News • Tell in the News
Athens EcoLatino Magazine
October 2003
Vol. 1 / Issue 7
The TELL Scholarship: Preparing Future Bilingual Teachers
By Valeria Himmel
The Hispanic population has become the largest minority in the United States, Georgia being one of the states with the biggest increase, reaching almost one million people. By the same means, the number of Hispanic students in public schools has increased, causing a series of challenges for the state's education system.
One of these challenges is the lack of bilingual teachers certified in Georgia's schools, including the counties of Clarke and Hall among others. This has motivated the United States Education Department to donate funds to meet this need. One initiative is the TELL scholarship (Teachers for English Language Learners), aimed at increasing the number of certified bilingual teachers in Georgia's public schools. The TELL program is directed at uncertified personnel in the schools, parents, parent-teacher liaisons, professional teachers, substitute teachers, after-school tutors, administrators, secretaries and other personnel in Georgia's public schools. "One of the priorities is that the person speaks and writes Spanish competently. In addition, they must have experience working in education and with children," explains Betsy Rymes, the TELL program director. She also adds that the program is interested in people from all areas of education.
Once applicants are chosen for the TELL scholarship, they must commit to work in a high-need public school in Georgia for three years.
TELL is a bridge for bilingual people who have different backgrounds and levels of education and want to become teachers. An example of a student who received the TELL scholarship is Javier Zapata, who studied business in Spain and decided to orient his life towards education. "It's difficult to change from business to education, but I realized that working in this area would allow me to spend more time with my family than working in business," he explains.
Zapata has been working in Athens for two years for the Even Start Program, whose goal is family literacy (parents and children). Nevertheless, he was never able to continue his studies of education because he didn't have the economic means to do so. "Since arriving in the United States, I had been looking to go back to school, but due to my economic situation I couldn't. In addition, I didn't know how I was going to balance work and school." He found out about the TELL scholarship by chance, decided to apply and managed to get financial aid to go back to school. "The scholarship pays for my studies, which allows me to work at the same time because all the classes are in the afternoons at the University of Georgia," says Zapata. Just like Zapata, other people want to go back to school to become bilingual teachers. In addition to graduate students, undergraduate students can also apply for the TELL scholarship during their last two years.
The role of this certification is very important if we consider that there are many parents of Hispanic students who don't have a good grasp on English; the lack of communication between teachers and Hispanic students in Georgia's public schools has become a barrier.
Through the TELL program and other available scholarships, financial aid is given to bilingual people interested in education and working in Georgia's public schools in need.
For more information and details about the TELL scholarship, contact Betsy Rymes at 706-542-4512 or visit www.coe.uga/tell
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