The 2013-14 Noyce Scholars (from l-r): Kirby Welsh, Kim Ramirez, Mary Plant-Thomas, Erika Bland, Sabrina Harper, Chelsea Wallace, and Griselda Velazquez
The Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara has named its 2013-14 Noyce Scholars, seven students working on their teaching credentials in mathematics and science. The funding for the Noyce Scholars comes from a $900,000 grant awarded to the Gevirtz School in 2009 from the National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Division of Undergraduate Education. The funding, made available as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, has over a five-year period provided fellowships for 75 teacher candidates pursuing their Masters Degree.
The 2013-14 Noyce Scholars are:
Erika Bland
Sabrina Harper
Mary Plant-Thomas
Kim Ramirez
Griselda Velazquez
Chelsea Wallace
Kirby Welsh
The Noyce Scholars are one component of Cal Teach at Santa Barbara (CTSB), part of a statewide UC effort to reinvigorate science and mathematics teaching in order to prepare California students for the ever-more demanding 21st century workforce and marketplace. CTSB has three objectives: 1) to use the rapidly expanding undergraduate program at the Gevirtz School – which includes a new Minor in Science and Mathematics Education – to recruit students, particularly underrepresented ethnic minority students, into science and mathematics teaching; 2) to increase the overall number of science and mathematics credential candidates in UCSB’s Teacher Education Program; and 3) to build cohorts of students through shared activities so as to prepare and retain student-centered, reform-minded science and mathematics teachers. These objectives are all the more crucial given the increasing need for qualified science and mathematics teachers and the lack of support at the state level due to California’s budget crisis. The Noyce Scholarships are a direct way to address that teacher shortage.
“It is an honor and pleasure to work with these teacher candidates,” says Susan Johnson, coordinator of CTSB. “Their passion for developing the skills to get students to think richly about science and mathematics is infectious. I am certain they will make inspiring teachers and be pivotal mentors of the next generation of California’s students.”
Starting in 2014-15, the Gevirtz School will begin a new Noyce Award that will fund CalTeach Physical Sciences and Engineering (CTPSE) is to encourage undergraduates in chemistry, engineering, computer science, and physics to pursue a secondary science teaching credential in chemistry or physics.