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ASPIRE grad honored

1:14 p.m., May 16, 2005--Noah Tennant, vice principal and director of guidance at Westfield, N.J., High School and UD alumnus, was the featured speaker at the ASPIRE Student Recognition Luncheon for students and their families on April 30 in Clayton Hall.

ASPIRE--Academic Support Program Inspiring Renaissance Educators--identifies and recruits academically prepared candidates from underrepresented groups who are interested in becoming teachers.

Tennant is a former ASPIRE student at UD who majored in English, minored in linguistics and concentrated in secondary education, graduating with his bachelor’s degree in English education in 1998. A seventh- and eighth-grade teacher in Westfield for four years before moving into educational administration, he is currently working on a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation topic is “Black Students/White Schools: The Institutional Factors That Nurture or Inhibit Success.”

“We try to ensure the academic success of our ASPIRE students through various retention programs, including academic, personal and career-related assistance,” Sylvia Brooks, ASPIRE coordinator, said. “Our goal is that every ASPIRE candidate who is admitted to an undergraduate professional education program will graduate from the University.”

Since its inception, 212 ASPIRE students have graduated from UD undergraduate teacher education programs. Initial data from a survey being conducted this spring indicates that many of these ASPIRE graduates are teaching.

“Of the 122 graduates who have responded so far,” Barbara Van Dornick, associate director of the Delaware Center for Teacher Education, said, “118 of them are teaching or working as an administrator in a school, and 80 of them--that’s just over 65 percent--are currently working in a school in Delaware.”

ASPIRE was developed in 1991 for the Elementary Teacher Education program in what was then UD’s College of Education. When the Delaware Center for Teacher Education was created in 1997 as a unit of the new College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy, ASPIRE became part of the center and was extended to candidates in all of the UD colleges that house undergraduate professional education programs: Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arts and Sciences, and Health and Nursing Sciences, as well as Human Services, Education and Public Policy. The ASPIRE Advisory Board, with representatives from each of the four colleges, meets regularly throughout the year to plan and review recruitment activities, monitor candidates’ progress and recommend retention strategies, and make scholarship decisions.

Three years ago, students in ASPIRE applied to the University for recognition as an official student organization. The student-run organization has become very active on campus and, through its social and community outreach efforts, has increased the visibility of the ASPIRE program both on campus and within the broader educational community.

In addition to the general University scholarships, Avon, Coca Cola and the Hearst Foundation have provided funding. In recognition of the success of ASPIRE, the Hearst Foundation awarded the University additional scholarship funds this spring.

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