The 2012 class of W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson (WKKF-WW) Michigan Teaching Fellows, announced today, includes a diverse group of recent college graduates and career-changers with strong backgrounds in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. In fact, all of the 2012 fellows majored in a STEM discipline.
Making a commitment to teach for three years, each of the 74 recipients of the highly competitive WKKF-WW Michigan Teaching Fellowship (64 enrolling in 2012 and 10 deferring their enrollment) will receive $30,000 to complete a specially designed, cutting-edge master’s degree program preparing them to teach in Michigan’s high-need urban and rural secondary schools.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation launched the statewide program in 2009 with $18 million in support.
Today, W.K. Kellogg Foundation President and CEO Sterling Speirn joined Gov. Rick Snyder and Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, to announce the 2012 class of fellows, who were selected from a highly competitive pool of more than 2,000 applicants.
The fellows will attend Eastern Michigan University, Wayne State University, Grand Valley State University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Western Michigan University. These universities partner with local school districts where fellows learn to teach in real classrooms from the beginning of their master’s work, just as physicians learn in teaching hospitals. The nine partner districts for these clinical placements, up from seven last year, include Battle Creek, Benton Harbor, Detroit, Godfrey-Lee, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Wyoming and Ypsilanti.
"Great teachers and great teaching can make all the difference for our students, their educational growth, future success and quality of life," said Snyder. "The W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship is making tremendous strides toward the goal of providing children across Michigan access to highly effective educators in these critical subject areas, and I commend this work and look forward to its continued role and achievements."
The 2012 class of Wayne State University fellows includes:
• Faris Al-Nsour (Troy)
• David Banks-Richardson (Aurora, Colo.)
• Ali Bazzi (Dearborn)
• Darreaus Cornay (Detroit)
• Dirk Fenner (Melvin)
• Alyssa Gipson (Detroit)
• Sean Grant (Detroit)
• Michelle Groven Nelson (Duluth, Minn.)
• Lori LaFleur-Todd (Southfield)
• Jennifer Ormond (Port Hueneme, Calif.)
• Richard Rice III (Taylor)
• Timothy Schleusener (Dimondale)
• Amanda Silic (Fraser)
• Mark Smith (Grosse Pointe)
• Holly Suszko (Dearborn)
• Cheryl Young (Taylor)
More information about the WKKF-WW Michigan Teaching Fellowship is available online at http://wayne.edu/wwfellowship/.
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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.
Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students.