Dr J 07

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March 6, 2007
For immediate release

The Teacher Education Program at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara has named its 2007 Dr. J Student Teacher Fellows: Ashley Carey, John González, Bill Huffman, Shannon Jaffe, Aaron Joseph, Jacqueline Kelemen, Daisy Lima, Angélica Pérez, Meghan Saxer, and Chad Smith. The ten current student teacher candidates will receive awards of $1000 each. The Dr. J Student Teacher Fellowship Fund was augmented this year by a generous gift from the Yardi Systems.

The Dr. J Student Teacher Fellowship honors the legacy of Dr. Richard Jamgochian, former Director of the Teacher Education Program. From 1968-1991 Dr. Jamgochian, or “Dr. J” as he was affectionately known, was an enthusiastic and tireless advocate for teacher education in general and for the UCSB Teacher Education Program (TEP) in particular. Colleagues credit his personal management style for building and refining TEP, which prepared more than 5,000 teachers during his tenure and was cited by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing in 1991 as “an exemplary program.”

Recipients of the fellowship not only must show promise as future teachers but also must exemplify the ideals that Dr. J promoted. According to Dr. J, teaching involves much more than imparting knowledge. He believed that teachers should see student self-actualization as their greatest goal. The ten awardees are a multi-talented group with a wide-range of life-experiences, from teaching swimming, surfing, gymnastics, and horseback riding to tutoring reading, writing, marine science, and art, to experience as babysitters, Tibetan monks, and independent league baseball players. Several are first-generation college graduates or the first in their families to get a graduate degree.

In their letters of application for the fellowship, many expressed sentiments similar to these written by Aaron Joseph: “Like Dr. J, I believe learning should be a joy, and that students should see learning as a quest. While we embark on this quest as a group, students are highly complex individuals, and I fee that as a teacher I must be ever-vigilant and self-reflective. I must never become rigid, but remain able to adapt my instruction to the needs of each student, rather than force students into my mold of teaching and learning. Of course this is no easy task, but it involves a daily renewal of one’s aspiration and intent.”

The Dr. J Student Teacher Fellowships are offered by the Gevirtz School through the Teacher Education Program. TEP offers Multiple-Subject, Single-Subject and Level I and II Education Specialist Moderate/Severe Teaching Credentials with a Master’s Degree in Education. These programs provide future teachers with a solid theoretical foundation integrated with extensive fieldwork, leading to both a California State Teaching Credential and a Master’s Degree in Education.

Because of donations, the Dr. J Fellowship has grown from one award of $500 in 2000 to ten awards of $1000 this year. Donations to the fellowship provide financial assistance to those who show promise of carrying on Dr. J’s dreams. For further information or to make a contribution to the Fund, you are encouraged to contact: Dr. Ann Lippincott at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at annl AT education.ucsb.edu or 805 893 3711.

[The fellowship winners are available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]

Picture caption: (from left to right): Shannon Jaffe, Angélica Pérez, Meghan Saxer, Daisy Lima, Dean Jane Close Conoley, John González, Ashley Carey, Jacqueline Kelemen, Chad Smith, Sue Jamgochian, Bill Huffman, Aaron Joseph.

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