By Katie Vasquez
High school has wrapped up for Jillian Anzalone, and now the St Francis Prep senior is ready to take on her next challenge, college.
She plans to attend St John’s University in the fall, her dream school.
“I didn’t want to go far. But the campus is really pretty,” said Anzalone, a senior at St Francis Prep. “I just really loved it when I went there.”
She’s always loved being around kids and decided teaching would be the best career path for her.
“I realized this summer when Prep gave me the opportunity to work with the summer youth camp for the cheerleading team, I got to really work with kids and like, be in charge,” said Anzalone.
And the Queens Catholic college is helping make that dream a reality, thanks to a new partnership between the Office of the Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Brooklyn and St John’s university.
“It’s a calling to teach at a Catholic school, calling to be a Catholic school principal, and I think it’s giving them the opportunity and the financial support or assistance to fulfill that dream, and then also, again, greatly benefiting us by giving us qualified Catholic educators,” said Joan McMaster, the deputy superintendent of Diocese of Brooklyn schools.
The “Future Catholic School Teacher Scholarship” aims to recruit and train new elementary school teachers for the Diocese of Brooklyn by providing a $10,000 scholarship over 4 years. In exchange students like Jillian agree to teach in a catholic elementary school at least four years after graduating or they have to pay the money back.
“If we put money in the game, Brooklyn put some money in the game, then we want to be sure these are students are going to go back to teaching in the Brooklyn schools,” said James Wolfinger, the dean of the school of education for St John’s University.
Not only does it alleviate the financial burden for students but schools will get teachers with a strong faith foundation.
“A place like St John’s, given our faith background at this university, can really focus on the preparation of teachers in ways that meet the needs of those schools,” said Wolfinger.
“It will allow our schools to continue to recruit qualified teachers. So for us, this is like a real win-win situation, especially in light of we’re all aware of the teacher shortage,” said McMaster.
Jillian is looking forward to continuing the path she’s always wanted.
“I thought it was like the best opportunity because it just works out in my plan that I want to pursue.”
The program will also help students pursue masters degrees with up to a 70 percent reduction on tuition.
For more information on the scholarship, you can visit the Institute for Catholic schools page on St John’s University website.