The Graduate College will fund a limited number of tuition scholarships for this certificate program. As interest in this initiative grows, it will be necessary to identify additional funding sources. That’s where you, our alumni, come in.
I want to thank the many generous donors who help make programs like this possible; we know that graduate education is important to you. Help us improve it even further by supporting professional development for our graduate students.

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In July 2004, University of Iowa will host more than 500 prospective graduate students from across the nation. These top scholars will visit our campus during the annual conference that is the culmination of the SROP program, a CIC-wide initiative designed to attract underrepresented students to graduate education. This year’s conference theme is The Breadth of Mentorship—Scholarly Engagement, Career Development, and Personal Enrichment.

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Although the project’s focus on elementary school history curriculum was outside her main area of study, he encouraged her to pursue it. Bringing History Home has now garnered Fillpot and the state of Iowa over $1,600,000 in national grant money.

Fillpot’s innovative project teaches about history by encouraging students and teachers to explore local, meaningful connections to historical topics. Teachers who participated in the Washington, Iowa pilot mentor teachers in other districts.

She and her assistant, James Tursi, realized from the beginning they would need the pilot teachers’ active contributions to make their idea work—they just weren’t sure how. As they began the pilot, “certain teachers stepped up and took a larger role in customizing and adapting our lesson plans for their students, then shared those adaptations with other teachers,” she remembers. “I realized that’s the way teachers will best learn about this program—from other teachers.”

Fillpot and Tursi have built this mentoring function into the program, now in its second phase. “Because mentoring was a natural tool, it evolved with the project,” she said.

When asked about her own mentors, Fillpot remarked, “We’re so conditioned to be students, to simply follow directions and fulfill requirements,” she said. “Graduate students need to think of themselves as active collectors of experiences. Fortunately, I was encouraged to do this at Iowa.”

So when a problem arose in her everyday experience, Elise immediately saw an opportunity. Her daughter was in elementary school; Elise felt that she was not seeing an immediate connection between history and the present. How could she help her daughter find this relationship? The answer to this question eventually became the Bringing History Home project.

Elise Fillpot’s accomplishments reflect the value of mentoring in practice, living proof of how teachers at all levels can inspire and nurture their students. It is also a testament to the collaborative quality of education.

Funding for projects like Bringing History Home enriches Iowa education at all levels. The Graduate College congratulates Elise Fillpot, and salutes her as she puts key values into practice, illustrating the power of graduate education to touch all aspects of our lives.

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UNIVERSITY-WIDE PROGRAM
Departments on campus have developed effective tracks for preparing student teachers. To support these efforts and to ease administrative burdens across many departments, the Graduate College’s proposed certificate program will offer an overarching structure to complement discipline-specific graduate teaching preparation programs. With the formal approval process already underway, the Graduate College hopes to launch the program by fall 2004.

STANDARD REQUIREMENTS
The certificate requires 12 semester hours of graduate-level coursework, including an introductory pedagogy course. Students must also complete two semesters of supervised teaching. The program culminates in the development of a teaching portfolio consisting of sample syllabi, statements of teaching philosophy, samples of assignments and student work, and reflective essays on critical issues in higher education teaching.

This portfolio becomes a valuable document for the newly minted Ph.D. on the job market: a well-organized, thoughtful demonstration of competency and commitment to teaching excellence.

COMPETITIVE IN THE JOB MARKET
Currently only a handful of other graduate programs nationwide offer a similar credential. Over time, the opportunities to participate in such a program will be an attractive feature of Iowa’s graduate programs, a valuable tool in recruitment and retention of high quality graduate students.

GRADUATE COLLEGE TO FUND SCHOLARSHIPS
In addition to providing administrative support, the Graduate College will fund up to 20 tuition scholarships of $1,000 each per semester for students engaged in either the introductory course or the Teaching Portfolio development course. Tuition scholarships will be determined by the Advisory Committee and awarded by the Graduate College.

Please consider contributing to the Graduate Teaching Certificate Program. It is the latest addition to a suite of services that make the Iowa graduate experience uniquely rewarding. (Visit our http://www.uifoundation.org/graduate/ to give online.)

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Generous gifts at all levels help the Graduate College fund the fellowships that are a linchpin of quality graduate education at The University of Iowa.
With great pleasure, I thank the following donors for helping today’s Iowa graduate students.

GRAD COLLEGE DONORS, FALL 2003
David J. Depew and Mary J. Depew
William J. Doerres, Saint Andrew Life Center
Vaibhav A. Garde and Kalyani Garde
Joseph E. Hale
Deborah Hauser McCabe and James F. McCabe
Dawn R. Howell
James F. Jakobsen and Jane R. Jakobsen
Norman L. Johnson and Bonnie L. Hemenover
John C. Keller and Gail A. Keller
George G. Klein and Kathy A. Klein
Charles M. Mason
Robert T. Morey
Keith D. Moss
Balmurli Natrajan
Richard O. Ray
Christopher F. Scifert
Peter Simonson
D.C. Spriestersbach and Bette Spriestersbach
Liskin Swint-Kruse and Joel G. Kruse
Boyd H. Wilson

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Graduate College News is published in the fall and spring.