Alumni – Page 22 – Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

IRT featured on Every Quarter Podcast

How do we educate our society as it continually evolves?

The Institute for Recruitment of Teachers seeks to answer this question. Founded in 1990 by Kelly Wise, the IRT has a nearly 30-year history of producing social justice–minded educators in both K–12 and the professoriate.

In this episode of Every Quarter, we sit down with the LaShawnda Brooks, the new executive director of the IRT, and Jessica Acosta–Chavez ’06, IRT ’12, Phillips Academy’s associate director of admission and outreach. As an alumna of both the IRT and Phillips Academy, Acosta–Chavez is uniquely positioned to speak with Brooks around the history of the IRT, current needs in educating diverse populations, and new possibilities for the IRT.

As American demographics change, so does our need for educators. According to the Learning Policy Institute, people of color constitute nearly 40 percent of the population and 50 percent of our students.

Since the IRT’s founding in 1990, the percentage of K–12 educators of color has increased from 12 percent to 20 percent. Currently, more than 2,000 IRT alumni have received a Master’s degree and more than 330 IRT alumni have earned doctoral degrees.

Awendela Grantham, IRT ’05 shares commentary on new book

Grantham, Awendela IRT alum shares commentary on her new book—The Africana Experience: We’ve Come This Far.

“At Virginia Commonwealth University, I developed a more efficient way to engage undergraduates in my research. I wrote an educational textbook (an interactive eBook) called—The Africana Experience: We’ve Come This Far.”

This is the book I wanted to read as an undergraduate!

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Reflections from Saudi Garcia, IRT ’14

On Friday, November 30, I stood in a room of about 70 Dominicans and Haitians in the East Harlem church that the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group, occupied to provide health services to their community in 1969. For 40 minutes I shared the floor with my colleague, France François, a Haitian human rights activist and founder of In Cultured Company [ICC]. Together, we weaved the colonial and post-colonial stories of Haiti and the Dominican Republic into a tapestry of recognition and mutuality, rather than racial conflict. ICC was launched in 2018 to provides workshops, facilitations, and conflict resolution tools to Dominicans and Haitians both on and off the island.

The ICC team (L-R) Alexis Francisco, Saudi Garcia,
France François, and Cassandre Theano. (photo credit: Kim Toledo)

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IRT Fellows Selected for Scholars Program

IRT ’17 fellows Gabby Alvarez and Demar Lewis IV were selected to participate in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars Program. As part of their selection, these scholars will receive an annual stipend, training, and counseling and will develop high-level leadership skills. Congrats Gabby and Demar!

More information on the foundation and program application details can be found on their website.

Eliana Castro, IRT ’15

Educator, Researcher, and Author

Eliana Castro earned a B.A. in education and an M.A.T. in secondary history/social studies from Brown University in 2009 and 2010, respectively. She then taught in her hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts, until enrolling in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education Ph.D. program at Michigan State University in 2016. She is a proud IRT alum.

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