State leader addresses Campbell’s North Carolina Teaching Fellows

Buies Creek-North Carolina Senator Vernon Malone spoke to an audience of Campbell University North Carolina Teaching Fellows at a Leadership Seminar held Monday, Jan. 12. The seminar is part of the enrichment component of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program at Campbell.

Known as an education senator, Malone has been said to be a leader in the fight to improve education in the state by attracting quality teachers, providing the resources schools need and expanding scholarships for working families so that graduates will have the option to go to college.

A representative of the 14th District, which includes Wake County, Malone was elected to the Senate in Jan. 2003. Since that time, he has served on the Appropriations on Education and Public Instruction Committee (senior chairman), the Education and Public Instruction Committee (senior chairman), the Commerce, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and the Education and Higher Education Committee among others. Malone was a Wake County commissioner from 1984-2003 and serves on numerous boards, including the Board of Trustees of Shaw University, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, Wake Medical Hospital Board and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance Board.

“Malone was really excellent,” said Carolyn Maidon, director of Campbell’s North Carolina Teaching Fellows program. “He has a passion for education and cares about North Carolina students. He was on target. I’ve known him for many years and have always known him to care about education, but I thought he articulated it so well to the students. His role as a senator is critical for those of us in education because in order for the Legislature to pass appropriate legislation for education, they need to understand it and care about it.”

In 2007, Campbell University was one of four universities out of 13 colleges selected to participate in the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program. The program is the Legislature’s attempt to address the alarming teacher turnover rate in the state by helping to fund the education of high achieving students who will promise to teach in one of North Carolina’s public schools or United States government schools in North Carolina for a period of four years. Selected upon the basis of academic and civic achievement, each Teaching Fellow receives a $6,500 scholarship annually from the state with, at a minimum, matching funds from private universities with the program. The Campbell Fellows, on average, receive merit scholarship funds of $11,488 from the university for a total of approximately $17,988. This figure includes the Legislative Tuition grant provided to North Carolina students enrolled in private institutions.

A total of 27 students are enrolled in the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program at Campbell for 2008-2009.

Photo Copy: North Carolina Senator Vernon Malone