Jodi Gajadar at Williams College Wins 2007 Rockefeller Brothers Fund Award

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The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has announced the award of a 2007 Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color to Williams College junior Jodi Gajadar. Each year, 25 college juniors are selected to receive up to $22,100 over a five-year period. Fellows complete summer teaching projects between their junior and senior years, and teach in public schools for three years after graduation. Gajadar was born in Kingston, Jamaica and grew up in Otego, N.Y., where she attended Unatego Junior-Senior High School. She said she chose Williams College for its academic rigor, collegial atmosphere, and generous financial aid. "I was looking for a school that would be both academically challenging and rewarding, and Williams fit that description," she said. She is a double major in history and psychology, and an active public preacher for the North Adams Jehovah's Witness congregation. She has spent her summers working in the Human Resources Office at Hartwick College. After Williams she plans to earn a master's degree in education and teach at a rural public high school. "Most public attention focuses on the plight of inner-city schools," she said, "but rural schools have problems that need to be addressed as well. Having a skilled and enthusiastic teacher can make a difference in the life of a student even when the school district does not have enough funds for state-of- the-art equipment. I intend to be one of those teachers." She believes that schools would benefit from greater community involvement. "Not enough people see the work that teachers do as an investment and are unwilling to give of their resources when needed," she said. Family and community support is especially critical when districts cannot fund enrichment programs on their own. Senior Marlena A. Elmore, who graduated from Williams this year, received a 2006 Fellowship during her junior year. Elmore lives in Milton, Mass., where she graduated from Milton High School. "Williams has been great to me both academically and financially, including winning the Gilles David Adams 1967 Scholarship that supports Williams students who want to go into the teaching profession," she said. She majored in American Studies with a specialization in race and ethnicity. During the summers following her freshman and sophomore years, Elmore worked for the breakthrough program Summerbridge Cambridge, where she taught literature, creative writing, and Harlem Renaissance history to public middle school students. She also served as social studies department chair. During the summer following her junior year, Elmore was a Williams College Undergraduate Research Fellow. She did research on Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance writer, and the way black female identity is captured in writing. Elmore will spend one year in Duke University's Master of Arts in Teaching Social Studies program, and will teach in Durham public schools for two years after completing her degree. She wants to see increased funding for disadvantaged public schools. "The U.S. educational system should aim to bring forth the potential of every student: white, black, Asian, Hispanic, rich, and poor," she said. "Unfortunately, schools that educate minority and poor students do not have the resources and cannot provide opportunities to allow their students to bring out their potential. While I do not believe funding is the only answer, I do believe that it is an essential factor." Established in 1991, the Fellowships for Aspiring Teachers of Color initiative is a key component of the Charles E. Culpeper Human Advancement program.
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Williamstown Officials Mull ARPA Funds to Address School Race Issue

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday will consider considered dedicating some of the town's remaining ARPA funds to address an emergency situation in the local public schools.
 
Randal Fippinger brought the idea to the board in response to detailed testimony on racist incidents at Williamstown Elementary School and Mount Greylock Regional School that were raised both to the town's diversity committee and the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee.
 
Last week, the School Committee was asked to form a task force to address the issue and to bring in an outside consultant to advise the district on how to properly train its staff and, going forward, create a more inclusive environment in the preK-12 system.
 
On Monday, Fippinger suggested an amount, $27,000, that the town could spend to help pay for the consultant and a source for that money: the remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds that need to be committed by the end of the calendar year.
 
Fippinger raised the idea during a continuation of a discussion from the board's April 22 meeting about a request from Town Manager Robert Menicocci to allocate nearly $80,000 in ARPA funds for a sewer project.
 
With only three Select Board members present at the April 22 meeting, they decided to take no action on the request. But in the April meeting, Fippinger and Menicocci offered differing recollections of the board's intentions for about $166,000 remaining from the nearly $2 million ARPA allocation.
 
Menicocci said it was his understanding that the board was OK with him counting on the remaining funds for infrastructure needs. Fippinger countered that the board had made no such commitment and was still open to addressing other priorities with the federal aid.
 
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