College Gets Grants for Teacher Intern Program

Nearly $400,000 in state and federal grants has been acquired by Moorpark College for a new teacher internship program that will place college students in elementary schools as reading and writing tutors.

Because of the grants, Moorpark students interested in a teaching career will be trained as tutors and placed in kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms in the east county.

Participants in the program, which starts in the fall, will work with elementary school students either one-on-one or in small groups to improve pupils’ literacy skills. The interns will be closely supervised by a mentor teacher.

“Hopefully, the interns will know after the program whether they want to pursue a career in education,” Moorpark College President James Walker said. “There are a lot of people today who think they want to get into teaching, and then they find out it’s not for them.”

Walker said he hopes to expand the program in future years to include high school students interested in education careers who would receive training at the college.

“We’d like to identify people while they’re still young and idealistic and interested in teaching,” he said.

The tutoring program will be coordinated by the college’s Liberal Studies Institute, created last year to guide and support students considering a teaching career.

Moorpark is one of 30 colleges in the state to receive such a grant from the chancellor of the California community colleges. The grant is renewable for the next five years. A $45,000 federal grant came through Americorps’ national literacy campaign.

The money will be used to pay wages for student interns and stipends for mentor teachers. Students will earn $6.15 an hour for tutoring and work 8 to 10 hours a week, a college spokeswoman said.

Barbara Patten, principal at Simi Elementary, said her school will participate because of the opportunity to nurture future teachers.

“There really is a twofold benefit,” Patten said. “It gives college students an opportunity to experience what teaching is like.

“But it also is good for our students, because the tutors will be trained. Many times tutors will come in and they haven’t had any specific training.”