New Year’s resolution: Change careers? Learn about Saint
Martin’s one-year teacher certification program
December 7, 2010
Lacey, Washington — Information sessions for the Saint
Martin’s University Secondary Teacher Alternate Route Program
(STAR) will be given Jan. 12, Feb. 9 and March 7 at the
University. The STAR Program is an intensive one-year course of
study that prepares working professionals to teach in Washington
state middle schools and high schools. All sessions are at 6:30
p.m. at the University’s Norman Worthington Conference Center,
5300 Pacific Ave. SE, Lacey.
Designed for individuals who already have an undergraduate
degree from an accredited college or university and at least one
year of professionally oriented work experience, the program
provides an efficient means to begin a teaching career in the
state, says Program Director Ann Gentle, Ph.D., a faculty member
in the University’s College of Education and Professional
Psychology.
"Students enter the STAR Program equipped with valuable
professional experience, eager to take on the challenges of
teaching," she said. "After just one year, they are ready to
enter the classroom with teacher certification and two
endorsement areas."
Information sessions will address entry requirements, program
details, required classes and internships, financial information
and Washington’s teacher certification process.
The university will begin accepting applications for the
cohort-style program in January. Individuals accepted will start
classes in June 2011.
Pending legislative decisions, conditional loan scholarships
of up to $8,000 may be available to those participants who elect
to work in a "high needs" academic area, such as math, science,
special education or English language learner (ELL), Gentle
said.
Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year,
Catholic, coeducational university located on a 380-acre wooded
campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic
Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine
colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and
is the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s
University prepares students for successful lives through its 21
majors and six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts,
business, education and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes
1,250 students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its
main campus, and 650 more to its five extension campuses located
at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Olympic
College, Centralia College, and Tacoma Community College.
For additional information contact:
Ann Gentle
Director, Secondary Teacher Alternate Route Program (STAR)
College of Education and Professional Psychology
360-438-4333
360-438-4566
agentle@stmartin.edu
www.stmartin.edu