New Online Program Draws Diverse Students

By Andrea Bennett on July 9, 2009 9:05 AM

Haley Scott DeMaria of Annapolis has had anything but a typical journey leading toward the teaching profession.

The Maryland mother of two was a three-year state champion swimmer and academic All-American for the University of Notre Dame when a fatal car accident left her paralyzed from the waist down.

DeMaria chronicled her compelling recovery, and her return from paralysis to both walking and swimming, in a 2008 book. She went on to teach social studies and coach swimming before enrolling in the innovative new online Master of Arts in Teaching program, MAT@USC, from the USC Rossier School of Education.

“It is the only program in the United States where I can receive not just a degree but a true education from one of the finest graduate schools in the country,” DeMaria said.

“Having the flexibility to study within my community and yet have the wisdom and knowledge of 100 years of leadership in education at Rossier is a unique opportunity. To be the best educator I can be, I need to learn from the best. And the MAT@USC allows me to do this, while raising my children and living on the East Coast.”

The MAT@USC cohort, which officially starts this summer, is a strikingly diverse group that reflects the school’s long-running commitment to promoting diversity in education.

One hundred and forty-four students from across the United States have enrolled in MAT@USC, the first online program of its kind to emerge from a major research university. The program creates an interactive online environment based on streaming video, animation and other Web 2.0 technologies.

Despite wide-ranging backgrounds, the incoming MAT@USC cohort shares a commitment to urban education and an enthusiasm for creating positive change.

Thomas Esparza of Alhambra said once he experienced student teaching for a first-grade class in New Mexico, he caught the teaching bug and became convinced that the classroom is where he truly belongs.

“I believe in the educational vision of justice and equality for all students,” he said. “I am dedicated to the life of an educator, to laying the living foundations upon which successive generations must continue to build their lives.”

Brinan Weeks of Albany, N.Y., worked as a hip hop artist and radio host and pursued West African and Middle Eastern studies before enrolling in the MAT@USC program.

“I have always looked at the world through a multicultural perspective,” Weeks said. “I am African-American (Liberian heritage), Irish American, Blackfoot Indian and Creek Indian.”

Joseph Smith was an educator for more than two decades before he came to MAT@USC. He said he is a product of a single-parent home with several siblings, and his family moved constantly while he was growing up. It was the help of a few educators and coaches along the way that motivated him and guided him on his path, Smith said.

“I became an educator to help kids who are in similar situations and motivate them to go to college,” he said, adding that he aims to be the first person in his family to obtain a master’s degree. “I let them know that if I could do it, they can do it.”

For Vivian Romero, the MAT@USC program will help her transform her community of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles.

“The thought that I did not receive an education I deserved has always stayed on my mind, even to this day,” she said. “There are other children in Boyle Heights receiving the same poor education I did, and I would love to go back and be an excellent teacher, something they deserve.”

MAT@USC students around the country do their field work in classrooms in their communities, recording observations and interviews with education practitioners to be shared and discussed with colleagues online.

Animation is also used for more controlled learning environments to illustrate how educational theory operates in the classrooms. The program includes regular data assessment to track how students are progressing.

Students leave the program with a portfolio of journals, notes, videos and discussions that can be used to show potential employers their ability to incorporate educational theory and practice with new technology.

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