Judy Chávez, Erika Santillán, and Tatiana Karas of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School named as Glikbarg Foundation Fellowship recipients

Three credential candidates in the Gevirtz School Teacher Education Program have been selected to be the recipients of the William and Charlene Glikbarg Foundation Fellowships for 2008-09. The recipients are Judy Chávez, Erika Santillán, and Tatiana Karas.

The primary mission of the William and Charlene Glikbarg Foundation is to help others, especially those with low income. The Foundation is committed to the belief that our system of government can only survive if people with low income have a realistic hope that they can improve their economic status. One of the foci of the Foundation is education. Fellowship recipients made clear their interest to pursue teaching in a low-income, ethnically diverse community where students may not complete their high school GED and/or are not historically college-bound, and where dedicated teaching can positively affect the future for disadvantaged students.

Judy Chávez is a candidate for a special education teaching credential. Before coming to UC Santa Barbara, she worked as an on-site substitute teacher at Lincoln Elementary in Ontario, California with students with severe disabilities. “I have never been as certain as I am today, that I am on the right path in making my stamp in this world,” she wrote in her nomination letter. “I am going to become a special education teacher and I am going to be there to help my students take their first step in crafting a wonderful world of art.”

Erika Santillán is a candidate for an elementary education teaching credential. In her nomination letter she wrote, “When I graduate from this program…I will begin by teaching at a low-income school where the majority of the population is Latino because I want them to see that it is possible to succeed; if I could do it, they can do it. In the future I would love to go back to school and get my administrative credential so that I can be the principal of a school in Santa Barbara where the majority of the students are minorities and come from low-income families.”

Tatiana Karas is another candidate for an elementary education teaching credential. Prior to attending UC Santa Barbara Karas volunteered at inner city schools with an Americorps program called Jumpstart, worked at the Children’s National Medical Center, and studied abroad in South Africa, volunteering at an orphanage and helping with the mobile medical clinic. “After I graduate, I plan to find a job teaching in a low-income school where children really need my help,” she wrote in her nomination letter. “I want to serve students so that I can make a difference in their lives even if they are only with me for a single year.”

[Judy Chávez, Erika Santillán, and Tatiana Karas are available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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Judy Chávez, Erika Santillán, and Tatiana Karas of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School named as Glikbarg Foundation Fellowship recipients