Former scholars to do fellowships with summer scholar programs
Ma Lee Vang
Ma Lee Vang, who graduates from Gustavus Adolphus College this month, spent last summer helping third graders read in a project she designed as a Phillips scholar. This summer, she'll mentor the 2007 Phillips scholars whose projects range from a writing workshop with high school immigrant and refugee students to a photography workshop for inner city Latino students to a cultural cooking class with girls.
The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation supports six scholars each year from Minnesota private colleges and universities. The selected students choose to work in community service and are potential leaders and change agents. Scholars receive a total of $14,000 over a two-year period and complete a summer project designed to be consistent with the Phillips legacy of giving back to one's community.
Vang did her summer project at Frost Lake Magnet School in St. Paul — the school she attended as a child. Her project advisor was her sixth-grade teacher. Vang deemed it a success when the kids began to understand the reading concepts she was teaching AND apply them to new reading assignments. "I made a difference there,” Vang said.
Vang's experience was very positive, but there were times when she wished for more. "It would have helped to have someone to talk to who had done this before to guide me and answer my questions,” she said. The Minnesota Private College Fund recently received renewed funding from the foundation to continue the scholars program for another three years. Part of the gift will fund a halftime Phillips summer fellowship. As this year's fellow, Vang will help organize a Summer Training Institute and reach out to the 75 former scholars to encourage them to re-connect as scholars and mentors.
When Vang's fellowship ends in August, she hopes to have found a permanent position. "I want a job where I can impact the community in a positive way,” she said.
Another scholar program
Nicole Nelson, a 2004 graduate of St. Olaf College, will also serve as a fellow this summer — for the Urban Education Summer Scholar (UESS) program. As a 2003 scholar, Nelson taught a remedial reading program at Hazel Park Middle School in St. Paul. "It was an eye-opening experience,” she said.
UESS is for undergraduate students of color attending Minnesota private colleges and universities who are obtaining teaching licenses and who want to teach in urban schools. They spend a summer in a service-learning classroom setting in St. Paul public and other urban schools' summer school sessions to gain field experience.
The best part of Nelson's summer experience was getting to know the students. "The stereotypes were completely diminished,” she said. When Nelson accepted a teaching job at Minnesota International Middle School in 2005, she was far less nervous than she would have been without the UESS experience. "With my knowledge of teaching kids of diverse backgrounds, I was much more able to meet their needs,” she said.
UESS is a partnership between Hamline University's Center for Excellence in Urban Teaching, St. Paul Public Schools, Travelers Foundation and the Minnesota Private College Fund. Since its inception, the program has prepared hundreds of teachers of color for the urban classroom.
The summer fellowship, funded by a recent Travelers Foundation gift, will enable Nelson to assist this year's 22 participants and reach out to former scholars to re-engage them as mentors. "I'm really excited to do this,” she says. "Although I'm just a second-year teacher myself, I want to pass on my experience to this upcoming group of teachers.”
Read more about the Phillips Scholarship and UESS Scholarship programs.