Project TEACH, an incentive scholarship program at Hope College geared toward helping minority students become teachers, has chosen a fourth group of participating high school students.
Kristine Brandt, Ericka Morales and Antoine Williams,
all of whom are high school sophomores, have joined the program
beginning with the new 1999-2000 school year. They will be
recognized during a reception at the college's Maas Center
auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m.
The public is invited to the reception. Admission is
free.
"All of the young people chosen have keen interest in
becoming teachers in the Holland area and eventually will make
excellent additions to the Holland community teaching staffs,"
said Barbara Albers, director of Project TEACH.
Project TEACH (Teachers Entering a Career Through Hope)
provides mentoring and instructional support for the high
schoolers, who begin as sophomores and juniors. The program also
provides scholarship aid for the participants as Hope students.
The program's goal is to help local students while increasing the
number of minorities who become teachers locally.
The program enrolled its first high school students in
the fall of 1996. A total of 12 are now participating, including
two who have become students at Hope.
"Without exception, I think all the TEACH students,
along with their mentors, have made good progress toward
establishing their sense of identity as a group and as future
teachers," Albers said. "Each student continues to become more
clearly and realistically committed to teaching as a profession.
I am gratified for the students' successes, for the high degree
of commitment on the part of our mentors and for a program that
brings all of this together for a better community."
Brandt is a sophomore at West Ottawa High School, and
the daughter of Carmen Brandt of Holland and Jeremy Brandt of
Lakeworth, Fla. Her activities include football cheerleading and
volleyball. She is interested in teaching English or mathematics
at the middle school level.
Morales is a sophomore at Holland High School, and the
daughter of Jose and Vickie Morales of Holland. Her activities
include the water polo club and tutoring students through the
school's "study tables" program. She is interested in teaching
ninth grade art.
Williams is a sophomore at Holland High School, and the
son of Leland Draper of Holland and Christine Robertson of
Muskegon Heights. His activities include choir and basketball,
and working with children through the Boys and Girls Club Day
Camp. He is interested in teaching social studies at the
seventh-ninth grade level.
In addition to Brandt, Morales and Williams, the
program's participants are: Kristina Kyles, a senior at Holland
High School; Marisol Lemus, a senior at Holland High School;
Kristina Martinez, a senior at Holland High School; Dinah Rios, a
junior at Holland High School; Adam Rodriguez, a junior at
Holland High School; Pannha Sann, a junior at West Ottawa High
School; Meyly Sew, a sophomore at Hope; Sonia Soto, a freshman at
Hope; and Dina Vathanaphone, a senior at West Ottawa High School.