FOR RELEASE:   May 22, 2013

CONTACT: Beverly Sanford   |   Vice President for Communications   |   (609) 945-7885 (press)

Note: Prospective applicants should call 609-452-7007 x141 or email [email protected].

FIFTH CLASS OF WOODROW WILSON INDIANA TEACHING FELLOWS NAMED AT STATEHOUSE ANNOUNCEMENT

Governor Pence Greets New Teacher Candidates Bringing Real-World Science, Technology, and Math to High-Need Indiana Classrooms

PRINCETON, N.J.—Today Governor Mike Pence announced the 2013 class of Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows. The Fellows are top recent graduates and accomplished career changers in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (the STEM fields) who will teach math and science in Indiana’s urban and rural schools. (See above for additional materials including a fact sheet and biographies of Fellows or visit 2013 WW Indiana Teaching Fellows.)

Each Fellow receives a $30,000 stipend to complete a special intensive master’s program at one of four Indiana partner universities—Ball State University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Purdue University, and the University of Indianapolis. These four universities have redesigned teacher preparation to focus on a year-long experience in local classrooms, as well as specific STEM teaching approaches.

“Indiana has the best teachers in the nation, and this class of the Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows will add to that talent pool,” said Governor Pence. “I am pleased to recognize the great academic accomplishments of our state’s future teachers and to celebrate the dynamic leadership they will bring to the important task of educating Hoosier students.”

Following a rigorous year-long application and selection process, the Foundation has named 30 new Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows, 28 of whom will start their programs this summer, with another two later in the year. After a year of classroom-based preparation, Fellows commit to teach for at least three years in a high-need Indiana school, with ongoing support and mentoring. The new Fellows, who begin their master’s work this summer, will be ready to enter their own classrooms in fall 2014.

Previous classes of WW Indiana Teaching Fellows have been named in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, representing 226 new teacher candidates for Indiana. Members of the first three classes are now teaching around the state, with those named in 2012 now ready to enter the classroom on their own. One hundred percent of the Fellows certified to date have been placed, with a retention rate of 90 percent in the third year of the program—as compared with a 50 percent to 65 percent national retention rate for teachers in their first three years in the profession.

The Fellowship has been funded with grants from Lilly Endowment Inc. and supplemental state support. The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation of Princeton, N.J. administers the program. Launched in Indiana in 2007, the Fellowship has since been established in three other states—Ohio, Michigan, and New Jersey.

“We estimate that the Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows named to date will reach more than 22,000 students every year,” said Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. “The Fellows represent a 25 percent annual increase in Indiana’s supply of STEM teachers. Veteran teachers are reporting that, even in their clinical year, Fellows are an extraordinary resource in the classroom. Beyond that, the four university partners have enhanced the way they prepare STEM teachers, and that too has a ripple effect for the other teachers they graduate, and for classrooms around the state.”

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Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops leaders and institutions to meet the nation’s critical challenges.

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