Students interested in teaching now have the opportunity to become certified during their time at Loyola.

Loyola’s education certificate for secondary education was approved on Wednesday, October 16 by the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Jane Chauvin, director of teacher certification program, said, “What Loyola has been approved for is to offer certification in secondary education in Louisiana, which comprises grades 6-12, so that is creating a pretty wide range of ages and grades that they would be certified in.”

Students will be eligible for the education certificate if they are currently studying or choose to study a major that falls under the Humanities and Natural Sciences Department and decide to choose teacher certification as their concentration. The concentration requires 33 hours comprising specific courses, service learning and student teaching upon the time of graduation, Chauvin said.

Although students will be awarded certification within the state of Louisiana, they will be able to obtain employment in other states, as the certification is transferable, Chauvin said.

The process started about seven years ago after Hurricane Katrina. In the reorganization of the university that followed, detailed in a plan known as Pathways, the administration decided, among other things, to abolish the Education Department, David Moore, professor of history, said.

Moore, along with Mary McCay, English professor, immediately began exploring ways of reinstating a secondary education certification program.

“We just wanted to develop some way of certifying students who wanted to teach in high school. We believed that teacher training was an important part of Loyola’s mission. It certainly was something that we had done throughout most of our history,” Moore said.

The education certificate’s approval was a unified effort by interested professors but also became possible through the efforts of Maria Calzada, Dean of the Humanities and Natural Sciences, Admissions and the Career Development Center, Chauvin said.

Calzada said there will be two courses offered in the spring that will qualify under the certification process including, Multi-Cultural Education, Learners with Special Needs and Educational Psychology.

“We are so excited about this program and the possibilities that it brings our students,” she said.

Current freshmen and sophomores should have no problem beginning this program now and graduating on time. For current seniors and juniors, this process would be more difficult but there are still resources that can be provided for post-graduate options. Students interested in this program should contact Chauvin for more information.

Lauren Cutuli can be contacted at [email protected]