Shanée Brown ’12 of Bridgeport, Conn., has been selected as one of 25 nationwide recipients of the 2012 Aspiring Teachers of Color Fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The fund was created to help recruit, support, and retain individuals of color as public education teachers and administrators.
Shanée Brown ’12 is majoring in English at Dartmouth and has mentored high school students through the SEAD program. (photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
The award provides both a $30,000 stipend to complete a master’s degree in education as well as professional support and guidance toward obtaining a teaching certification. Recipients are required to commit to teach for three years in a high-need public school. Brown will begin teaching this fall as she also pursues a master’s degree in English and secondary education.
Brown herself was a student at an under-resourced high school, where she was valedictorian, and she says the experience made her want to teach.
“I learned a lot, but my school had a lot of issues, especially with relationships between students and teachers,“ she says. ”When I came to Dartmouth I realized that not all high schools are like that. There’s no reason the differences [between schools] should be that great.”
An English major, Brown was an academic mentor with the College’s Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD) program for under-privileged high school students, and she also studied adolescent development with Andrew Garrod, professor emeritus of education.
Active outside the classroom, Brown served as student director of Dartmouth’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, a member of Students Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND), and a teacher in the Dartmouth College Child Care Center.
For more information on the Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color, see the description on Dartmouth’s National Scholarships/Fellowships website. To see past recipients, click here.
