Hearst Funds Scholarship for Education Students Gift Boosts Teacher Reform Project, Diversity Initiatives
An endowed gift of $100,000 from the Hearst Foundations is boosting scholarships and the University of Connecticut’s Teachers for a New Era (TNE) program. The William Randolph Hearst Scholarship Fund will provide awards to students studying to become teachers and support diversity initiatives at UConn.
UConn is one of only 11 institutions nationwide selected to participate in TNE. The Carnegie Corporation of New York established the initiative to invest in exemplary institutions and assist them in creating best practices for K–12 teacher preparation.
“With that charge, we set out to strengthen UConn’s teacher preparation program in ways that would not only distinguish strong aspects of our program but would also inquire into why and how our processes produce talented, effective teachers,” says Marijke Kehrhahn ’76 ’80 ’95, associate professor and director of the TNE program at UConn.
“The Neag School of Education at UConn is one of the premier institutions of its type in the nation,” says Mason Granger, director of grants for the Hearst Foundations. “We admire the vision of the leadership and the inspired, inclusive approach of the faculty and curriculum. Together they reflect a dynamic commitment to teachers and students, which, we believe, will produce substantive improvement in children's education and performance in the years to come.”
TNE seeks to reform teacher preparation through the integration of liberal arts and education curricula so that students receive thorough instruction in pedagogy and the subjects they intend to teach. At UConn, the Neag School of Education collaborates with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School of Fine Arts and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
In the coming years, UConn’s TNE program will focus on addressing pressing issues, including recruiting and preparing a diverse and culturally competent educator workforce. Kehrhahn explains that, while minority student enrollment is projected to increase, minorities represent less than 10 percent of the teacher workforce.
“The Hearst Foundations’ endowment will provide financial support, an important aspect of any minority teacher recruitment effort, to young people of color pursuing a degree in teaching,” says Kehrhahn.
“Students at schools across America are increasingly representative of a myriad of ethnic and social backgrounds,” says Granger. “We must have teachers who can relate to those youngsters and can provide them with the support and counsel they need to dream big and achieve their ambitions.”