Submitted by Saint Martin’s University
LACEY, WASHINGTON — An information session for the Saint Martin’s University Secondary Teacher Alternate Route Program (STAR)—an intensive one-year course of study that prepares working professionals to teach in Washington state middle schools and high schools—will take place Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, at 5:30 p.m. on the University’s Lacey campus. Four additional information sessions are scheduled for 2013: Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 6:30 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 24 at 5:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m.; and Thursday, March 7 at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public, all sessions will be held at the University’s Norman Worthington Conference Center, 5300 Pacific Ave. SE, Lacey, Washington.
The STAR program, designed for individuals who already have an undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university, provides an efficient means to switch to a teaching career, says Ann Gentle, Ph.D., STAR program director and faculty member in the University’s College of Education and Professional Psychology.
“Students bring valuable professional skills and experience to the program,” explains Gentle. “After only one academic year, they are ready to enter the classroom with teacher certification and two endorsement areas for teaching here in Washington state.”
Information sessions will address entry requirements, program details, required classes and internships, financial information and Washington’s teacher certification process.
The University will begin accepting applications for the cohort-style program in January. Individuals accepted will start classes in June 2013.
Pending state legislative decisions, conditional loan scholarships may be available to STAR graduates who elect to work in “high needs” academic areas, which include math, science, special education or English language learner (ELL), Gentle says.
In case of snow or inclement weather, please check the Saint Martin’s website. In the case of University closure, the info session will be cancelled.
For more details about the STAR program or the upcoming information sessions, contact Gentle at agentle@stmartin.edu or 360-438-4566.
Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, coeducational university located on a 380-acre wooded campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 14 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 23 majors and seven graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education, nursing and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes more than 1,100 undergraduate students and 375 graduate students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main campus, and 300 more undergraduate students to its extension campuses located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Centralia College. Visit the Saint Martin’s University website at www.stmartin.edu.
