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September 04, 2002 WKU Receives $112,000 From The Jessie Ball duPont Fund has awarded the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences a $112,000 grant to provide tuition and additional assistance for 16 parents of immigrant families who would enroll in and complete an associate of arts degree in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education. Program benefits would include a higher level of employment status and increased financial resources for the parents and excellent paraprofessionals for the city and county schools who would come with strong language skills in their native language and in English as well as ability in working with children, said Karen Adams, dean of Western's College of Education and Behavioral Sciences (CEBS). This is important for young children who do not speak fluent English and could benefit from having bilingual paraprofessionals in their classrooms, Dr. Adams said. "Western Kentucky made a very strong proposal and we were delighted to fund it," said Sharon Greene, the Fund's senior program officer for education. The program will provide tuition for the associate degree program and also help these parents become fluent in English and earn their high school GEDs if needed. "This program will make a difference not only in the lives of these children but will directly impact families and ultimately will impact economic development in southcentral Kentucky," Dr. Adams said. Parents who complete the associate degree could elect to continue in a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood on a full-time or part-time basis in the future. Western's proposal addresses community needs for more ESL teachers and benefits the University, local school systems, children and the immigrant population, Greene said, adding it could become a model for other communities nationwide. "For our grants to higher education institutions, the fund looks for an outreach component," she said. "We want universities to be responsive to the needs of the community. We feel that institutions of higher education have a wealth of knowledge and information they can share to benefit their communities." Bowling Green, like other similar-sized cities, has seen its international population grow in recent years, Greene said. A growing international community has produced 479 non-English speaking students (14 percent) in Bowling Green city schools and 459 non-English speaking students (4.3 percent) in Warren County schools. The duPont Fund grant will be used to pay tuition, buy textbooks, pay a stipend, help support child care, and prepare participants for the GED. Funding from private sources and the University also will help support the program. The Jessie Ball duPont Fund makes grants to 324 eligible institutions identified by duPont in her will. The fund has assets of $300 million and has awarded $200 million in grants since 1977. Since 1999, the CEBS has provided faculty and students with multicultural experiences to better prepare them for teaching a growing population of culturally diverse students. Those programs include Project G.A.T.E. (Global Approaches to Teacher Education), a master of arts in education degree program in Mexico City and a student teaching program in Mexico City. The college also works with the Housing Authority of Bowling Green on after-school academic programs. For more information, contact the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at (270) 745-4664. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu. ETN/College of Education/Development/dupontfund.doc
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