IRT’s Summer Workshop heads into it’s second week. Interns take a break from seminars during planned Wellness Day activities – hanging out on the quad and playing frisbee!
Executive Letter, June 2019
The time has come.
In just a few short weeks, the IRT will welcome our next class of interns to the Summer Workshop.
After a spirited season of recruitment and an intensive application review season, we are finally ready to announce our largest class ever. More than 160 scholars were selected from 100 institutions. We are thrilled to facilitate the development of the next cohort of education leaders.
Thank you and IRT for being forces of uplifting change for rising equity scholars and professionals. I am truly achieving my dreams because of IRT.
Nathalie Quintero, IRT ’18
The IRT staff has made tremendous headway in supporting our consortium. This year, we’ve added two new partners, the University of Washington and Notre Dame. It is my hope that this class will utilize this consortium to their full advantage.
Finally, the staff is working towards connecting our alumni in new ways and we will be highlighting more of these initiatives in future posts. As Chera, Leislie, Viviana and countless others show every day, our alumni are researching, teaching, connecting and mentoring — making change that is not only personal but structural as well. These connections make change even more possible. As we begin to welcome our newest class of students, I am excited to connect them to this vast network.
Best,
LaShawnda Brooks
Executive Director, IRT
Viviana Cordero Garcia, IRT ’15 on Becoming a Social Justice Educator
Life in Color
I see most spaces I walk into in color first. I walk into classrooms, the supermarket, doctor offices and check for representation. I often count the number of Black and Brown folk in the room with me. I examine spaces thoroughly. I ask myself: What are the norms in this space? Have I dressed appropriately? Can I speak Spanish out loud? Do I have to enunciate? Will I have to use my “White English”?
These are some of the questions I was able to unpack and process throughout my master’s program at the University of Maryland College Park (UMD). The Higher Education, Student Affairs and International Education Policy (HESI) program not only challenged me to be more critical of our education systems, but also provided the foundation for my diversity, equity, and inclusion practice. At UMD and through my work at Partners in Print and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion on campus, I found the language, read scholars of color, and embraced my social justice educator identity. With the help of my advisor, professors, colleagues-turned-friends, sister scholars, and my Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) network, I earned a degree that otherwise would not have been possible for me.
Continue reading “Viviana Cordero Garcia, IRT ’15 on Becoming a Social Justice Educator”
2018 Cohort Matriculation News
Over the past year, the IRT has assisted 94 students in their graduate school preparations in their pursuit of doctoral and Master’s degrees in the humanities, social sciences and education fields. We are excited to report that the 2018 cohort received nearly 353 acceptances to graduate school programs, and 70% received partial to full graduate school funding at the following institutions:
Auburn University*
Boston College
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Emory University
George Washington University
Harvard University
Indiana University, Bloomington*
LeHigh University*
Michigan State University, Education
Admissions Report by Monica Reum
This year, the IRT committed itself to serve more students and just admitted our biggest class! We will assist 121 students through the Ph.D. process, and 45 students through the master’s degree process. In sum, we will support 166 students. Nearly half of our class identifies as Black or African American, 37% identify as Latinx, 18% identify as Asian, and 1% of our cohort identify as Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander.
Within the past year, our number of institutions increased from 85 to 100! This increase to 100 institutions would not have been possible without our alumni, who hosted information sessions on their campuses — THANK YOU! Over the past three years, we also doubled the number of HBCU institutions. We hope to build this trend and aim to increase it in three years. If you attended an HBCU, or are currently working at an HBCU as a faculty member or administrator, I encourage you to reach out to me regarding ways we can collaborate to ensure we can identify and recruit additional students at HBCU’s.
