Nation's Top Future Teachers Recognized

Knowles Science Teaching Foundation Awards Fellowships to 33 Exceptional College Graduates Dedicated to Teaching High School Science and Mathematics

MOORESTOWN, N.J., June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirty-three outstanding young men and women from across the nation today were awarded fellowships from the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (KSTF), a national advocate for improving the quality of science and mathematics teaching. Renewable for up to five years and up to $150,000 in total, the KSTF Teaching Fellowship supports and sustains aspiring teachers of promise as they embark on careers teaching high school science and mathematics. The financial package encompasses tuition assistance, monthly stipends and support for summer professional development. The program's professional benefits include everything from regular meetings and online discussions to teaching materials and a structured mentor relationship for each Fellow.

Approximately half of all secondary teachers leave the field within five years. Explicitly designed to meet the financial and professional needs of new science and mathematics teachers, the KSTF Teaching Fellowship helps reverse the trend by ensuring that the nation's best remain in the profession to become leaders in the field.

"Math and science skills are vital to our staying competitive as a nation and yet little is being done to support the teachers who are responsible for our students' proficiency in these areas," said Dr. Angelo Collins, KSTF's Executive Director. "In supporting talented, dedicated future educators, we are ensuring excellence in science and mathematics teaching in American high schools for years to come."

This year KSTF awarded 13 fellowships in mathematics, 11 in physical sciences and nine in biological sciences. The 2008 KSTF Teaching Fellows are pursuing teaching degrees at Cornell, Harvard, New York University, Stanford, the State University of New York, and the University of California, Berkeley among other schools.

A Coveted Career in Education

The KSTF Teaching Fellows are passionate about their career choice. Fully half of the Fellows have educators in the family and consider teaching a family tradition. More than two thirds have tutored or mentored through middle school and high school, and many have volunteered as teaching assistants at local schools while in college. At least six of the Fellows plan to teach in urban or disadvantaged schools.

"I hope to teach students in my classroom the role that an understanding of mathematical concepts plays in everyday life," said Corinne Cornibe, a newly-minted KSTF Mathematics Fellow who left a career in architecture to pursue a teaching degree at

New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. "Basic math skills are essential to enabling students in urban schools to participate in civic activities such as home ownership." Examples of Fellows who left other careers to focus on teaching include James Lane, a former Navy analytical chemist and radiation control technician from Minneapolis, MN (Biology Fellowship); former engineer Jordan Pasqualin from Flint, MI (Physical Science Fellowship); and Lisa Martone from Rochester, NY, who left a successful career in business management to become a teacher (Biology Fellowship).

The Fellows share the conviction that teaching is a complex, intellectually-demanding profession that requires ongoing training and education on a par with today's most demanding careers. They agree unanimously that sure signs of a bad teacher are apathy, lack of connection with students or "constant lecturing on PowerPoint with the lights off."

"I believe that teaching may be one of the most challenging careers and also one of the most demanding ones and I am eager for both challenges and the rewards," said Jessica Richardson, 2008 KSTF Biology Fellow. "Teaching is one field which has the most impact on the next generation, a career that gives birth to future doctors, politicians and engineers. I would not want to miss such as incredible opportunity to participate in this breeding ground for change," added Lindsey Quinlisk, 2008 KSTF Mathematics Fellow.

Improving science and mathematics education

How will tomorrow's teachers transform their classrooms? What will help improve the teaching of science and mathematics so students are better equipped to go on to college? KSTF Fellows recommend the following:

  -- Emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking
  -- Focus on observations, inferences, and experimentation so students
     fully understand the nature of science
  -- Less theory; more applications of concepts to real world situations
  -- More field trips, fewer tests
  -- Less time for teachers in front of a blackboard; more time for students
     to work together in groups


  The KSTF Teaching Fellowship

KSTF awarded its first four Teaching Fellowships in 2002. The program has grown every year since. The Foundation currently supports 111 Teaching Fellows (including the new 2008 Fellows) who, as a group, will impact nearly 10,000 students in the 2008-2009 academic year alone.