TC Wins AmeriCorps Grants | Teachers College Columbia University

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TC Wins AmeriCorps Grants

As Americans heed President Obama's call to service work, TC's Peace Corps Fellows and Summer Principals Academy won a total of $256,000 in AmeriCorps grants to place teachers and volunteers in schools in New York City and elsewhere.

The grants will fund 38 Peace Corps Fellows, returning Peace Corps volunteers who will teach full-time in high-need schools in New York City, and 55 experienced educators who will become school leaders in high-need public schools through the Summer Principals Academy.
     Teachers College will receive a total of $256,576 in AmeriCorps grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service. Two grants will enable the College to advance its mission of achieving educational equity for low-income students in New York City and other urban districts throughout the country.
     In accepting the grants, Teachers College is responding to President Obama’s call to national service by investing its human capital in the community and contributing to the recovery from the economic crisis. Moreover, through its emphasis on education, volunteers will be laying the groundwork for future economic growth and prosperity.

- The National Educational Award for FY 2009 ($139,500) will support a total of 93 Professional Corps members who teach full-time in high-need public schools in New York City and around the country.
• 38 of these will be in the Peace Corps Fellows Program at Teachers College, which recruits returned Peace Corps volunteers to teach in New York City public schools serving children from low-income families.   
•Another 55 of these positions will sponsor the work of experienced educators who will become school leaders in hard-to-staff, low-income schools through the Summer Principals Academy at Teachers College.
- The National Direct Recovery Grant for FY 2009 ($117,076) will fund a volunteer program to place 28 Teachers College graduate students in volunteer positions with various organizations in northern Manhattan involved in educational initiatives. These volunteers will bring educational expertise and experience to Harlem-area children by providing:
• Supplementary academic support in high-needs classrooms,
• Coordination of service-learning projects to get kids involved in their community,
• Facilitation and mentoring for high school college-readiness programs,
•And programmatic support for community-based organizations that support local educational needs.
- The 28 volunteers are part of 13,000 new AmeriCorps positions funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Project (stimulus bill). Partners in the Recovery Act Grant include the Elbenwood Center for the Study of the Family as Educator, the Institute for Urban and Minority Education, and the Teachers College Office of Teacher Education.

     The organizations receiving funding from AmeriCorps were selected in a highly competitive process. AmeriCorps is a national service program that engages Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service to meet critical needs in education, the environment, public safety and other areas.
     Last month President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, landmark legislation that will increase opportunities for Americans of all ages to serve, put AmeriCorps on a path to grow from 75,000 to 250,000 annual positions by the year 2017, and strengthen social innovation and volunteerism in America’s nonprofit sector.
For information about AmeriCorps, which is recruiting now, go to www.AmeriCorps.gov. For information about the Peace Corps Fellows Program at Teachers College, go to http://www.tc.edu/pcfellows/. For information about the Summer Principals Academy, go to http://www.tc.columbia.edu/o&l/ed-leadership/spa/




Published Friday, Jun. 19, 2009

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