Yonkers has finally did it! They openly helped Mercy hit a jackpot in money, granting the college more bills for another program! How much did they give? For what program is this for? How will this help students within the university?
On the Mercy University website, you can find on Mercy news that last year on a random Tuesday on the 23rd of December, Yonkers had just granted Mercy University approximately $9,000,000 as a “philanthropic gift”, all to go towards paying to launch their Suzanne McGraw Scholars Program throughout the campuses.
Mercy describes the gift to now be known as “the largest in Mercy University’s history and will support a groundbreaking initiative to prepare highly skilled early childhood educators while addressing the urgent need for qualified early childhood educators in the region.”
They are hoping that this new scholarship can help “prepare highly skilled early childhood educators while addressing the urgent need for qualified early childhood educators in the region.”
If you may or may not know, throughout recent years, there has been a significant gap between what parents can afford and what educators need to earn, leading to high turnover as staff members would leave for a better paying job. It can be said to be due to the high demand for services with challenging working conditions, creating severe burnouts throughout educational occupations. However, shockingly, this is simply compounded by a low number of new, incoming educators.
Therefore, what can this new program do to assist not only the situation as it is, but Mercy students to avoid this damaging their futures in pursuing education?
From the words of Mercy University’s president with a PHD and a MSW, Susan L. Parish, she states, “This innovative model will create a sustainable, replicable model for aggressively addressing the region’s urgent teacher shortage. Scholars will graduate not only with degrees and experience but as prepared leaders ready to inspire in classrooms, communities, and beyond.”
When contacted, Mercy University’s Dean of School Education and a Professor of History/Social Studies at Mercy New York Eric Martone, spoke on this event and assisted in negotiating the donation and sketched out how the program would work. More specifically, he said “This earn-while-you-learn program will provide 5 cohorts of students (totaling 125 students) full tuition funding for both their BS degree in Teaching Students with Disabilities and an optional MS degree in Early Childhood Education, as well as other supports. In exchange, these students work in paid early childhood education level settings while completing their coursework, and will owe a one year post-graduation work commitment when they are done with their studies.”
They have one clear goal, to create a dual certified early childhood education that offers the opportunity for teachers to teach in classrooms and special education classrooms.
Mercy and the McGraw Foundation expect to make a sustainable and replicable model for address their respective regions during this teacher shortage. Any scholars that graduate are expected to now be prepared to inspire classrooms and communities not just because of their degrees, but because they would become leaders. After graduation, they expect these scholars to now adapt to working in the field for at least 365 days to assist in impacting early childhood education the most.
As the board of the Suzanne McGraw Foundation puts it, besides the need to address the shortage in childhood educators, they also aim to “eliminate the crushing burden of student loan debt.”
So, not only does the board of the Suzanne McGraw Foundation explain how they are approaching the shortage of qualified early childhood educators, but they also hope to achieve in getting rid of the high numbers that is in student loan debt. They are hoping by this years fall, they launch at least 25 new early childhood educators through their work degree programs for ore comprehensive support. They also plan for scholars to have a chance in continuing their education with accelerated M.S. degrees in an “Early Childhood Education” with absolutely no tuition cost!
In the end, the foundation was pleased in admitting how “The Suzanne McGraw Foundation is excited to partner with Mercy University to address the urgent need to attract and train students for careers in early childhood education, especially for children with special needs.” They hope to keep applications open in order to always assist scholars in achieving experience while helping them with financial compensation.
