in the lives of thousands of students.”