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Mark Jedele honored as Woodrow Wilson Fellow
A Greencastle native is among those recently admitted to a program designed to bring new skills and leadership to some of Indiana's highest-need schools--and to make the state's best schools more internationally competitive.
Mark Jedele, a 2007 Greencastle High School graduate, has been selected as a 2014 Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow.
As a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow, Jedele will receive a $30,000 stipend to complete a special intensive master's program at the University of Indianapolis that will prepare him to teach science in Indiana's urban and rural public schools.
Jedele did his undergraduate work at Indiana University in Bloomington, earning a physics degree in 2011.
Jedele's previous work includes time as an exhibit intern at the Wonderlab Museum of Science, Health, and Technology; summer researcher in physics; chief operating officer and climbing wall instructor at an indoor climbing center; and former youth climbing director.
The 45 Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows for 2014 are recent graduates and career changers with strong backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math -- the STEM fields. The highly competitive Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship prepares candidates specifically to teach in the state's high-need urban and rural secondary schools.
This year's class is the sixth named since the program began in 2009, and the first class to receive funding from the state of Indiana as part of the $9.7 million STEM grant program approved by the General Assembly in 2013.
Each Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow receives $30,000 to complete a specially designed, cutting-edge master's degree program based on a year-long classroom experience. In return, Fellows commit to teach for three years in the urban and rural Indiana schools that most need strong STEM teachers. Throughout the three-year commitment, Fellows receive ongoing support and mentoring.
Statewide, 16 school districts partner with the Fellows' institutions, including Anderson, Fort Wayne, Decatur, Gary, Indianapolis, Lawrence Township, Perry Township, Warren Township, Michigan City, Muncie, Portage, East Chicago, Washington Township, and Wayne Township, as well as the Thea Bowman Leadership Academy and the Purdue University Rural Schools Network.
Since its launch in Indiana in 2007, the Teaching Fellowship has been generously funded with over $15 million in grants from Lilly Endowment Inc., as well as supplemental state support. The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship has subsequently been established in four other states--Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and Georgia.