{"id":1579,"date":"2024-05-06T10:44:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T14:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/?p=1579"},"modified":"2024-05-08T14:10:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T18:10:04","slug":"michelli-scholarship-supports-excellence-in-teaching-in-underserved-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/2024\/05\/06\/michelli-scholarship-supports-excellence-in-teaching-in-underserved-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelli Scholarship Supports Excellence in Teaching in Underserved Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Education for Social Justice: The Meaning of Justice and Current Research<\/em>, by Nicholas M. Michelli \u201964 and Tina J. Jacobowitz, Montclair State University professors emeriti, is more than a treatise on the role of education in building a more equitable society. Similarly, the Nicholas and Susan Michelli Scholarship is more than a way to honor Michelli\u2019s parents while supporting Montclair students who plan to teach in urban communities. Both are expressions of the couple\u2019s deeply felt philosophy about the potential of education to lift the aspirations of individuals, communities and society at large.<\/p>\n

Michelli\u2019s perspective is rooted in his experience growing up in Paterson, New Jersey. \u201cMy father, and his father, owned a meat market on Valley Road in Clifton,\u201d he says. \u201cI might have followed in their footsteps, but my mother \u2013 who was the only member of her own family to go to high school \u2013 wanted me to go to college. I was still a child when she would walk me to the corner of Valley Road and Normal Avenue, point to the Montclair campus, and say, \u2018That is college.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelli admits to wavering a bit in high school, but encouragement from his high school teachers who were Montclair graduates and a state scholarship kept him on the path toward higher education, and to Montclair. After receiving his bachelor\u2019s degree from Montclair, he went on to graduate study at New York University and earned a doctorate from Columbia Teachers College. He returned to Montclair, where he spent 30 years as a faculty member and 20 as dean of the College of Education and Human Services, now the College for Education and Engaged Learning. He was instrumental to the University\u2019s rise as a leader in teaching for critical thinking and democracy as well as in programs designed for educators based on deep partnerships with and among educational institutions, arts and sciences organizations and public schools.<\/p>\n

Following his tenure at Montclair, Michelli\u2019s roles included university dean of Teacher Education at the City University of New York (CUNY) and presidential professor in CUNY\u2019s doctoral education program. He initiated the Pathways Project, a large-scale systematic assessment of teacher education and new teachers entering the New York City teaching force. He also chaired the Committee on Governmental Relations of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. He has taught in China and helped universities in three countries \u2013 Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar \u2013 to earn international accreditation, including UAE\u2019s Zayed University, one of the first universities for women in a Muslim theocracy. Michelli is currently presidential professor emeritus at CUNY Graduate Center and is a professor at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n

After teaching for 10 years in Bedford Stuyvesant, an underserved urban community in Brooklyn, Jacobowitz pursued a doctorate at New York University. She had just completed the doctorate when she answered an advertisement for a faculty position at Montclair. \u201cI didn\u2019t know much about Montclair at the time, but I fell in love with the campus right away,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

Over the course of 39 years, Jacobowitz taught several generations of Montclair students. She also served for nine years as chair of the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary and Literacy Education, and coordinated the Agenda for Education in a Democracy as well as the Leadership Associates Program. She is the mastermind behind the first Portrait of a Teacher<\/em>, an embodiment of the mission of the University\u2019s teacher education program. In addition, Jacobowitz is an honorary member of Alpha Lambda Delta, in recognition of her dedication to the field of teaching. These days Jacobowitz devotes much of her time to painting. In fact, her work graces the cover of Education for Social Justice<\/em>, their latest book.<\/p>\n

The two have co-authored numerous books and articles promoting excellence in urban education, school-university partnerships, and education for democracy and social justice. As emeriti faculty, they value their connection to the University.<\/p>\n

\u201cMontclair is home to so many memories for us,\u201d Jacobowitz says. \u201cThis is where Nick and I met, and where we built lifelong friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two have been loyal donors to Montclair for more than four decades. In 2001 they decided to honor his parent\u2019s memory with a scholarship dedicated to assisting students who plan to teach in underserved communities. In recent years, the couple has doubled their annual gift, and when Jacobowitz sells one of her paintings, she donates the proceeds as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard growing up in communities like Paterson and Newark,\u201d Michelli notes. \u201cThat is why it is so important to encourage bright, well-prepared young teachers to bring their talents to urban schools and districts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelli and Jacobowitz are proud to see the University\u2019s growing relationships with these and other underserved urban districts in New Jersey, and they are especially pleased with Montclair\u2019s partnership with Bloomfield College. \u201cSo much that we value \u2013 our very democracy \u2013 depends on having an educated society,\u201d Michelli points out.<\/p>\n

While social justice is their primary motivation for supporting students who plan to teach in our cities, Michelli and Jacobowitz also find giving to Montclair to be rewarding on a personal level. \u201cMeeting the scholarship recipients really warms your heart,\u201d Jacobowitz says. \u201cTheir expressions of gratitude, and their eagerness to teach in Newark and Paterson, are so uplifting. It is wonderful to know that new generations of students are committing to careers that will make a difference in other people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe power of teachers is transformative,\u201d Michelli adds, reflecting on the many teachers who impacted his own life from grammar school through post-graduate study. \u201cBy giving to Montclair, and to the future teachers studying here, we are multiplying our wealth for the benefit of the whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their newest book, Montclair Professors Emeriti Nicholas M. Michelli \u201964 and Tina J. Jacobowitz lay out a rationale for education as the path to social justice. Through their scholarship support, they put their philosophy into action, supporting Montclair students who plan to teach in underserved urban communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":1591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montclair-state-university-donors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1579"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1589,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions\/1589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}