Summer Workshop – Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

Executive Director Letter, June 2026

Summer 2026

It’s here!

After admitting our newest class and graduating our most recent, the IRT is thrilled to launch our newest summer workshop. This workshop will continue to build on our previous virtual delivery with curriculum delivery, Chalk Talks, Recruiters Weekend, and opportunities for scholars to demonstrate their learning. I am excited to see how our Summer faculty will continue to develop ways to support scholars through these shifts in higher education and greater society.

Associate Director & Manager of Programs Update, June 2026

Meeting the Moment: Summer at IRT

At IRT, “meeting the moment” isn’t just a phrase; it’s a practice. It shows up in how we design programs, support scholars, and build community. This month, that spirit has been especially visible across our newest initiatives and shared experiences.

Welcoming a New Cohort: Energy, Connection, and Strong Beginnings

We recently launched our newest cohort and they came in with energy, curiosity, and a clear commitment to engaging fully from day one.

At our first All Cohort Meeting, scholars actively participated in RingCentral Events, contributing both on stage and in the chat. Their eagerness to connect with one another was immediately clear, setting a strong tone for the months ahead.

This successful launch is thanks in large part to the leadership of Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91, Education Program Specialist, alongside Alba Lamar, IRT ’14, our new Arts and Sciences Program Specialist. Their thoughtful communication and detailed preparation ensured that scholars felt confident and ready to begin. From syllabus walkthroughs to onboarding touchpoints, the feedback has been consistent: scholars felt prepared.

Since launch, the team has kept the momentum going through weekly webinars, alumni panels, and cohort social hours, creating multiple pathways for connection, learning, and community-building.

The 2026 IRT Summer Workshop

Rooted in community. Grounded in our ways of knowing. Moving forward together.

Last summer, IRT Scholars came together not to be shaped by the academy, but to understand it, question it, and imagine what it could look like in their hands. They arrived carrying their own histories, their languages, and their ways of knowing. They read Anzaldúa and Crenshaw, Fanon and Spivak, not as distant authorities but as people who had wrestled with the same questions they were asking. They wrote. They pushed each other. They showed up for one another. And they left as a community. This summer, we will continue that work.

Knowledge That Belongs to Us

The 2026 IRT Summer Workshop starts from a simple and honest place: the knowledge scholars bring into the room already matters. Over four weeks of virtual, live, co-created programming, scholars will have space to develop their intellectual identities on their own terms while also building the skills to navigate academic spaces that were not originally designed with them in mind.

Stay Connected. Pay It Forward. Get Involved with IRT.

Once IRT, always IRT.
As alumni of the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers, you know firsthand the power of community, mentorship, and shared commitment to educational equity. IRT is more than its programming, it’s a lifelong network of educators, scholars, and leaders who lift one another as we move forward in our careers.

Each summer, a new cohort of IRT Scholars arrives inspired, ambitious, and eager to learn from those who have walked this path before them. That’s where you come in.

We warmly invite IRT alumni to get involved as Summer Workshop Faculty and/or Statement of Purpose Advisors. These roles offer meaningful opportunities to reconnect with IRT, share your expertise, and make a tangible difference in the graduate journeys of emerging scholars. Whether you’re facilitating a workshop, offering thoughtful feedback on statements of purpose, or sharing lessons from your own academic and professional path. Your perspective matters! Serving in either role is also a chance to reflect, recharge, and reengage with the mission that brought us together. Many alumni have shared that returning to IRT renews their sense of purpose while strengthening the cycle of mentorship that defines our community.

“Chalk Talks” Series

IRT Alumni Come Together and Help Current Scholars During Critical Times

The IRT extended a warm welcome to the new IRT 2025 Cohort into its vibrant and dynamic community during the July Summer Workshop. The Summer Workshop is a major component of the IRT program, inspiring scholars to become future educators that PK-12 through higher education urgently needs. This year, the number of IRT alumni who came back to lend their experiences and insights during these critical times was phenomenal.

Heather Moore Roberson, IRT ’07 & ‘10, is a Co-Curriculum Coordinator for the workshop and hosted the “Chalk Talks”, a podcast-style series that is always engaging and insightful. The “Chalk Talks” delve into the complexities and nuances of graduate school life in today’s context. These sessions feature alumni and other higher education professionals. They share their research agendas, offer advice for navigating graduate school and the Academy, and discuss other relevant topics. The “Chalk Talks” are included in a content hub available to all current scholars as an integral resource to use as their own on-demand learning library; the topics and IRT Alumni speakers are featured below.