2011 class of Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows announced

May 9, 2011

PRINCETON, N.J. – On Monday (May 9) at the Indiana Statehouse, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced the 2011 class of Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows. The fellows are accomplished career changers and outstanding recent college graduates in science, mathematics, engineering and technology (the STEM fields) who will prepare for math and science teaching positions in the state's urban and rural schools.

Each of the 54 fellows will receive 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. The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation of Princeton, N.J., administers the program.

All four universities have redesigned teacher preparation to prepare teachers in local classrooms, the way physicians learn in hospitals and attorneys in law offices. Programs also include intensive emphasis on specific teaching approaches for the STEM fields. 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 announcement of fellows comes at the conclusion of a rigorous yearlong application and selection process. The new fellows, who begin their master's work this summer, will be ready to enter their own classrooms in fall 2012. Teachers from the first class of WW Indiana Teaching Fellows, named in 2009, are already working in classrooms around the state, and teachers from the 2010 cohort are now ready for their own classrooms.

"The multiplier effect, the ripple effect of what this program can do, we are already seeing," said Daniels, who has championed the program since its inception. "In every school into which one of these remarkable fellows parachutes, the quality of other teaching will go up. The expectations of the principal and superintendent for the next math and science teacher will go up. Each one of these fellows will affect not merely the students who come into contact with them, but perhaps students who encounter a teacher who was inspired because they were in the same place with one of these teachers."

Indiana became the first state to launch a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship program in December 2007, with the announcement of a grant of more than $10.1 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support the program. Supplemental state funding has brought the total to $13 million to date. Since then, Michigan and Ohio have also created Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships and are poised to announce their first classes. Other states are in discussion.

"Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows are already having an impact in our high-need schools," says Jeffrey K. Butts, superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. "We've seen firsthand their knowledge of math and science - and their excitement about teaching. These fellows not only bring a strong focus on math and science, they are equipped to facilitate the learning of 21st century skills."

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation anticipates that the fellows will benefit not only students, but also teachers far beyond those awarded fellowships, says Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

"With some 180 Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows to date, we estimate that these teachers will reach more than 18,000 students every year," Levine said. "The fellows represent a 25 percent annual increase in Indiana's supply of STEM teachers. Beyond that, the four university partners have changed the way they prepare STEM teachers, and we think that too has a ripple effect for the others teachers they graduate and for classrooms around the state."

The students who will begin at Purdue this summer are Allison Begley, Cincinnati; Carrie Bilodeau, Louisville and West Point, N.Y.; Tanen Clark, Boxborough, Mass.; and Kelly Collins, Covington, Ind.

Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops leaders and institutions to address critical national challenges, working through education. The foundation supports its fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American institutions. It also supports innovation in the institutions they will lead.

Contact: Beverly Sanford, vice president for communications, 609-452-7007, ext. 181, Sanford@woodrow.org

Note to journalists: This news release is being distributed by Purdue University on behalf of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.