Scholarships to promote diversity

IU’s School of Education has added new scholarships to its Direct Admit Scholars Program in an effort to create a more diverse, high-achieving group entering the education field.

As much as $12,000 in scholarships will be available from the school for qualified students during four years of study, according to a press release.

“I think, overall, it’s going to increase the quality of our students,” School of Education Dean Gerardo Gonzalez said. “We’ll have more diverse students, higher academic achieving students, and they will be continuing on in the school at higher rates. That’s exactly what we want to see.”   

Katie Paulin, director of undergraduate recruitment and professional community in the School of Education, said the additional scholarships will assist in recruiting such students.

“With the challenges in education today, we certainly want to make sure that we are preparing excellent educators,” she said. “By recruiting students who are strong academically and who represent the population that they’ll be teaching in, we can produce the types of teachers that we want to be producing for our classrooms.”

Gonzalez said the scholarships will also encourage students to pursue a career in teaching, despite financial issues.

“Everyone knows education is not a field that people go into to become rich,” he said. “Students who go into teaching do so because they’re passionate about it, they care about children, they see the value of the teaching profession.”

The Direct Admit Scholars Program is relatively new and is currently recruiting its fourth class, Paulin said. About 170 students among the three current classes began with the program.

Paulin said the program allows for many unique opportunities the students will benefit from, such as academic advising within the School of Education, mentors who are currently enrolled in the school and special events and programs.

“We really view our job as engaging students and nurturing them as they work toward their goal of becoming the best-prepared teacher that they can be,” Paulin said.

Gonzalez said there is national concern about improving teaching, and he believes this program and the additional scholarships will increase the standard of teaching.

“This is a way that Indiana University is contributing to assuring that we have a very well-prepared teaching workforce, which ultimately would mean significant improvements in education across the board,” he said.