The IRT Alumni Committee is a group of highly motivated, dynamic, and collaborative IRT Alumni who are currently in various fields and positions. One goal of this committee is to present a more holistic and complex image of who alumni are and ways the IRT Advisory Board and community can support us.
Two committee spots are open – applications due 7/31!
IRT Scholars have worked closely with their advisors reviewing admissions offers and fielding invitations for interview and campus visits in order to make the most informed matriculation decisions they can. Decisions have been made! We congratulate all of our current scholars for their work and energy throughout these past months. Congratulations and best wishes in your next step on your professional journey!
Continue reading “IRT Cohort Finalizes Graduate School Plans”Being a part of the IRT program has been transformative not only for how prepared I am to pursue doctoral studies, but also fundamentally how I see myself.
Sophie D’Souza, IRT ’22
Ogechi Irondi, IRT ’20
In my culture names have meanings that oftentimes become what you strive to do within your life or, in some cases, who you become. My name, Ogechi, means “in God’s timing”. Outside of religion and spiritual belief, my name reflects what we all know: we cannot control when or how things happen in our lives. I have been intentional in living up to my name by letting go, leaning into uncertainty, and taking things day-by-day. My PhD journey is one that very much follows this idea. I first applied to doctoral programs in 2015 when I was a 5th grade teacher. At that time, I did not know why I wanted to pursue a doctorate only that I should. I was running from a challenging work environment into what I thought was the obvious next step after reviewing a master’s degree. Thankfully, I was unanimously rejected from every school I applied to. Though I was heartbroken, I was given time to figure out what I wanted, what I was passionate about, why I cared, and what I wanted to do when I left the classroom. It was in those years that I truly developed and understood my “why”. Then, in 2020, during a global pandemic, I applied again. This time, I was accepted into two universities: one that I wanted and the one that I needed.
35th Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity (NCORE) on Higher Education
IRT Associate Director and Manager of Programs Catherine Wong, IRT Arts and Sciences Specialist Brittany Zorn, IRT ’13, and IRT Education Specialist Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 presented at NCORE in New Orleans earlier this month.
What is NCORE?
According to it’s website – “the conference series constitutes the leading and most comprehensive national forum on issues of race and ethnicity in higher education. The conference focuses on the complex task of creating and sustaining comprehensive institutional change. This change work is designed to improve racial and ethnic relations and their intersections with other issues and groups on campus. The conference speakers and sessions offer strategies for expanding educational access and success for diverse, traditionally underrepresented populations.”
Congratulations to Dr. Renée Wilmot, IRT ‘ 12, ’17! Renée successfully defended her dissertation entitled, Pilate’s Wine House: Reimagining Black Women Educators’ Histories & Futures, in May and earned a doctorate in Curriculum, Instruction & Teacher Education from Michigan State University. Wilmot also holds a masters degree in Secondary English from Boston College and a BA from the University of Virginia. Wilmot has been the IRT Alumni Committee Chair and an IRT Advisory Board student representative for the past two years. She has also served as a faculty member for the IRT Summer Workshop and IRT Curriculum Coordinator for several years. As Wilmot’s role of chair ends, she will begin an assistant professor position at Michigan State University in Black, Feminisms, Genders & Sexualities in the Department of African American and African Studies.
We are pleased to welcome Truth Hunter, IRT ’11 who will be acting as the interim chair. Truth is currently pursuing a doctorate in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. Hunter also has a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs from the university and a BA from Mount Holyoke College.
Continue reading “Alumni Committee Update”I am excited to serve as the interim chair for the IRT Alumni Committee because I truly believe in the mission of IRT, and if there’s anything I can do to give back, I want to be a part of it!
Truth Hunter, IRT ’11
Institute for Recruitment of Teachers 
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