Wheaton wins grant to mentor future professors

Wheaton College has been awarded a $700,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a program to help the next generation of college professors sharpen their teaching skills.

The four-year program to be funded by the Mellon Foundation will bring post-doctoral fellows from large research universities to teach classes at Wheaton under the guidance of the college's professors who are committed both to scholarship and the art of teaching undergraduates. In exchange, the fellows will bring fresh perspectives on scholarship and help expand Wheaton's curriculum by teaching in developing areas of the curriculum.

The new program builds on a pilot initiative between Wheaton and Brown University that has brought several Ph.D. candidates to the Norton campus to hone their teaching skills with advice from the college's faculty. One Brown graduate student subsequently joined Wheaton's faculty in a tenure-track position.

"I take great pride in our emphasis on teaching future teachers how to become successful members of the academy," said President Ronald Crutcher. "I am grateful that the Mellon Foundation has agreed to fund this new initiative. It will benefit Wheaton students now and undergraduates at many institutions in the years to come."

Under the program, Wheaton will recruit four post-doctoral fellows to serve two-year terms at the college. Following national searches, the fellows will be chosen to complement and extend the college's curriculum in areas of interest, such as Islamic studies and environmental studies.

During their tenure at Wheaton, the teaching fellows will teach five courses and participate in a formal mentoring and professional development program involving a faculty member within their discipline as well as one in a related field.