Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for February 15, 2009 GROW YOUR OWN

Program helps prospective educators afford more schooling

By Blackwell Thomas, The Southern

CARBONDALE - Junita Davis said she's always wanted to be a teacher. But, she said, for the past 11 years while working as a teacher's aid in Johnson County she said she was unable to find the time or the money to return to college and earn the degree she needed.

But, thanks to a program aimed at helping prospective teachers get the education they need, Davis is on her way to becoming a special education teacher in Southern Illinois.

Southernmost Grow Your Own is a state-funded program that recruits teaching candidates from low-income areas where schools have difficulty retaining qualified staff.

In the program, prospective teachers are given loans, grants and other financial aid to help them earn their education degrees. A centerpiece of Grow Your Own - and the reason for its name - are forgivable loans, which participants are eligible for if they agree to teach at least five years in a local school upon earning their degrees.

Davis is now about two years away from earning her degree in special education at Southern Illinois University and said she's looking forward to teaching.

"I've always known I wanted to teach," she said. "The opportunity to go back to school is very rewarding and I am very grateful to them for this program. I would not have been able to do it otherwise."

Janet Maggio, a grant coordinator for Southernmost Grow Your Own, said the program is open to anyone who is interested but, for funding purposes, preferences is given to candidates who are close to earning an associate's degree.

"Many of the candidates we've had have worked as teacher's aids and they've always dreamed of being a teacher but finances and life opportunities have never afforded a chance to do so," she said.

The program in Southern Illinois is focused on developing special education teachers, said Maggio. The benefits of keeping homegrown teachers in Southern Illinois are many, she added.

"Right now they (school district administrators) often have to go well outside of the community to find a special education teacher," she said. "The long commutes hurt retention and then you get another vacancy. If you are able to have a pool of highly qualified candidates it's going to help retention."

Local teachers also know the community, she said.

"It's a win-win situation for all," she said of the program. "It helps those individuals become teachers but it also gives a pool of teachers who really understand the community and a good reflection of the demographics of the area."

Carbondale resident Cheryl Hill enrolled in Grow Your Own in 2007 and said the opportunity to teach is great but, to do it in Southern Illinois is particularly exciting.

"I've lived here all my life," she said. "This is what I love. This area may not offer some things that the big cities offer, but it's just a beautiful part of the country. This is what I know and this is where I want to stay."