2021 Cohort – Page 2 – Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

Giving Day – March 30, 2022

The IRT is fueled by philanthropy and we are deeply grateful for the community of donors who make this work possible. For the past several years, PA Giving Day has served as an exciting and powerful day for the IRT, last year galvanizing over 110 program donors during the event. Again this year, several generous Andover and IRT alumni are offering match funds to inspire support. Every one of the first 85 gifts to the program that day, regardless of size, will be matched with a $1,000 gift, unlocking up to $85,000 in funds for IRT!

Please help us to ensure incredible success on Giving Day – running from 9am EDT on March 30^th to 12pm EDT on March 31^st. To participate, please visit this site and select “IRT” from the drop-down menu. (Early gifts are welcome!)

IRT introduced me to a community of scholar-colleagues who have grounded the doctoral program application process in humanity. By this I mean that I have been prompted to formally & informally consider the significance of my work outside the context of admissions. These iterative reflections are the footing that has made it possible to reach for the next anchor point with resolve. My cohort has been a source of strength & inspiration. And my SOP advisor, Dr. Stephanie Flores-Koulish, encouraged me to consider that the scholarship I will produce will do the same for others in turn. IRT has affirmed my conviction that people–not institutions–will always be the fonts of change.
Ed’d Luna Bhagwandeen, IRT ’21

All Cohort Meeting

Brittany Zorn, IRT’ 13
Arts & Sciences Specialist, IRT

Since the inception of IRT’s Associate Program, we have been dabbling in the realm of cultivating virtual community, but it is perhaps no surprise that living with this pandemic for the last two years has fast-tracked the development of our best practices for engaging with IRT Scholars remotely. Because we decided against hosting a physical Summer Workshop in 2020 and 2021, we were suddenly tasked with replicating the natural community and connection that Recruiter’s Weekend offered the cohort in a completely online setting. Since the start of widespread work-from-home policies, we have incorporated more regular virtual touch points for Scholars throughout their IRT participation, including the implementation of three All Cohort Meetings (ACM), almost monthly Social Hours, triple the number of alumni panels and workshops, and more frequent required meetings with IRT Advisors, all carried out via Zoom. We have already seen the positive impact ACMs and Social Hours have had on the 2021 Cohort; these meetings have provided a communal space for IRT scholars to talk through the challenges of applying to graduate school as people with multiple historically marginalized identities, to commiserate over the uncertainty that comes with pursuing a graduate degree during an unprecedented global health crisis, to share strategies for managing their time, their stress, and their health with each other, and to lend a supportive ear or a cathartic chuckle as a collective.

This photo is a snapshot from ACM2, which we held on January 12^th, demonstrating a moment of collective joy being shared towards the end of the discussion about preparing for campus visit and interviews.

IRT Alumni Mentor Phillips Academy’s Students of Color and Participate in MLK Workshop

by Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91

Since November of 2020, Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 has served as one of the faculty advisors for the Af-Lat-Am Mentoring Program (AMP) at Phillips Academy which has a membership of 104 students of color. Leislie, along with the input of six student coordinators creates and plans programming that benefits students’ personal and academic growth. During the current academic year, Leislie and the coordinators hosted Ms. Warner and Mr. Coy of the Academic Skills Center who discussed study strategies and, more recently, during the MLK Jr. holiday weekend, IRT alumna, Kelicia Hollis Jessie ‘11 was invited by the organization and held a workshop titled AMP Mentoring Reset: Going Back to Basics, an interactive session in which the mentors learned ways to be more intentional and effective in their interactions with their mentees. Additionally, Aleena Kibria, one of IRT’s Student Advisory Board Leaders conducted a MLK Jr. Workshop titled “What Is a Bad Hair Day? In this presentation, Aleena and her peers discussed how often students think about their hair, Eurocentric beauty standards, the politics of hair, hair discrimination, and legal efforts to rectify hair discrimination in schools and the workplace. Aleena went a step further for her presentation and interviewed Phillips Academy and IRT students Kevin Pajaro-Mariñez, IRT’15 LaKisha Simmons, IRT ’02 and Elyx Desloover, IRT’ 21 about their feelings regarding their hair. Check out their discussion on YouTube.

Congratulations Aleena on a dynamic and well-received MLK Workshop!

Liberation and Curation : A Perspective from Leslie Condon, IRT ’21

Besides her academic pursuits in the art history field, Leslie Condon, IRT ’21 (artist name Leslie Anne Condon) is a Boston-area visual artist and independent curator. Her upcoming curatorial projects include Collective Liberation, which Leslie curated as the Hopkinton Center for the Art’s Inaugural Kris Waldman Curator-in-Residence, on view from September 30 to November 11, 2021.

Alumni Accolades, November 2021

~1998 Cohort~

Reginald Wilburn, IRT ’98
Congratulations to Reginald who has been appointed Dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Texas Christian University. Wilburn earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in English from the University of Connecticut, and his B.A. in English from the University of the District of Columbia.

~2001 Cohort~

Brighid Dwyer, IRT ’01
Brighid was named Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania beginning in December. Congratulations to Brighid on this appointment. She received her undergraduate degree in sociology from UCLA and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

~2005 Cohort~

Monica Muñoz Martinez, IRT ’05
Monica was named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow. The MacArthur Fellowship is unrestricted and unofficially known as the “Genius Grant.” The MacArthur Foundation considers that the fellowship “is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential.” Congratulations, Monica, on this prestigious award.