Two UALR professors hope to put a dent in the national teacher shortage with an over $1 million grant and one-of-a-kind opportunities for student teachers.
Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the UALRTeach Noyce Teacher Scholarship program plans to award 20 scholarships a year to qualified UALR student teachers, as well as a number of paid internships, as incentives for pursuing careers as STEM educators.
Dr. Tony Hall, associate professor of physics and astronomy, and Dr. Gail Hughes, professor of educational leadership, received the $1,193,677 grant last fall. Four students have already been awarded $5,000 scholarships for the spring 2016 semester; Gary Meyers and Amanda Maher received scholarships for science education, and Rebecca Breeding and Rachael Smith were awarded math education scholarships.
20 additional scholarships are available for the 2016-2017 school year, funded at $10,000 each. To qualify, students must, at a minimum, be entering their junior or senior years and pursuing STEM degrees and teacher licensure. Not only will awardees receive financial assistance, but they will also get up to a year and a half of teaching and mentoring exposure that other STEM student teachers will not. Each Noyce scholarship recipient will be paired with a teacher mentor in a high-need school and will present enhanced STEM lessons in their classroom throughout the semester. The students will also meet with UALR teacher mentors every other week to further develop their teaching skills and these enhanced lessons.
In addition, five internship spots are available for the summer of 2016. Participants must be freshmen or sophomores enrolled in the STEM program who are pursuing their teacher licensure. As part of the month-long program, interns will work at Children International, the Museum of Discovery, or the Innovation Hub. “The internships are fun, [and] they are a great line on a resume,” Dr. Hughes says. Not only that, but interns also receive a $2,000 stipend for their participation.
The requirements may seem fairly minimal, but Drs. Hall and Hughes assert that this is strategic. Their aim, and the aim of NSF, is simply to create well-qualified, passionate STEM teachers, not make it more difficult to become one.
The priority deadline for the 2016-2017 scholarship and internship applications is March 1, though applications will be accepted until positions are filled. To find out more about the requirements and application procedures for the positions, please visit https://ualr.edu/ualrteach.
