State school officials might have to cope with less hiring, funding and resources as the N.C. General Assembly looks to lower the budget deficit, but for the N.C. Teaching Fellows Program, the future could still be bright.
Although looming budget cuts might reduce the overall number of state teaching jobs, program officials are confident teaching fellows will be able to find placements due to their edge in the job market.
“(Fellows) know what they’re getting into,” said Cheryl Horton, the director of UNC Teaching Fellows.
Established in 1986, the program selects 500 high school seniors each year who intend to be teachers, and the students earn a full scholarship at one of 17 colleges in North Carolina, said Jo Ann Norris, executive director of the program. Once they graduate, the fellows repay their scholarship by teaching for at least four years at a state public or federal school.
If a fellow is not able to work upon graduation, they have seven years to pay back their tuition with the possibility of three one-year extensions, Norris said.
“It’s not a pending disaster for the fellow,” she said.
The program also sends a list of graduating fellows to schools with job openings, though they don’t act as job placement agency, Norris said. Still, fellows know they have a better chance of getting hired, she said.
UNC junior and teaching fellow Tracey Barrett said she is not worried about finding a placement because fellows are the top of their class among teaching applicants.
“Teachers are the position that will always be needed,” she said.