About / May09 / 2009 CRTA Fellowships

May 19, 2009
For immediate release

Four graduate students at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School receive 2009 California Retired Teacher Association Awards

The California Retired Teachers Association (CRTA) awarded scholarships to four outstanding graduate students from UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School. Elizabeth Kowba, Emily Stewart, and Irene Ward are the recipients of the Laura E. Settle Scholarship for Multiple Subject Teacher credential candidates. Kendra Hofmann-Curry is the recipient of the Anne & Harry Scales Scholarship for a Single Subject Teacher credential candidate. All four students are Masters Degree candidates in the Teacher Education Program at the Gevirtz School. The awards were presented at a dinner reception on Monday, May 18 at the Vista del Monte Retirement Home.

Hofmann-Curry is pursuing her credential to teach English in the secondary schools. In her application letter she wrote sentiments that seemed to speak for all four candidates: “Throughout my education, I have developed my love for the written word and subsequently decided that English is the subject I was meant to teach. I aspire to one day receive my Doctorate and possibly become a professor, and I see no better way to work towards that goal then to spend as much time teaching at the high school level as I can. I enjoy helping others better understand the foundation of our communication and expression. Which is one of the reasons I have fallen in love with working with the English Language Learner population at my school. My hope is that my students will feel my passion for English and that they will begin to enjoy it, and not just see the subject as another class required of them.”

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.

[Kendra Hofmann-Curry, Elizabeth Kowba, Emily Stewart, and Irene Ward are available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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Four graduate students at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School receive 2009 California Retired Teacher Association Awards