Support for the Best | Teachers College Columbia University

Skip to content Skip to main navigation

Support for the Best

Students are the lifeblood of Teachers College. All too often there are impediments in matching our expectations with student aspirations. The barriers principally are built around funding. Affordability is the issue.

Students are the lifeblood of Teachers College. All too often there are impediments in matching our expectations with student aspirations. The barriers principally are built around funding. Affordability is the issue.

The principal way to bring equity to the process is by financial support. And the building blocks of financial support are scholarships and fellowships. To that end, we have earmarked $28.5 million in the Campaign for Teachers College for fellowships and scholarships.

Considered one of the priorities in the campaign, the goal has been realistically fashioned on the strength of decades of financial support for Teachers College students made possible by private philanthropy.

Against this background, the campaign has generated a number of significant scholarship programs that serve as leadership gifts in achieving our goal. They are: Tess Magsaysay and Ken Boxley Scholarship Fund, Neff Fellows, Elihu Rose Fellowships, Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women, and Nicholson Family Scholarship.

The Magsaysay-Boxley Scholarships

Tess Magsaysay and Ken Boxley made an initial gift of $1 million toward the creation of a $10 million endowment to help recruit the best students into the teaching profession. What they hope to create with their scholarships whose focus is academic excellence is the equivalent of the Rhodes Scholarship or the National Merit Scholarship.

Tess Magsaysay has a Master of Education in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College and is working on her Ed.D. In the same field. Commenting on the significance of the endowment, Ken Boxley notes that "several years ago I decided that the best thing I could do with the money I had was to further education."

Pam Cheng, one of the first recipients of the scholarship, calls it a "tangible affirmation that teaching is worthy of one's highest aspirations."

Neff Fellows

Established by James L. Neff, a retired vice president of trusts with the Bank of New York, the Neff Tutorial Program helps support participation of Teachers College students in improving the reading skills of elementary students in New York City schools. The program emerged from Mr. Neff's own volunteer service tutoring fourth and fifth graders in Manhattan's P.S. 6. As Neff Fellows, master's degree candidates work with elementary students in four 45-minute sessions a week.

Carolyn Choi, one of the early recipients, says she is struck by "the individual time that I've been able to devote to children at risk. What I have learned most is how to work at a school, with its teachers, and, most important, how to use my skills."

Elihu Rose Fellowships

The Rose Fellowships link Teachers College students as interns with a wide range of institutions concerned about educational policy and practices.
The idea of Dr. Elihu Rose, an honorary Teachers College trustee and member of the President's Advisory Council, the fellowships serve to enrich both the experiences of Teachers College students and beneficiaries of the paired institutions.

For example, Terry Marx interned at the Center for Educational Innovation which distributes private funds for creative projects in the public schools. One of her projects is to develop a technology model for a high school in Queens. As a degree candidate in Computing and Education, her interest is to integrate computers and technology into school curricula.

Jewish Foundation Women Scholars Program

Providing a grant of $135,000, the Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women directed the scholarships "to women who intend to pursue teaching careers in mathematics or science in the New York City public schools."

Under provisions of the grant, Teachers College "agrees to provide teaching positions for scholarship recipients upon graduation in the New York City public schools (and) also agrees to develop support programs and mentor relationships for grant recipients during their first two years of teaching."

Nicholson Family Scholarship
As part of their $500,000 campaign commitment, Patricia and Ronald Nicholson created the Nicholson Family Scholarship with a $100,000 gift to Teachers College to support students selected for their academic merit with preference to graduates of the Teachers for Tomorrow Program.

Possibilities for the Best

Teachers College President Arthur Levine reflects on the importance of the scholarship program with a sense of personal regret. Admitted to Teachers College as a young man, he was unable to enroll, even though he "wanted desperately" to attend, because he could not afford the tuition. "We need to make it possible for the best people, no matter their personal resources, to come here," President Levine maintains.

Sources of Scholarship Funds

Newly Created Capital Campaign Scholarships Since September 1, 1997

John and Caroline H. Clark Scholarship in Elementary Math
Frances P. Connor Scholarship
W.E.B. Du Bois Scholarship
John F. Fanselow Scholarship Fund
Ron G. Galbraith Memorial Scholarship
The Irwin Goldstein Scholarship Fund
Antonia Grumbach Scholarship Fund
Leland B. Jacobs Scholarship
Jaffe Scholarship Fund
Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women Scholars
Robert Lehman Foundation Scholarship Fund (Art & Art Educ.)
The Lindamood Family Scholarship Fund
Evangeline Maginnis Scholarship Fund
Tess Magsaysay and Ken Boxley Scholarship Fund
Enid W. Morse Fellowship for Teaching in the Arts
James Neff Tutorial Program
Nicholson Family Scholarship
Peace Corps Fellows Program
Dr. Shirley A. Sacks Scholarship Fund
The Scholarship Fund for Special Education
Margaret Jo Shepherd Scholarship
Summer Fellowship Program II
Olive M. Swigart Scholarship Fund
Teacher Opportunity Corps Scholarship
Cornelia Tomes Scholarship Fund
Gladys Young Uhlir and Gladys Ann Uhlir Scholarship

Scholarships Receiving Contributions for Ongoing Support

Anthropology Research Fund
Arts Admin. Intern Program
International Scholars Program in Arts Administration
Art Scholarship Fund
Barnes Foundation Scholarship
Paul E. Blackwood Scholarship
Flossie T. Bruyning Scholarship
Center for Infants and Parents Gift Fund
Diana Brewster Clark Fellowship
Gardner Cowles Doctoral Research Fellowship
Morton Deutsch Scholarship Fund
Julie Louise Franck Fellowship
General Scholarship Fund
Miriam L. Goldberg Fund
The William Randolph Hearst Centennial Fellowship Fund
Joseph Klingenstein Fellowship Program
John F. Lidstone Memorial Scholarship Fund
Wiley M. Merryman Scholarship
Jack Mezirow Scholarship for Social Action
Edward Mysak Memorial Fund
Carol Neilson Wilder Memorial
Department of Nursing Education Scholarship
A. Harry Passow Fellowship Fund
Peace Corps Graduate Program
Orrea F. Pye Fellowship Fund
Elihu Rose Fellowship
Scappaticcio Fellowship in Clinical Psychology
JoAnne Schwartz Scholarships Program
Walter E. Sindlinger Memorial Fund
Special Education Scholarships
Speech Pathology and Audiology Scholarship
Summer Scholarships Program
TC Student Council World Friendship Fund
Nicole E. Vartanian Fellowship
Helen M. Walker Scholarship Fund
Ruth M. and Julius Wile Endowment Fund

 

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Published Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2001

Share

More Stories