N.C. A&T Alumni Times

Thanks to a new grant, the College of Education at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University will provide internships for education candidates through the SECU Public Fellows Internship Program.

The North Carolina State Employees Credit Union Foundation (SECU) awarded the college $50,000 to “afford our pre-service teacher education candidates the opportunity to develop their professional knowledge as educational leaders serving communities outside a public-school classroom while concurrently developing their cultural competence,” Dean Anthony Graham said.

“We are thankful to the State Employees Credit Union for allowing the College of Education to deepen our impact in rural communities throughout the state of North Carolina,” he added.

The program is designed to address the diverse service needs of rural communities in North Carolina through shared learning community activities and to enhance the cultural competence of pre-service teacher education candidates. There are 80 rural counties in North Carolina with limited supportive teacher education collaborations or partnerships with universities that advance service and civic learning in their communities.

To help combat the lack of resources in these areas, high-achieving education candidates in their junior or senior years are selected to work in educational, healthcare, technology, and nonprofit organizations and agencies in rural communities.

SECU Public Fellows will receive a $5,000 stipend for their participation in these service and civic learning immersion experiences. During the internship, candidates will produce artifacts of learning specific to their site assignment, which may include youth mentorship programs, literacy and math tutorial programs, video and technology advancements, or research-based refinement projects.

The 10 SECU Public Fellow interns selected to participate in this program are:

Tyler Childress, Secondary History Education

Jasmine Cousar, Elementary Education and Special Education

Alexus Cox, Elementary Education Destini Davis, Elementary Education

Jazmine Devone, Birth-to-Kindergarten Kayia Fointno, Elementary Education and Special Education

Kenketta Gwynn, Elementary Education Nathaniel Jones, Elementary Education

Rodnesha Minor, Elementary Education Tarvis Ridges, Elementary Education

Co-principal investigators of this project are Thurman Guy, Ph.D., from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Nicole Dobbins, Ph.D. and Kimberly Erwin, Ph.D., both from the College of Education.