News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Alpena Community College campus is seen on Sunday. Freshmen and sophomores interested in going into the education field in Michigan are eligible to apply for the Golden Apple Scholarship program.

ALPENA — High school and college students in Northeast Michigan interested in working as teachers in Michigan have a new resource as the Golden Apple Foundation launches their scholarship program, according to the foundation’s president, Alan Mather.

“We are recruiting high school seniors through sophomores in college,” Mather said. “These are those who want to be teachers. So Michigan residents who are going to go to Michigan colleges and universities and commit to teaching at Michigan schools. We bring them into our program, when they apply, we introduce them to our program.”

According to Mather, students accepted into the program receive supplemental training where, during the summer, they are mentored by Michigan teachers and get actual teaching experience.

“Every summer we bring them together with other future teachers on a college campus,” said Mather. “We pay for them to stay on the campus, we feed them. And they learn from great teachers in Michigan, how to be even better. So this is supplemental to what happens in their higher ED program.”

He says that, in addition to the training, students with the scholarship program also receive a stipend for the work they do during the summer.

“Their first summer will be just one week, and they’ll receive a stipend for $2,000,” said Mather. “Every summer, it will be one to three weeks. Some summers, they will also work in summer schools and their home communities and that’s part of what we pay them to do. So every summer, they get paid $500 more. If they come in as high school seniors and stay with us for five summers, they’ll receive a $4,000 stipend to do this one to three weeks of preparation to be a great teacher.”

Mathers believes that the Golden Apple Scholarship Program can have a positive impact on Alpena in addressing the teacher shortage.

“The teacher shortage is really bad in the Alpena region, ” said Mather. “So we had to go where the teacher shortage is the worst and ensure that we’re bringing people from the community back to the community to teach.”

To further that goal, Mather met with several local school districts, including the Alpena Community College. to inform them of Golden Apple and what it can offer students who are interested.

“We had about eight people associated with the college in person and about another 15 people joined us remotely via WebEx, ” said the ACC Career and Technical Education Programs/Dual Enrollment Liaison Darrin Lightner. “We learned about the Golden Apple Scholars program that’s kind of moving into Michigan.”

Lightner believes that the program will be popular with students and encourage many to pursue education in Michigan.

“I think this is a good program, to help encourage people to enter the education field,” said Lightner. “We know there’s a shortage of teachers, not only in Michigan, but across the country so anything that we can do to encourage people to choose that field and help create a path for them to complete a credential as educators, I think is a good thing.”

Those interested in applying for the Golden Apple Scholarship Program can do so at http://www.goldenapple.org/scholars-michigan.