College graduation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Expanding Diversity at UW
Expanding Diversity at UW
| Aaron Bird Bear will be receiving his Master’s of science in educational leadership and policy analysis in August 2010 from the UW School of Education. |
By Jonathan Gramling
For Aaron Bird Bear, attaining his Master’s of science in educational
leadership and policy analysis from the UW School of Education is the result
of a long journey filled with some unexpected twists. Bird Bear originally
started out at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, which would have led to
five years of service in the navy upon graduation. But Bird Bear’s mother
became ill, and he requested a release from his commitment to the navy after
the end of his senior year to help care for his mother because he is an only
child.
“I started the process of departure over Christmas, but when you leave
the naval academy, for trivia’s sake, the only person that can separate a
midshipman is the secretary of defense,” Bird Bear said. “It took a few
months for my paperwork to go down the road to D.C. and onto that table to
get signed and then come back. It’s a very bureaucratic process.”
Unfortunately for Bird Bear, since he left before the completion of his service
commitment, he did not receive a degree from the naval academy. Therefore,
he enrolled at the University of Washington-Seattle where he studied physical
oceanography. According to Bird Bear, it is basically a physics and math degree.
But as he was finishing his two year stint in Seattle to get his oceanography degree, Bird Bear became involved in a project that
would lead him to change direction once again. “I worked for the Native American Science Outreach Network,” Bird Bear said. “I
initially thought I was going to have a military career, at least for a short period of time. Transitioning into civilian life, I did outreach for
pre-college programs for American Indians in the STEM field. I would do some lectures and participate with a chemistry professor as
we tried to get American Indians interested during the summer in coming to campus and residing with us for a few weeks, get
exposed to the science process and then just make them more familiar with the university, much like the PEOPLE Program here. I got
really excited about interacting with young student populations. That kind of switched my career path from pursuing an oceanographic,
entry-level kind of research position to education.”
For the past 10 years, Bird Bear has been working at the UW-Madison in academic counseling positions. While his undergraduate
degree was enough to get his foot in the door, it wasn’t enough to allow him to move up the career ladder. “A few of my very talented
colleagues — and they are talented — made it into the assistant dean ranks, which is a title and a pay grade here at the institution,”
Bird Bear said. “But mostly, it gives you power to influence student records and student lives. Now in my role, I have to work with
assistant deans to help students get late drops or academic things they need to get done. My career path hopefully will be assistant
dean. A few very talented peers have made it with only an undergraduate degree. But it is usually 10-15 years of really good service in
one position that it takes to make that step. I only had seven years at the time. I thought ‘Maybe I can short step this process by getting
a Master’s degree.’ Then the credential issue and the developmental issue would be answered and then I might get it in 10 years. We’
ll see how that comes in the coming time.”
For the past seven months, Bird Bear and others have been working on developing a new office in the UW School of Education to
spearhead its efforts to increase the number of students of color who are entering, being retained and graduating from the UW with
education degrees because the UW has not been a significant source of teachers of color for the Madison Metropolitan School District
and other school districts in the state.
“We have on average 30 students of color starting the school of education every year, of which a third to a half will get a degree
from the school of education,” Bird Bear said. “So we’ve had significant attrition issues along the way. So we are talking 5-10
teachers of color graduating per year and those are good years. We are trying to think about how we provide a better resource for the
public schools to meet the ‘browning’ of public education.”
In creating the new office, Bird Bear, Jerry Jordan and others have to define their role in conjunction with the Education Advising
Services of the school, which gives very technical guidance to education students due to the licensure requirements of the Wis. Dept.
of Public Instruction. While funneling students through that process, Bird Bear’s office must work with its partners to ensure there is a
stream of students of color who qualify to enter the department.
“We work with all of our different partners because half of the students of color who graduate from the school of education start
somewhere else on campus,” Bird Bear said. “So we work with all of the different partners such as the PEOPLE Program, Academic
Advancement Program, the Center for Educational Opportunity, First Wave, POSSE and all the places that might feed us to help them
understand what opportunities are here and what students need to be accomplishing in terms of fundamental coursework. So we do
basic advising, but also professional development stuff too.”
One of the most important groups of partners of the School of Education is high school guidance counselors, particularly those
from schools that serve a large number of students of color. The guidance counselors are the on/off valve for the pipeline of students
entering the education school. Bird Bear’s office must convince these counselors that the School of Education has refocused and is
committed to serving large numbers of students of color.
Next issue: Words of advice
But as he was finishing his two year stint in Seattle to get his oceanography degree, Bird Bear became involved in a project that
would lead him to change direction once again. “I worked for the Native American Science Outreach Network,” Bird Bear said. “I
initially thought I was going to have a military career, at least for a short period of time. Transitioning into civilian life, I did outreach for
pre-college programs for American Indians in the STEM field. I would do some lectures and participate with a chemistry professor as
we tried to get American Indians interested during the summer in coming to campus and residing with us for a few weeks, get
exposed to the science process and then just make them more familiar with the university, much like the PEOPLE Program here. I got
really excited about interacting with young student populations. That kind of switched my career path from pursuing an oceanographic,
entry-level kind of research position to education.”
For the past 10 years, Bird Bear has been working at the UW-Madison in academic counseling positions. While his undergraduate
degree was enough to get his foot in the door, it wasn’t enough to allow him to move up the career ladder. “A few of my very talented
colleagues — and they are talented — made it into the assistant dean ranks, which is a title and a pay grade here at the institution,”
Bird Bear said. “But mostly, it gives you power to influence student records and student lives. Now in my role, I have to work with
assistant deans to help students get late drops or academic things they need to get done. My career path hopefully will be assistant
dean. A few very talented peers have made it with only an undergraduate degree. But it is usually 10-15 years of really good service in
one position that it takes to make that step. I only had seven years at the time. I thought ‘Maybe I can short step this process by getting
a Master’s degree.’ Then the credential issue and the developmental issue would be answered and then I might get it in 10 years. We’
ll see how that comes in the coming time.”
For the past seven months, Bird Bear and others have been working on developing a new office in the UW School of Education to
spearhead its efforts to increase the number of students of color who are entering, being retained and graduating from the UW with
education degrees because the UW has not been a significant source of teachers of color for the Madison Metropolitan School District
and other school districts in the state.
“We have on average 30 students of color starting the school of education every year, of which a third to a half will get a degree
from the school of education,” Bird Bear said. “So we’ve had significant attrition issues along the way. So we are talking 5-10
teachers of color graduating per year and those are good years. We are trying to think about how we provide a better resource for the
public schools to meet the ‘browning’ of public education.”
In creating the new office, Bird Bear, Jerry Jordan and others have to define their role in conjunction with the Education Advising
Services of the school, which gives very technical guidance to education students due to the licensure requirements of the Wis. Dept.
of Public Instruction. While funneling students through that process, Bird Bear’s office must work with its partners to ensure there is a
stream of students of color who qualify to enter the department.
“We work with all of our different partners because half of the students of color who graduate from the school of education start
somewhere else on campus,” Bird Bear said. “So we work with all of the different partners such as the PEOPLE Program, Academic
Advancement Program, the Center for Educational Opportunity, First Wave, POSSE and all the places that might feed us to help them
understand what opportunities are here and what students need to be accomplishing in terms of fundamental coursework. So we do
basic advising, but also professional development stuff too.”
One of the most important groups of partners of the School of Education is high school guidance counselors, particularly those
from schools that serve a large number of students of color. The guidance counselors are the on/off valve for the pipeline of students
entering the education school. Bird Bear’s office must convince these counselors that the School of Education has refocused and is
committed to serving large numbers of students of color.
Next issue: Words of advice
