Two Delaware teachers awarded Rodel scholarships

10:58 a.m., April 2, 2004--Two Delaware teachers have been selected as the first recipients of a competitive new scholarship established by the Rodel Foundation of Delaware to improve the teaching of economics and entrepreneurship in the state’s elementary and secondary schools.

Faithe Gibson, who teaches at Claymont Elementary School in the Brandywine School District, and Preston Shockley, a teacher at Beacon Middle School in the Cape Henlopen School District, will receive support from the scholarship as they pursue their master’s degrees at the University of Delaware. The two are enrolled in the Master of Arts in Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (MAEEE) program in UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics.

The Rodel Scholarships were endowed in 2003 by a $100,000 gift from the charitable foundation. Stephanie Fitzgerald, outgoing president and CEO of the foundation, said the endowment was created “to provide support for Delaware public schoolteachers who are interested in improving the quality of public education through economic education and entrepreneurship.” Two recipients will be selected every two years.

Graduates of the MAEEE program have gone on to implement economic education and entrepreneurship curricula in their schools and districts, to start schools based upon this focus and to advocate successfully for increased funding. Fitzgerald, a 1998 graduate of the program, said she used the knowledge and skills she gained to implement a “Micro-society” program in one school and to create a new school with economics and entrepreneurship as one of its focal areas. She said she also emphasized the importance of understanding the economy and using entrepreneurial strategies to solve public education issues during her tenure with the Rodel Foundation. Fitzgerald, who is stepping down as president and CEO to return to New York City, said that, because the Rodel Scholarship is endowed for perpetuity, it will assist in improving public education in Delaware and beyond.

Shockley, who teaches eighth-grade social studies, also writes questions for the social studies portion of the Delaware Student Testing Program, a statewide test given annually to measure student achievement. The social studies section of the test encompasses history, geography, civics and economics.

“I decided to enroll in the MAEEE program because I felt that economics was an area where I needed more content knowledge,” Shockley said. “I talked to people who had graduated from the program, and they told me it’s a great way to increase your knowledge and to share what you know with other teachers.”

Gibson, a fifth-grade teacher, said Claymont Elementary previously had an economics education specialist whose lessons were successful in motivating even those students who were less academically advanced than others. After economics was integrated into the regular curriculum at the school, Gibson said she decided to enroll in the UD graduate program to learn how to continue that positive learning experience for her students.

“I was so excited to watch my students come alive in their economics class and become so interested,” Gibson said. “That’s when I decided to try to incorporate that focus in my classroom as another avenue to motivate students and help them succeed.”

The highly competitive MAEEE program, which operates under the direction of James B. O’Neill, director of the Lerner College’s Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship, draws educators from around the world. Students, who must have classroom teaching experience, come to the University campus for two summers, when they take courses in such subjects as economic concepts and teaching strategies, money and banking, international trade and strategies for entrepreneurship. The students design and implement an economic education project as well as produce a public policy paper.

O’Neill said the MAEEE program has “a domino effect” as its graduates take their new knowledge and skills back to their classrooms to share with both their students and their colleagues. The result, he said, is the growth of meaningful economic education and entrepreneurship programs in elementary and secondary schools and a network of educators who can teach those subjects effectively.

“The idea is to recruit bright teachers from all over the globe, give them a stimulating curriculum and expect good things to happen,” O’Neill said. “Our philosophy revolves around the idea that one highly motivated and skilled individual can have a positive influence on many others.”

The Rodel Foundation of Delaware, a supporting organization of the Delaware Community Foundation, works to improve educational opportunities for all of Delaware’s children. Its vision is that by 2012, Delaware’s public education system will be recognized as one of the finest in the nation.

More information about The Rodel Foundation of Delaware is available at [www.rodelfoundationde.org].

Artticle by Ann Manser

E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.