Engineering alums earn prestigious fellowship

<p>Two Arizona State University alumni who earned degrees in engineering are among recipients of prestigious teaching fellowships designed to foster innovation in teaching and in the education of teachers.</p><separator></separator><p>Moira McSpadden and Shamar Thomas are among 80 new Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows – considered the “Rhodes Scholars” of teaching.</p><separator></separator><p>They will each receive a $30,000 stipend and enrollment in a master’s degree program for intensive clinical preparation for teaching math and science in urban and rural high schools most in need of strong teachers.</p><separator></separator><p>McSpadden, now a resident of Garland, Texas, graduated from ASU in the early 1980s, studying industrial technology and microelectronics engineering technology, and earning two undergraduate degrees. She later earned a master’s degree in information systems from Northeastern University.</p><separator></separator><p>She has been employed as a business analyst in the areas of process engineering and quality assurance. She will pursue her master’s degree in education through the fellowship program at Purdue University.</p><separator></separator><p>Thomas, now a resident of Louisville, Ky., graduated from ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering in 2008 with a bachelor’s of science degree in aerospace engineering.</p><separator></separator><p>He as has interned with Honeywell and US Airways/America West Airlines, and was in Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps.</p><separator></separator><p>Through the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship, Thomas will pursue a dual certification in engineering technology and computer education as well as special education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.</p><separator></separator><p>The Indiana Fellowship is part of a national Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship initiative. Plans are for the program to expand to possibly all 50 states in coming years.</p><separator></separator><p>Among other goals, the program seeks to bring the strongest candidates into teaching, and attract well-educated teachers to high schools, especially to bolster math and science programs.</p><separator></separator><p>The two ASU alumni are among “truly stellar teacher candidates who will make a real difference in students’ lives,” said Constance K. Bond, vice president for Teaching Fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.</p><separator></separator><p>To learn more, see the foundation’s <a href="http://www.woodrow.org/news/news_items/WW_INTeachingFellows_2010.php">p… release</a>.</p>