With this 2014 Dunham Fund $200,000 grant, North Central College will expand its Teach First andDunham Scholars Program to incorporate a new model that will support at-risk students pursuing careers outside of the field of teaching. The Fund’s grant will provide each student with a $1,000 annual scholarship and will also cover 75% of the Teach First/Dunham Scholars director’s salary and benefits. The College also provides additional financial support through merit and talent scholarships for each of the Dunham Scholars.
North Central’s Teach First program began as a partnership with East Aurora School District 131 to encourage East graduates who would be first-generation college students to pursue the field of teaching with the hope that they would return to their home school district as educators. Since 2011, the Dunham Fund has supported Teach First to launch other students in the Aurora area into a successful teaching career, hopefully within the total Dunham Fund service area. In 2012 and 2013, the Fund continued its support of Teach First with an additional Dunham Scholars model and the expansion of the program to recruitment in 21 area home and high schools and to students that are not first-generation. The program also began to provide tiered scholarship awards, beginning at $7,500, as students advanced through the education program.