UNCA Freshmen Teaching Fellows Attend Orientation

UNCA Freshman Teaching Fellows at Vance Elementary

Kylie Agnew, Grant Baker, Sara Baker, Amanda Barnes, Melissa Beaver, Ashley Bowman, Ashley Buchanan, Emily Collins, Allison Cooper, Kristen Drum, Amy DeGiralamo, Sarah Harvey, David Lambert, Rochelle McFarland, Liz Poole, Jennifer Rogers and Rebecca Schuyler recently completed Teaching Fellows freshman orientation at UNC Asheville. The orientation, designed
to offer a smooth transition from high school to college, provided the incoming class of Teaching Fellows with important information about the campus, the Education Department and the Teaching Fellows program. 

Upon arrival at UNCA, Education Faculty members and upper class Teaching Fellows greeted and helped students move into their new dorm rooms. After attending informational sessions, students, family members and friends were invited to join Chancellor James H. Mullen and Mark Padilla, Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, and other faculty and staff for dinner in the Ramsey Library Glasshouse. New and upper class Teaching Fellows spent the rest of the evening visiting downtown Asheville.

As part of orientation, Teaching Fellows also participated in UNCA's sixth annual "Bulldog Day: A Time of Service" with some 400 other UNCA freshmen. Teaching Fellows spent three hours at Vance Elementary working with 4th graders on reading skills. Freshman Teaching Fellows will be trained to mentor to elementary students and will meet with students weekly in surrounding public schools. This program, a cooperative effort between Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the Asheville-Buncombe Education Coalition and UNCA Outreach, program of UNCA's Education Department, provides early field experiences for these future teachers. All Teaching Fellows mentor and tutor area students throughout their four years of study at UNC Asheville. 

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program is designed to attract high school seniors into the teaching field. Each year the program awards 400 North Carolina high school seniors a $26,000 scholarship for four years of undergraduate study. In return, students much teach four years in a North Carolina public school. At UNCA, the scholarship funds much of the college experience. Additional scholarship money is provided by the university for Teaching Fellows to visit schools in large American Cities and for travel and study in Cambridge, England. UNCA is one of the 14 public and private North Carolina colleges and universities approved to participate in the Teaching Fellows Program.

For more information about UNCA's Teaching Fellows Program, call Brenda Hopper, Teaching Fellows Program director, at 828/251-6901 or visit the Web site.

Media Contacts:

• Brenda Hopper, UNCA Teaching Fellows Program Director, 828/251-6901
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526