School of Education Hosts Grant-Funded Symposium for K-12 School Partners
Pictured from left to right are Mercy University Education faculty Elena Nitecki, Sudha Ramaswamy, Aki Ohseki, Teresa Quackenbush, Roseanne Vallice Levy, Jennifer San Diego, Harriet Lew, and Ahmed Almadami.
On April 17, the Mercy University School of Education, supported with grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (PPOHA) Program GRAD-PRO Grant and the BranchED Grant, hosted the Symposium on Teacher Education, Mentoring, and Career Development: Rising to the Challenges. In attendance were over 60 Pre-K-12 educators, principals, administrators, as well as Mercy Education faculty.
The purpose of the Symposium was to cultivate discussions about major issues and challenges in today’s schools: meeting the needs of our diverse and culturally rich student population, student mental health, hiring and retaining new teachers, and the new skills and strategies required of new teachers. These discussions, in addition to surveys, will serve as a first step in determining how the School of Education can best support and partner with Pre-K-12 schools in the Greater New York City metropolitan area. The two grants, GRAD-PRO and BranchED, will provide financial support for various projects and initiatives that aim to address schools’ needs.
“The Symposium was an excellent opportunity to connect with our partners in schools to hear from them what is happening on the front lines. This will help us use our grant funds to make a meaningful difference in these schools,” said Elena Nitecki, Professor in Childhood Education and Principal Investigator for the GRAD-PRO Grant.
Roseanne Vallice Levy, Associate Dean of the School of Education and Principal Investigator of the BranchED grant agreed. “Both grants have given us the opportunity to enter into our transformation phase in which we can do a deep dive into our current programs and course offerings in collaboration with our K-12 partners. Our mission is to better prepare our teacher candidates to teach in today’s classroom.”
The participants in attendance represented several districts in the Bronx, Harlem, and Westchester County. The Mercy School of Education faculty included full-time faculty and adjuncts, many of whom are working in schools as teachers and administrators.
To learn more about the Mercy University School of Education, visit https://www.mercy.edu/academics/school-education
To learn more about the GRAD-PRO Grant, visit https://www.mercy.edu/academics/grad-pro