STONY BROOK, N.Y., June 25, 2008 -- On June 2, five Stony Brook students each received a $15,000 Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation Scholarship-Loan. These awards, funded by a grant from the Carol and Milton Petrie Foundation, are designed to support outstanding Stony Brook students pursing graduate degrees in teaching mathematics, science or TESOL, and who will teach in New York City. For each year of service as a teacher in New York City schools, $5,000 of the loan will be forgiven, effectively converting it to a scholarship.
Dr. Keith Sheppard (Director of Science Education), Ramon Fernandez, Martin Jakubowski, Kristin Steffans, Tobias Hatten, Dr. David Bynum (Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education) and James Staros (Dean, College of Arts & Sciences), (not shown: Diana D’Onorio DeMeo)
The students receiving the fellowships, their teaching field and their home town are as follows: Ramón Fernández (Mathematics, Manhattan), Martin Jakubowski (Biology, Forest Hills), Kristin Stephans (Biology, Rego Park), Tobias Hatten (Earth Sciences, Patchogue), and Diana D'Onorio DeMeo (Chemistry, Staten Island) will begin student teaching in New York City secondary schools in the fall.
“We annually place many Stony Brook graduates in the New York City school system, but this is different,” said David Bynum, Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education at Stony Brook. “This is the first year the Petrie fellowships have been awarded to Stony Brook students. We anticipate that this support will attract many more students into teaching in New York City.”
The scholarships were made possible by a $450,000 grant from the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation to Stony Brook, awarded in response to a proposal submitted by Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, James V. Staros.
“I am delighted that the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation has made financial support available to Stony Brook students for a goal central to our University mission,” said Dean Staros. “The scholarship-loans provided by this award greatly enhance teacher training at the University and provide great benefits not only to the student teachers supported, but also to the students of the New York City schools in which those teachers serve.”
Director of Science Education at Stony Brook, Professor Keith Sheppard, who served on the selection committee, added, “That these outstanding students who could do virtually anything with their professional lives have chosen public education, speaks volumes about the caliber of student we are attracting into our teaching programs.”
“With math and science understanding such a fundamental underpinning of our global society, students deserve access to educators who are fascinated by what they teach, and who enhance student curiosity and understanding,” says R. David Bynum, Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education. “The Petrie Fellowships are taking us in this direction.”
