College of Education

The Bowman Fellows
Named for Illinois State University’s 17th President Al Bowman, this is a group of high achieving minority students at Illinois State who:

• engage in leadership training,
• tutor, mentor and interact with Bloomington/Normal high school and middle school students,
• are mentored by Bloomington/Normal community leaders,
• receive recognition at graduation,
• earn letters of recommendation upon graduation,
• meet with President Bowman, and
• enhance their outstanding records of scholarship with a unique profile of community involvement and collaboration.

These Fellows receive a $500 book scholarship each semester that they are active members of the Bowman Fellows.  It is the goal of this program to honor President Bowman by providing opportunities for Illinois State students who seek to expand their educational horizons while here by reaching beyond the classroom walls and making an impact in the community.

The Hard-to-Staff Schools Initiative
A group of interested faculty at Illinois State have come together to promote awareness, collaboration, and strategic planning on how to staff urban and rural schools which share some of the same challenges and are considered hard-to-staff schools.  It is the mission of this group to provide opportunities for students and faculty to broaden their horizons in regards to different school and community settings. 

• One goal of the work includes facilitating faculty efforts to redesign coursework around topics that address these school needs.
• This groups strives to provide diverse field experiences for teacher candidates
• A collection of general education courses have been tagged for students to take that focus upon these school settings.

Support for this work is very important.  There is a need for funding to provide transportation to teacher candidates, mini-grant funding for faculty course redesign, and a myriad of other purposes. 

International Experiences
Illinois State University has become a global participant in educational reform efforts.  Faculty have engaged in establishing partnerships with institutions of higher education around the world, including Thailand, Japan, Canada, Mexico, England, to name a few.  Students at Illinois State are also beginning to see themselves as world citizens, educators who have much in common with educators in other countries.  Some of the projects that could be enhanced with greater resources would include:

• Faculty exchanges with other universities around the world.
• Teacher candidate mini-immersion experiences that would differ from the more traditional semester-long experiences.
• Bringing teacher candidates from other nations to Illinois State.

This work has already gained some momentum.  There are several partnership exchanges that have taken root across the college.  There is also a real need for our work across the globe.  Further resources would permit us to make longer commitments to our partners who are most anxious to establish rich and lively exchanges with our faculty and staff.