Since 2011, the Dunham Fund has supported Teach First, a program developed by North Central College, to recruit and retain first-generation students who aspire to be teachers and to provide the mentorship and resources to launch these students into a successful teaching career.

This multi-faceted mission is fulfilled through partnerships with high-need elementary and secondary schools in Aurora, where Teach First students engage in educational outreach projects, obtain field experience and complete teaching internships, and, in some cases, are hired as full-time teachers. This program began as a partnership with East Aurora School District 131 to encourage East graduates to pursue the field of teaching with the hope they will return to their home school district as teachers. In 2012, North Central expanded the program to offer Teach First to first-generation students in 14 high schools and home schools.

With the Dunham Fund 2013 grant of $200,000, Teach First will be able to include potential Dunham Scholars who are not first-generation, but reside in the Fund’s service area, and will increase the pool of potential scholarship recipients to recruit from 7 additional high schools. The program will also offer travel and registration for a state or national education conference and will start to provide tiered scholarship awards, beginning at $7,500, as students advance through the education program. With the additional funding, Teach First will also pilot an outreach program to work with high school administrators and counselors at Aurora high schools to provide first year students with the Lumina Foundation’s book “First in the Family: Advice About College from First-Generation Students, Your High School Years”, with the goal of identifying and recruiting students who exemplify the characteristics of effective educators for a teaching career.

The 2013-2014 Teach First Dunham Scholars are: Kaytlyn Becker, Aurora Christian High School, transfer from Illinois State University; Katherine Drone, Waubonsie Valley High School; Ashley Golembeski, Oswego High School; William Hennessy, Oswego High School; Chelsea Lorenz, Aurora West High School, transfer from Waubonsee Community College; and Lauren Stercay, Waubonsie Valley High School, transfer from College of DuPage.