Four graduate students from UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School win California Retired Teachers Association Awards

The California Retired Teachers Association (CRTA) awarded scholarships to four outstanding graduate students from UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School. Graham Oleson and Jessica Tsuji are the recipients of the Anne Scales Scholarship for a Single Subject Teacher credential candidate and Rachel Snyder and Adam Weis are the recipients of the Laura E. Settle Scholarship for Multiple Subject Teacher credential candidates. All four students are Masters Degree candidates in the Teacher Education Program at the Gevirtz School.

Graham Oleson, a Single Subject (History/Social Sciences) Teacher credential candidate, teaches 11th grade U.S. History at San Marcos High School, where, with his cooperating teacher he is currently starting a model United Nations. “I have a strong interest in helping young people become independent thinkers and productive members of their local and global communities,” Oleson writes in his scholarship application. “To achieve these goals, I plan to bring community projects and travel opportunities to the lives of my students and their families.”

Jessica Tsuji, a Single Subject (English) Teacher credential candidate, teaches an English Language Development class at Santa Barbara High School, the kind of position she hopes to find upon graduation. “I believe that connecting with the students and genuinely wanting to help them succeed in school and in life is the best way to teach them any subject matter,” Tsuji writes in her scholarship application. “More than the love of my subject area, I decided I wanted to be a teacher so that I could help make a difference in the lives of my students.”

Rachel Snyder, a Multiple Subject Teacher credential candidate, was drawn to teaching because school for her was difficult and she want to be able to help and inspire in ways she wished she had been through her academic career. “I have always wanted to be a teacher and enrich the lives of young people,” Snyder writes in her scholarship application. “Children have a lot to offer and I do not want them to become discouraged, as I was growing up. Children are precious, their learning is magical and I cannot wait to be part of their developmental growth.”

Adam Weis, a Multiple Subject Teacher credential candidate, has worked as an assistant in a second grade classroom at McKinley Elementary School, as a special education paraprofessional at the Santa Barbara Community Academy, and at the special education school the Cooke Center for Learning and Development in Manhattan. His goal as a teacher is to “embrace some of the social justice ideals that I had been examining, but in practical and engaging ways with some fantastic young children.”

Anne Scales, after whom the Single Subject Teacher credential candidate scholarship is named, was a counselor at Santa Barbara High School for 32 years prior to her retirement. Scales believes that it is important for a teacher to have an enthusiasm for life and teachers should bring a broad base of interests and experiences into the classroom. In an interview she commented that teachers “should not only teach, but also be interested in helping young people.”

Recipients of the Laura E. Settle Scholarships must not only have outstanding academic records but also a record of exemplary character and citizenship.

[Graham Oleson, Rachel Snyder, Jessica Tsuji, and Adam Weis are available for interviews;
contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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Four graduate students from UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School win California Retired Teachers Association Awards