This Teacher Appreciation Week, a few Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Scholars who completed their degree programs with support from a Personnel Development to Improve Services for Children with Disabilities (ALN 84.325) discretionary grant administered by the Office of Special Education Programs shared “Why I Teach.”
By: Stacy Kelly, Ed.D., TVI, COMS, CATIS
I always knew with the highest degree of certainty from a very early age that I wanted to be a teacher. In 2005, I was living this dream working full-time as a teacher of students with visual impairments (TVI) in the public schools. I received a flyer from my colleague with boldface type font advertising across the top of the page “The Opportunity of a Lifetime.” Those words enticed me to read further.
The Pennsylvania College of Optometry, now Salus University, announced in the flyer that they established the National Center for Leadership in Visual Impairment (NCLVI), a collaborative agreement funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The flyer also provided a description of the NCLVI Fellowship.
The opportunity provided full tuition and a living stipend to NCLVI Fellows for up to four years of full-time study while they earned their doctorate at [...]