Two Swarthmore Juniors Win Rockefeller Fellowships
For Immediate Release: April 26 , 2007
Contact: Marsha Nishi Mullan
610-328-8535
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/
Two Swarthmore Juniors Win
Rockefeller Brothers Teaching Fellowships
Tatiana Cozzarelli '08 and Whitney Nekoba '08 have been named Rockefeller Brothers Fund Teaching Fellows. They are two of but 25 college juniors from 16 participating institutions to receive the 2007 Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color. Each fellow receives up to $22,100 over a five-year period that begins this summer and ends after completion of three years of public school teaching. Incoming fellows are required to complete a summer project between their junior and senior years.
 Tatiana Cozzarelli '08 | Cozzarelli will teach critical media literacy and culturally relevant reading to predominantly Black and Latina/o middle school students at the Durham Freedom School. As part of the "Hip Hop Arts" curriculum, she will allow students to think, through critical media literacy, about the messages they are being sent about what it means to be a man or a woman of color in our society. This program will also allow students to respond to the media and how it makes them feel and think. |
Cozzarelli, an education and sociology/ anthropology special major with a minor in women's studies, is a member of Enlace, a group for Latina/o students; the Feminist Majority; and the Queer-Straight Alliance. She is also an Intercultural Center intern, where she works as a liason between the administration and various Intercultural Center groups. She has also organized and faciliated various workshops, including freshmen diversity workshops and an ongoing "Diversity Conversation" that meets weekly to discuss class, race, sexual orientation, and religion. This summer, she will also be a student-resource person for Summer Tri-Co, where she will help run workshops about issues of race, class, gender and sexual orientation.
 Whitney Nekoba '08 | Nekoba will teach a summer school mathematics course at her local high school. Her goal is to use innovative math strategies to help struggling math learners gain self-confidence and find personal relevance in the subject matter. The class will focus on application and problem solving to promote knowledge of vocabulary and real-world application, in addition to exploring mathematics as a tool for the natural sciences. |
A biology major with a minor in education, Nekoba is a member of the the Swarthmore chapter of Sigma Xi and the varsity women's swimming team. She is also an active member of the Swarthmore Asian Organization and is entering her third year as its intercollegiate relations chairperson.
