Oklahoma college offering scholarship to give more opportunities to future teachers
The deadline to apply is Aug. 24
The deadline to apply is Aug. 24
The deadline to apply is Aug. 24
Northwest Oklahoma State University officials hope a new Oklahoma Future Teacher Scholarship and Employment Incentive Program will make a huge impact.
"When you have a teacher that's ready to teach from Day 1, that's what makes the difference," said Jen Oswald, chair of the division of education at Northwest Oklahoma State University. "I have 40 of them that we're putting out this year. And those 40 of them will go out, and they will each have a classroom full of 30 kids every year. And they'll impact those kids every year."
The scholarship amount is $1,000 per year for up to three academic years and $2,500 for the final academic year. The post-graduation employment incentive provides participants with $4,000 per year for up to five consecutive years.
"I'm hoping that this will help increase the number of teachers ed participants, and therefore increase the number of highly qualified teachers who will ultimately be in Oklahoma public school classrooms," Oswald said.
She told KOCO 5 that the scholarship and incentive program are necessary as Oklahoma continues to grapple with a teacher shortage.
"I would argue that it's not a shortage. It's a crisis right now," Oswald said. "We're so very grateful for the Oklahoma legislature seeing that this makes a difference in our public schools and this is supporting the kids in the classroom."
The deadline to apply is Aug. 24. Click here for more information.