Beginning this fall, a new endowed scholarship aims to support aspiring teachers participating in an innovative partnership between OSU and the Beaverton School District.
By Cathleen Hockman-Wert | OSU Foundation
March 1, 2017
Fifty years after earning her elementary education degree from Oregon State, veteran teacher and school administrator Betty Hutchinson Flad ’67 believes it’s abundantly clear what students need most to thrive.
“It really doesn’t matter what school you’re in, what building you’re in – it has to do with the person standing in front of the kids,” she says. “When you have someone who’s well trained, passionate about what they’re doing, and has a heart for kids, there’s unlimited possibilities for learning and student success.”
The hope of creating those possibilities led Betty to establish a unique endowed scholarship this fall. It supports aspiring teachers participating in an innovative partnership between OSU and the Beaverton School District, where she spent her career.
Known as Teach for Beaverton, the program engages OSU College of Education master’s students who are taking online classes delivered by Oregon State Ecampus. From day one, participants are immersed in the classroom, placed in Beaverton schools where they co-teach with experienced district educators. It’s an opportunity to learn by doing – and also to earn as they learn by working part time in the district as substitute teachers.
During the second year of the program, participants teach in district classrooms full time – and that’s when this new scholarship will help with tuition. “I don’t want them to take their eyes off the ball,” Betty says. “They need to be in front of kids every single day as bona fide classroom teachers.
“Many school districts have complained about new teachers coming to them who lack classroom understanding and experience,” she continues. “This is a way for the university and the district to join forces to address what we think is a critical need to prepare the best to teach our future generations.”
The first in her own family to go to college and now a Kerr Society member, Betty sees the Teach for Beaverton Scholarship as an ideal way to give back to the university that made a key difference in her life – and to invest in future generations. “I really want to support bright young people who are choosing education as their career,” she says.
Invest in future teachers through the Teach for Beaverton Scholarship.
