VSU graduate students offered free tuition in exchange for teaching in local schools
7/21/2022, 6 p.m.
Virginia State University will offer a new grant-funded program to offer free tuition to graduate students who become full-time substitute teachers in the Richmond and Petersburg school systems.
In the new residency program, students will earn a master’s degree in education within one year, while gaining real-world experience in a classroom under the supervision of a master teacher, according to the university. Once the student earns the degree, they must commit to a full-time teaching position with their residency school division for an additional three years.
The initiative is funded through the Virginia Department of Education’s new “I Too Teach” grant for HBCUs. The primary goal of the program is to increase the number of highly qualified
teachers of color—particularly males. In addition to addressing the critical teacher shortage in Richmond and Petersburg, the program will provide pre-K-12 classrooms with culturally and linguistically diverse teachers.
During the residency, VSU students will work nights and weekends on their master’s degree in elementary education or in general curriculum for special education.
Teacher residency candidates must hold a current bachelor’s degree and have a desire to teach in schools with a more than 30 percent poverty rate.
VSU is accepting applications for the VSU College of Educa- tion’s no-cost “I Too Teach” Master of Education Program. For more information, please visit www.vsu.edu.
