The School of Education at UNC Pembroke has announced the prestigious North Carolina Teaching Fellows program recipients.

The 2022-23 awardees are undergraduates Abigail Croke, Donnie Jackson and Jaiden Tilman and MAT candidates Kimberly Graham and Cynthia Liles. Croke and Jackson are seeking degrees specializing in science education, grades 9-12. Tilman’s concentration area is middle grades math. Graham and Liles are enrolled in the special education program and teach at West Columbus Elementary and Grady Brown Elementary, respectively.

North Carolina Teaching Fellows is a competitive, merit-based, forgivable loan program that provides up to $4,125 per semester for up to four years to highly qualified students committed to teaching special education or a science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) field in a North Carolina public school.

The program's mission is to recruit, prepare and support students residing in or attending higher education institutions in North Carolina to become highly effective STEM or special education teachers in the state’s public schools.

In the summer of 2021, UNCP was selected to serve as a partner institution for the statewide program following a nine-year hiatus. UNCP was a member of the program from 1996 to 2012. 

Dr. Diana Dubisky was recently appointed director of the Teaching Fellows program at UNCP.

“It is my distinct honor and pleasure to be welcomed into the School of Education at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke,” Dubisky said. “As the director, I will have the opportunity to lead the next generation of educators into this time-honored profession. I am excited to begin developing and fostering collaborative relationships while supporting candidates in their journey to becoming extraordinary 21st-century educators.”