by EDWARD SZTUKOWSKI
News Editor

The economic recession has made it difficult for many graduating students to find jobs, but some are hit harder than others.

The N.C. Teaching Fellows Program offers scholarships for students who agree to teach as full-time licensed teachers for four years in one of North Carolina’s public schools. Students receive a scholarship of $6,500 per year over the course of four years.

The program’s catch is students must repay the money with 10 percent interest if they do not teach for four years within a seven-year time period. Because of the current job market, students may find it difficult to meet the mark.

“At the end of last year, it looked pretty bleak,” Jan P. Stanley, Teaching Fellows director at Appalachian State University said. “It started to improve over summer.”

Stanley said at the end of the year graduation luncheon, only one of 54 students had secured a job, but now a little over half have.

“It’s a bit nerve wracking for sure if you’re a student,” Stanley said. “Our hope is over the next few years, the market will improve.”

Brittany M. Martin, a teaching fellow who graduated last year, is currently teaching at East Wilkes High School. Martin said at the end of last year, morale was low.

“It made us all feel really uncomfortable and helpless, especially since they had been telling us since day one it would be so easy,” Martin said.

Martin said many of her classmates have yet to find jobs, and many are considering graduate school. Other students are trying different methods to pay back the scholarship.

“My friend is trying to find jobs at private schools so he can make enough money to pay back the scholarship and be done with it,” Martin said.

While job woes may worry students, the program does allow for an extension of the seven-year deadline. The Teaching Fellows Commission will grant up to three more years on request if the fellow is enrolled as a full-time graduate student, is serving in the military, or the commission determines the fellow warrants an extension.

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