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February 22, 2006
ANDOVER, Mass.—Chronicle, a New England–based television newsmagazine produced by WCVB-TV in Boston, ran a profile of the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) on Wednesday, Dec. 28 that highlighted IRT’s mission to increase diversity in education by encouraging outstanding students of color to enter the teaching profession. WCVB-TV is an ABC affiliate station that broadcasts on Channel 5 in the New England area.
The theme of the day’s show was “New Lessons,” and the IRT was one of three educational programs profiled as examples of successful education innovations. Also profiled was Dorchester’s Epiphany School and Worcester’s University Park, two highly successful private schools that serve children from low-income families.
The IRT profile was based on a July visit Chronicle made to IRT’s four-week summer workshop, which is held each year on the Phillips Academy campus. During its visit, the Chronicle news team attended IRT classes and conferences and interviewed its students, faculty and staff. In addition to the on-campus interviews it conducted, the Chronicle news team also traveled to Boston to visit with two former IRT students currently working as teachers while pursuing their master’s degrees.
One of the former IRT students interviewed was Elizabeth Solis, who told Chronicle she is the first person in her family who has ever gone to college. A graduate of San Francisco State University, she currently teaches at Fenway High School while attending graduate school at Tufts University.
“I feel like I’m giving them [her students] hope in a lot of ways,” she told Chronicle about her teaching experience. “I encourage them to pursue what they feel is their goal in life or their dream.”
Chronicle host Anthony Everett noted that thanks to IRT’s help, Solis received a full graduate fellowship from Tufts. IRT students, added Everett, tend to be highly sought after by many of the nation’s top colleges, and all IRT graduates receive at least one full scholarship offer from a college.
IRT graduates go on to teach at all levels of education, from universities to elementary school. Some also become school administrators. Current IRT student Danny Laura told Chronicle his personal goal is to teach at a high school in the inner city because he feels he can make the biggest difference there. “High school is a very tender age,” he said. “I’ve always felt that those years can be the difference between people choosing one road or another.”
As for IRT’s own hopes for its students, Dr. Clemente White, IRT’s Faculty Coordinator told Chronicle, “All we want from our students is for them to continue their education, to be passionate about education, and to go out there and teach someone so they too can teach someone else.”
Founded in 1990, IRT is a Phillips Academy outreach program that fulfills its mission to increase diversity in education by supporting 100 students each year as they prepare for and apply to graduate schools. The students are selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, and to qualify for the program, they must be rising college seniors or recent graduates, have excellent grades, and demonstrate a strong desire in pursing a career in education. Thirty of those students are invited to participate in IRT’s four-week summer workshop, during which they have the opportunity to take intensive graduate-level seminars that focus on critical and cultural theory and current issues in education.
Since its founding, more than 800 IRT alumni have pursued careers in education.
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