From Marginalization to Motivation:Program Promotes Teacher Diversity in Vermont Schools through Loan ForgivenessPhoto: Margaret Michniewicz 
Denise Dunbar (Above) “We need to change color blindness to color talk.” Denise Dunbar’s heritage includes the Cherokee nation, Jamaica, Africa and Scotland. Watching her daughter suffer through elementary and high school convinced her that the Addison County school system needed to change. So Dunbar returned to school at the age of fifty-five to learn how to be a teacher herself, with help from the Vermont Teacher Diversity Scholarship Program (VTDSP). Formerly known as Coming Home, VTDSP is a non-profit loan cancellation program that supports scholars like Dunbar who come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and wish to become teachers in the Vermont public school system. Scholars may receive up to $12,000 in loan forgiveness over the course of three years of teaching. Dunbar has served as an adjunct faculty member and trustee at Burlington College and as an Americorps/VISTA Community Specialist at the Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg. An active member of both the Burlington Racism Study Circles and Vermont Anti-Racism Team, Dunbar is also the Chittenden County coordinator for the Reading to End Racism Program. Dunbar’s dream is to create an anti-racist environment that is safe, caring, and respectful. To do that, she believes that racism and classism must be openly addressed in the classroom. “It is unethical not to talk about racism and classism. We need to change color blindness to color talk,” she adds, quoting Patricia Hill Collins a scholar who, says Dunbar, writes from a Black feminist epistemology. VTDSP was founded in the early 1990s by Bud Meyers, professor of education at the University of Vermont (UVM), as an outgrowth of a partnership between the university and Middletown, New York. A few years later, Meyers partnered with former Governor Philip Hoff to add St. Michael’s College and the Burlington School District to the program. In 2001 VTDSP expanded, under sponsorship by the Vermont Public Education Partnership, into a statewide joint venture of the Vermont State College system, UVM, Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC), and the state Department of Education and Agency of Human Services. The program currently assists fifteen scholars in Bennington, Brattleboro, Burlington, Montpelier, Morrisville, Rutland, and the Northeast Kingdom. Four individuals work in public schools and eleven are pursuing degrees at Vermont colleges. “Our ultimate goal is making Vermont’s schools culturally diverse from front to back,” says VTDSP Director Phyl Newbeck. “We want to give students a worldview and broader experience.” Applicants must attend college at one of the institutions of higher education that partner with VTDSP, but can teach at any public school in the state of Vermont. They are evaluated on the basis of racial and ethnic diversity, leadership qualities, experience, employment history, an understanding of diversity issues related to power and privilege in the United States, and academic potential. Fundraising remains the largest barrier to expanding VTDSP further, despite a $35,000 endowment raised at former Governor Hoff’s eightieth birthday celebration this year. The program received two one-time appropriations from Governors Dean and Douglas for $100,000 each, but Newbeck would like to see annual funding from the Legislature. Currently, VTDSP can sponsor only two scholars per application cycle despite an increase in both the quality and quantity of applicants since going statewide. “The benefits of VTDSP will increase over time as more scholars graduate, and this project needs to continue to have sufficient funding,” Newbeck states. Lan Nguyen applied for VTDSP during her junior year at Johnson State College. She is continuing with her studies and working as a preschool teacher’s aid at the college’s Child Development Center. “The program has given me the strength and fortitude I need to continue with my education. It was such a confidence booster when I had found out that I won,” Nguyen recalls. Nguyen, who also substitute teaches at Lamoille Middle and Union High School, believes her presence helps prepare students for a more diverse world. “Sometimes I joke that I am the school’s dose of Asian for the day, but just having the students see me makes a difference to them, I think,” she says. Hoff, who remains on the VTDSP board, agrees that exposure is the answer. “Being a predominantly white Anglo-Saxon community, we do not have enough role models,” he says. “The whole thrust is to provide diversity.” In the 2000 census, 96.8% of Vermonters described themselves as white. One goal of encouraging diversity includes increasing respect for different cultures, says Nguyen. “Students, as well as teachers and administrators, need to accept people’s differences,” she says. “It doesn’t mean we have to like the person but just respect them as people and not treat them like targets.” VTDSP Board Member and Edmund Booth of VSAC agrees. According to Booth, teacher diversity is paramount in influencing how Vermont students will fare when they enter the workforce or move away to college. “Supporting the VTDSP and creating a more diverse experience in our Vermont school systems will better prepare these students as they venture out into the world,” he says. Dunbar believes that her presence is a resource for children, who all struggle with the intolerance of racism and classism, no matter how young. “Walking my talk and being there at a time schools need to face the issue of race,” she says, “will lead toward the ideal of creating pockets of hope in the world.” The VTDSP deadline for receipt of applications is November 3, 2005. For more information contact Ms. Phyl Newbeck, Director, VT Teacher Diversity Scholarship Program, P.O. Box 359, Waterbury, Vt. 05676-0359 (802) 241-3379.http://templeton.vsc.edu/teacherdiversity Vermont woman Lynn Monty is a married mother of two and full-time St. Michael’s College Journalism Major.
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