WNY Teacher Residency Program grows at Canisius College
Shajuana Day has been a physician's assistant for 18 years, but her passion has always been teaching. For the past 12 years, she has also been a certified diabetes educator, a role that further nudged her toward the classroom.
Now at age 41, with the youngest of four stepchildren in high school, Day is embracing her dream teaching a class of second-graders at Elmwood Village Charter School Days Park.
As a teacher resident in Canisius College’s WNY Teacher Residency Program, she said she is having the time of her life while earning her master’s degree in education on the charter school’s payroll.
“Teaching is so perfect for my personality and level of creativity that, now that I am able to pursue the opportunity. It’s where I belong,” Day said. “It feels like a God kiss that I stumbled on this program.”
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The WNY Teacher Residency Program is among a growing number of residency programs being hailed as the wave of the future for recruiting and training new teachers to ease a widespread teacher shortage.
Canisius was ahead of the wave when it piloted its program in 2018 based on the medical residency model and the University of Chicago’s Urban Teacher Education Program. The University at Buffalo and SUNY Buffalo State launched their own versions in 2019 and have received state funding to expand them.
Teacher residency programs aim to recruit and retain more teachers by better preparing them for the classroom and increase diversity in the profession – including by training nontraditional students like Day who are considering a career change, said Lorrei DiCamillo, associate dean of teacher education at Canisius.
“There is such a need for teachers and such a shortage, teacher residency is a buzzword right now,” DiCamillo said. “Communities, foundations and New York state are saying, ‘We should invest money into this as the way to train more teachers.’”
The Canisius program is a two-year master’s degree in education or special ed that requires a year of course work followed by a full academic year teaching in a school, as opposed to the traditional student teacher model of seven to eight weeks each in two different schools. Residents receive a 30% discount on tuition at Canisius if they sign an agreement to teach in Buffalo Public or charter schools for two years after completing the program.
Canisius works in partnership with six area charter schools – the Elmwood Village Charter Schools, West Buffalo Charter School, King Center Charter School, Persistence Preparatory Academy Charter School and the Stanley G. Falk School – which pay the residents $27,000 to $30,000 for the academic year.
This year, the program is expanding to include Buffalo city schools as well as provide scholarships for second-year residents thanks to a grant from the Cullen Foundation. DiCamillo said the foundation has provided nearly $400,000 in support for the program since 2018.
So far, 36 teachers have graduated and are teaching in schools, and 25 teachers-to-be are in the program now, DiCamillo said. She estimated 25% to 50% are returning to college to switch careers or pick up where they left off in the past.
Day said the program was a perfect way for her to transition from physician’s assistant to being a teacher, which also means taking a pay cut to do what she loves.
“I think it’s incredible that in one year you can get all the academic, textbook stuff done and then you get that whole year as a teacher,” she said. “To be in a school for a full year and get to know the teachers, administrators, children and parents is wonderful. And getting paid, actually being on the school’s payroll, makes you feel more like a teacher who can step up to the plate.”
Day said she will continue to work as a diabetes educator on weekends, but she especially enjoys teaching young kids. As a stepmom for the last 12 years, she also served as a children’s ministry teacher at her church and found working with little ones energizes her.
“I love being in the presence of young people, I just light up,” she said. “When my kids were little, they used to say, ‘You should be a teacher,’ and I’d say, ‘That is what I wanna be.’ ”
For more information about the WNY Teacher Residency Program, visit canisius.edu/academics/programs/graduate/western-new-york-teacher-residency.
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Five reads from Buffalo Next:
1. Made in WNY: Honeywell. Workers at Honeywell's research laboratory in Buffalo are looking for good ideas that could become commercial products five or 10 years from now.
2. After a crippling pandemic, can one of Western New York's last independent hospitals stay on its own? Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center has been independent since it was founded in 1895, but top officials there are now weighing whether that model will be financially sustainable moving forward.
3. For kids with autism, a different way of learning: Canisius College's Institute for Autism Research offers a unique social skills intervention that starts with young children, but could improve the quality of life for all autistic people.
4. As Micron picks Syracuse, will Genesee County ever land its own semiconductor win? The Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park, or STAMP, pitches its ability to lure workers from both Rochester and Buffalo. But is its location, in an isolated spot in the Town of Alabama, more of a liability than economic development officials think?
5. Will there be enough snowplow drivers this year? Some municipalities say they are short-staffed, and others say they are ready for the winter months.
The Buffalo Next team gives you the big picture on the region’s economic revitalization. Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com or reach Buffalo Next Editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435.
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