Grant funds Educator Scholars program to boost workplace success

Grant funds Educator Scholars program to boost workplace success

New teachers and students bound for Nashville classrooms get extra mentoring, training to navigate the education workplace successfully.

By Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078 | 10/21/2026

For some Lipscomb graduates today, the hard part may not be graduating with their degree but finding their identity and keeping pace in the busy workforce once they have a job.

In the education profession specifically, retention of classroom teachers beyond five years is a major problem in the state, with a 2023 Tennessee Education Research Alliance survey showing that teachers in their first five years are significantly more likely to leave the profession than experienced teachers.

Nationwide, 44% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching, according to a 2024 Center for American Progress report.

A new Lipscomb College of Education program funded by the Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation is addressing that issue head-on for graduates of Lipscomb's Educator Scholars program, a scholarship program designed to recruit Nashville students to teach in Nashville schools.

The $150,000 grant is focused on developing a program designed to induct graduates into the teaching profession with the skills and knowledge they need to not only be great teachers, but to thrive and stay in the teaching profession for years to come.

"At the College of Education we want to ensure that every aspiring educator not only finds a job in the profession but feels equipped to navigate the transition to their first professional job. Our goal is to support them in finding their footing as both a professional and a human being." said Laura Delgado, director of the Educator Scholars program, which currently has 56 students studying to become teachers.

This fall, 11 Educator Scholar alumni and senior students are receiving additional professional development as they experience their first days in the classroom as full-time teachers or teaching interns. First- and second-year full-time teachers will participate in the five trainings and also receive one-on-one mentoring from working teachers in Nashville.

The program launched this summer with a two-day, on-campus training on the workplace topics of most interest to them. A survey of the participants found the areas they struggled most with were not academic but actually involved self-care, financial literacy and workplace issues.

Program coordinators Ruby Aguilar (BA '20, GC '21), Educator Scholars success coordinator, and Angelica Wright (BA '20), Educator Scholars recruiter, are both former Educator Scholars and Nashville teachers themselves, so they both knew firsthand that mental health, stress and financial literacy are topics that all young teachers struggle with, especially those who may have been first generation college students. Some graduates may be the first in their family to hold a job that offers benefits and insurance or that requires work/life balance as duties spill over beyond the standard workday hours, they said.

Quick and easy, stress-relieving yoga poses, ways to practice proper nutrition within a busy schedule, a panel of teachers discussing how to deal with conflict, information on Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools benefits and insurance options, advice on setting boundaries and self-advocacy, and financial counseling from the United Way were among the topics at the first training this summer.

For Karla Zapata (BA '25), a second-year kindergarten teacher at Haywood Elementary School, said she found that having extra time during this summer's training to really dig into the benefits provided by MNPS helped her understand them better and showed her areas she could take advantage of.

She also learned the importance of maintaining a healthy work/life balance to avoid burnout. "For myself, I don't want to get burned out because I do love my job. I don't want feeling exhausted to be the reason that I someday leave this job," said Zapata. She hopes to stay in teaching until she retires with a long career behind her, she said.

As a result of the training, she is looking into hiring a nutritionist and is talking to co-workers about the activities that help them relax in their off-hours, she said.

"I feel like I am reassured about the 'adulting' of teaching," wrote another participant in this summer's training. "Beyond just how to be a teacher (which we learn in our education courses). This time together helped me see how teaching exists parallel to my adult life."

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools provides professional development to its teachers, but with such a large, diverse audience, it is tough for any school system to serve the needs of every individual teacher.

"These trainings are very student-led. That was the purpose of the surveys," she said. "Because of this grant, we have the capacity to make professional development that is more personalized and tailored to the needs of a specific group of teachers."
"When trainings don't focus on their specific needs, teachers often feel like they are not seen or heard, and that leaves them feeling unsupported," said Aguilar.

Lipscomb's Educator Scholars study in a cohort format. So during their studies they experience a great deal of personal support, mentorship and community among their peers. Once entering the working world, some of them can feel lonely and unsupported, said Wright.

"Through this induction program, they can continue that cohort, and we asked all the speakers at the training to provide lots of interactive activities for the participants in order to further strengthen those bonds with each other," Aguilar said.

Feedback from this past summer's training will inform the rest of the workshops for the participants as well as areas of focus for the current students in the program, some of whom are still taking classes, some are placed in teaching internships and some are in job-embedded placements. Students receive ongoing personal support from Aguilar and Wright.

The grant will fund the program for three years, and the coordinators plan to increase the number of participants each year.

The Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation invests in outcome-driven initiatives with a focus on serving students, individuals and families who face systemic inequities. The three main areas of impact for the foundation are education, faith-based initiatives and work that impacts the city of Knoxville.