Teaching Fellows Scholarship Program
The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship Program provides $26,000 over four years in exchange for a four-year commitment to teach in the state’s public schools after graduation. UNC Asheville accepts 25 Teaching Fellows per class in this state-funded scholarship program, designed to attract North Carolina’s 
best and brightest to the teaching profession. If you are a high school senior, a legal resident of North Carolina and a U.S. citizen with a strong academic record, and interested in a career in education, you may apply for this exceptional scholarship opportunity.
Our program is known for its personal approach and unique opportunities, including Summer at Cambridge, England, award-winning tutoring activities and site visits to different schools across the country. Our Teaching Fellows have a strong network of enthusiastic and dedicated classmates, professors and area educators. They also have the advantage of earning a four-year degree in a subject area while obtaining N.C. Class A initial teacher licensure, all within four years of study.
Students at UNC Asheville join a community of teachers and learners focusing on the personal, professional and academic development of each member. Because the program and the university are small, Teaching Fellows quickly get to know each other and their professors, who believe that teaching is their most important task. Students may engage in projects and activities that enhance the quality of their college experience, such as the University Honors and Undergraduate Research programs. They conduct school-based research and present their results during the senior year of study. Teaching Fellows have a strong network of support, including academic and Education Department advisors, a Teaching Fellows Big Brother/Big Sister, a faculty mentor and the program director.
Travel Opportunities
Travel experiences in the U.S. and abroad are unique to the UNC Asheville Teaching Fellows Program. A few are explained below:
- The January Adventure takes Teaching Fellows to cities with innovative school programs, such as New York, Miami, Washington, New Orleans and San Francisco. Transportation, housing and admission tickets are paid by the program. A recent New York Adventure featured visits to schools in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Harlem and in the Bronx; tutoring children in St. Ann’s After School Program in Mott Haven; tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ellis Island and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum; performances of Doubt and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; lunch at Katz’s Deli and dinner at Langan’s. We encourage all Teaching Fellows to join the January Adventure every year, but it’s required of sophomores and juniors.
- The Cambridge Experience is a three-week summer European cultural and academic experience for rising juniors, who receive a $1,500 scholarship to defray expenses including housing at Lucy Cavendish College at Cambridge University. Students may earn 7 hours of honors credit for three weeks of study and up to 10 days of travel in the United Kingdom and European Continent.
- Study Abroad programs are available in about 35 countries including Italy, Greece, Honduras, Ireland, Ghana and Spain. Scholarship money can be used for approved study abroad/study away (at other U.S. universities and colleges).
- The Ghana Experience, a West African cultural and academic experience, also is offered for rising juniors beginning in 2009. Teaching Fellows receive a $1,500 scholarship to defray expenses, including housing with a host family in Ghana, and may earn honors credit and have the option for additional travel.
Early Experience in Schools
Teaching Fellows gain early and varied experience in the public schools. They have training sessions on successful tutoring of area elementary students, starting in the freshman year. Sophomore and junior Teaching Fellows, as part of the Education Department Outreach Program, tutor two to three hours per week in middle and secondary schools. These internships offer stipends for participating Teaching Fellows.
Community and University Service
Teaching Fellows extend their service in the public schools to the broader community. They participate in a Christmas party for Hillcrest Head Start preschoolers featuring a visit from Santa Claus (Chemistry professor Charles James), crafts, music, storytelling and lunch. They volunteer with American Red Cross, raise money for children with AIDS, tutor senior adults in computer skills at the N.C. Center for Creative Retirement, sponsor “Opening Doors to Teaching,” and tutor and mentor through the Asheville-Buncombe Education Coalition.
Cultural and Social Events
Travel provides interesting experiences in diverse cultures and school systems. Teaching Fellows visit museums, cultural attractions and events in all destinations. Plays, concerts, lectures and literary events are held on campus and in the Asheville community. Invitations to picnics, sporting events, receptions, retreats, socials and holiday celebrations all provide the extras that help make campus life exciting and fulfilling for Teaching Fellows.
Seminars
The Freshman Liberal Studies Introductory Colloquium, “Freeing the Natural Teacher,” is a 3-hour Honors class that meets twice weekly during fall semester. All Teaching Fellows attend specially arranged workshops and seminars on topics that include Sensitivity Training, Strategies for Tutoring, Diversity in the Classroom, Inclusion, Classroom Management, the Newspaper as a Teaching Tool, and Challenges for the First-Year Teacher.
Leadership Opportunities
We encourage Teaching Fellows to attend regional, state and national professional meetings. In the last two years, Teaching Fellows participated with women from over 87 countries in the Women as Global Leaders Conference in the United Arab Emirates. On campus, Teaching Fellows are officers and leaders in Student Government Association, Teaching Fellows Student Council, Teaching Fellows Advisory Council, Student National Education Association and other organizations. They are invited to be student orientation leaders, University Ambassadors and resident assistants.
Required Summer Activities
- State freshman orientation in Raleigh
- Discovery, a one-week summer bus trip across North Carolina for rising sophomores
- State conference for rising juniors and choice of Junior Enrichment Activity (usually Summer at Cambridge)
- State conference for rising seniors and one-week internship in area schools
What Our Graduates Are Saying
“The benefits of the UNC Asheville Teaching Fellows program are far reaching. The program not only challenged me as a student, but molded me into a thoughtful, creative teacher by providing unique and meaningful opportunities. These opportunities instilled within me a passion for teaching while equipping me with the tools needed to be an effective teacher. The relationships formed as a result of this program were invaluable to me as a student, and will be cherished for the rest of my life.”
— Melissa Beaver ’02
Murphy Elementary School teacher
“Visits to schools, travel and leadership opportunities, and the close-knit support system added a rich layer to my college experience. It helped me enter the classroom with enthusiasm.”
— Donna Chandler ’97
M.A., Wake Forest ’98
Buncombe County Early College teacher
“Knowing that I have been highly trained as a N.C. Teaching Fellow gives me an enormous sense of pride. My experience at UNC Asheville and my graduate degree at New York University have prepared me to be successful in my classroom.”
— Tuesda Roberts ’01
M.A., NYU ’03
E.E. Waddell High School (Charlotte/Mecklenburg) Spanish teacher
“As a UNC Asheville Teaching Fellow, I benefited from many opportunities, beginning in my freshman year when I worked with public-school students in North Carolina and visited classrooms in Washington, San Francisco and New York. Because of these hands-on experiences beyond what was required in Education classes, I developed teaching skills at a level far beyond those of most first-year teachers.”
— Michael Armstrong ’01
A.B. Combs Elementary Leadership Magnet School
“Through early and diverse classroom visits, field trips that allowed for cultural exchange, and curricular and extra-curricular leadership opportunities, the Teaching Fellows program has helped to provide me with the tools to be successful both in and out of the classroom. Any positive influences I may have had on students can, in many ways, be easily traced back to the powerful influence the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program has had on me.”
— Alphonso Donaldson Jr. ’99
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
More Information
Teaching Fellows Program
Zageir Hall, CPO #1950
UNC Asheville
One University Heights
Asheville, NC 28804-8508
828.251.6901
bhopper@unca.edu