Photo by Bruce Gilbert
More than 100 educators, policymakers and politicians celebrated the grand opening of the Graduate School of Education’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CEP) in October. The $7 million center expands Fordham’s role in providing educational services to metropolitan-area teachers and students.
“This is a great step forward for the Graduate School of Education, which is, and always has been, a service school and a partner school,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “This is what Fordham is about—teaching teachers, and helping them set hearts on fire in their students, so that a greater city and a greater nation can be built.”
Father McShane praised James J. Hennessy, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Education, as the genius behind the initial vision of the Center and its development. Since January 2006, Hennessy and Anita Batisti, Ph.D., associate dean for partnerships, have shaped the center into a five-part program meeting the needs of school children through grassroots outreach on several levels. Shelia Evans Tranumn, associate commissioner, New York State Department of Education, declared the Graduate School of Education a partner with the state.
CEP’s current programs include New York State Bilingual Education Centers (BETACs) at the Rose Hill and Tarrytown campuses; scholarships for shortage areas, a program in
Photo by Bruce Gilbert
partnership with the New York City Department of Education offering 100 students full scholarships at Fordham in the short-staffed areas of adolescent biology and adolescent mathematics; teacher coaching in math and literacy for K-12 students; and Improving Literacy Through Libraries, a program in the Yonkers Public Schools and Yonkers public libraries (in partnership with Sirius Thinking, Ltd.), to provide family literacy workshops.
In addition, CEP is developing three new programs: a partnership with the Boston-based Schoolworks to provide professional development for charter schools; a special education initiative; and a partnership with Mentoring USA to initiate a volunteer mentoring program with Fordham students and K-12 students. All programs are under the direction of Batisti, andinclude faculty participation.
– Janet Sassi
