Education students awarded prestigious fellowships

Four degree candidates in the College of Education Department of Middle, Secondary and K-12 Education have received fellowships to participate in the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s prestigious Teacher Seminar program.

Brittany Gibson, Renae Kaister, and Marticia Turner are teachers at Newell Elementary School; Erin Byrd teaches at Butler High School. Gibson, Turner and Kaiser are pursing master’s degrees in teaching English as a second language; Byrd, a master’s in secondary education.

“Teacher leadership includes teachers re-affirming their roles as learners; by modeling continuous improvement, demonstrating lifelong learning and using what they learn to help all students achieve,” said associate professor Spencer Salas. “We are excited about our CMS teacher-partners continuing their professional growth at the national level and bringing back what they learn this summer to their classrooms and schools.”

Each summer, the Gilder Lehrman Institute offers academically rigorous teacher seminars for K–12 educators. In institute selects a group of top educators from a nationwide pool for the highly competitive one-week seminars.

The fellows were mentored through the grant application process as part of a “Teacher Leadership” capstone course. They will attend a summer seminar at NYU, Yale or Rhodes College.

Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization devoted to the improvement of history education. The White House, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Organization of American Historians have bestowed awards upon the institute.