Breaking Down Financial Barriers for Talented Future Teachers

Annual gifts to the Curry School help keep talented students like Kevin Williams on track to becoming exemplary teachers.

The School’s teacher preparation program is considered a national model, especially because of its five-year integrated, dual-degree program. Students earn a bachelor’s from the College and a master’s in teaching from Curry. The strength of the program becomes a barrier to some students, though, because in the fifth year when students become graduates, in-state tuition increases by 30%. Simultaneously, students become ineligible for undergraduate financial assistance programs.

Williams encountered this barrier last fall upon entering his fifth year in the social studies education program. Only with assistance from the Annual Fund was he able to stay. “I’m more determined than ever to be the best teacher I can be,” Williams says, “because Curry believed in me.”