Daily News

Teach Western Mass Receives Grant from MassMutual Foundation

SPRINGFIELD — The ​MassMutual Foundation has awarded Teach Western Mass (TWM) $150,000 to support two teacher-pipeline programs, Generation Teach and the Urban Education Pathway (UEP). Both programs are critical to TWM’s efforts to recruit, prepare, and retain effective teachers to provide access to a world-class education to every student in Western Mass.

“We are committed to ensuring that each and every student in Western Mass. has the opportunity to learn from teachers who are effective, dedicated, and well-supported, and this grant will enable us to expand on our work toward these ends,” said Pema Latshang, founding executive director of TWM.

Launched in partnership with Smith College in the fall of 2017, the first cohort of undergraduate Urban Ed Scholars includes 23 students from Mount Holyoke College, Hampshire College, Smith College, and UMass Amherst. The UEP builds upon a Smith College program, providing Five College students with both academic and internship-based explorations into how social, economic and political conditions influence the education — and, ultimately, life opportunities — of children growing up in urban environments. In joining forces to create the Urban Education Pathway, TWM and Smith College have greatly expanded the range and depth of urban teacher-preparatory opportunities for college students in Western Mass.

Generation Teach is a summer fellowship for high-school and undergraduate students interested in exploring a teaching career. Through partnership with TWM, Generation Teach aims to build diverse pipelines of exemplary educators who reflect the students and communities they serve in Western Mass.