Moesha Facey
In August 2024 the Maryland State Department of Education awarded the School of Education at Mount St. Mary’s University a $297,000 Maryland Elevates Grant. The Elevates Grant at the Mount focuses on funding services that help with the betterment of children with disabilities and their families. The University has done an exceptional job at training and recruiting students for special education over the years. The grant that the Mount has just received will support - Grow-Your-Own-Initiatives. The Grow -Your-Own - is a partnership between the Mount and Frederick County public schools where the University collaborates with school districts to support conditional educators and instructional assistants as they earn their degree and certification.
In the School of Education at the Mount there are two different programs that train and equip students for special education and Grow-Your-Own initiatives; MD leads and MD elevates grants funds two of these programs. There is the MAT program (Master the Arts of Teaching) where students who already have an undergraduate degree comes to the Mount for teacher training and an adult undergraduate program that consists of individuals who have completed a two-year degree in education at a community college and have come to the Mount to further that degree in education. The MD Leads and MD Elevates grants provide full tuition support and intensive mentoring for students in these programs. Dean of the School of Education, Barbara Marinak says, “We can offer tuition support and mentoring to a new cohort of conditional educators and instructional assistants in special education with the new MD Elevated funding.”
Students in the special education program have expressed how much the grant has helped them and encouraged them to go into special education. Olivia Scheweugerath, who looks forward to her graduation in December 2024 took special education at the Mount and says, “The grants have been a blessing--they paid for my classes.” Scheweugerath said that her previous experience working with autistic children in her undergraduate year was what originally inspired her to go into special education and the Mount welcomed those experiences. “The special education program helps us to network and connect with each other in a way that will prepare us for special education in the real world” Schwiegerath states.
Davis Clare who will also be graduating the Mount in December 2024 says, “The MD Leads Grant helped pay my tuition, my books and for my Praxis exams. I am very thankful to have had that help to earn my degree.”
Approximately 30-40% of currently enrolled students are majoring in special education. The grants the Mount receives have helped a vast majority of these students. Marinak, upon receiving the second grant for this year that will certainly help with the special education teacher shortage in Maryland says, “We are pleased to continue this important work with the Maryland Elevates grant. Like MD Leads, this Grow-Your-Own initiative grounds our teacher candidates in the Mount’s rigorous coursework, field experiences, internships and ethical practices. Maryland Elevates will ensure conditional teachers and paraprofessionals in FCPS become highly qualified special educators prepared to positively impact student learning for many years to come.”