Skip to content

Union offers new scholarship to assist area teachers

Union College is offering a new scholarship program to assist teachers in the region attending graduate school. Union will offer a $2,500 tuition scholarship to all graduate education students from a nine county service area.

“Union College has been known for its service to teachers throughout the region,” said Paula Parker Grubb, Education Studies Specialist. “This scholarship program is a way to affirm our commitment to these teachers in furthering their education and service to the classroom.”

Grubb says the Union College scholarship will be offered to students with residency in Bell, Clay, Harlan, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Leslie, McCreary and Whitley counties. The program was introduced to a few select counties early this year and recently expanded to a broader Union audience.

“It would be hard to walk down the hallways in any school in any one of these counties and not find a Union College graduate,” Grubb said. “As our teachers look for their next step in their careers, we want to be there for them.”

Teachers interested in the scholarship are automatically eligible for the grant, but must apply to one of Union’s Educational Studies Unit programs, either on-campus or online. The Educational Studies Unit offers five masters degrees and six Rank I degrees, including the popular Teacher Leader program. Specializations in the Teacher Leader component include Cultural Competency, Educational Policy, P-12 Gifted Education and P-12 Certification in English as a Second Language.

In 2016, Union’s Educational Studies Unit was recognized as fourth in the state of Kentucky for preparing its education students for the workforce. The Kentucky Center for Education released that report which analyzed preparation and retention rates of teachers graduating from all 28 universities and colleges in the state. The program was also granted national accreditation, which allows a Union educated teacher to join the workforce anywhere in the country.

“Knowing that our model for educator preparation has reached a stage of national acceptance fuels the fire we have to move beyond just sustainability and steadiness,” said Dr. Jason Reeves, Dean of the Educational Studies Unit.

For more information on Union’s Southeast Kentucky teacher initiative, please visit www.unionky.edu/education or contact Paula Parker Grubb at 606.546.1698 or pparker@unionky.edu.

Leave a Comment