Cambridge College celebrates the arrival of the Schott Fellowship for Early Care and Education, a unique one-year public policy leadership fellowship designed to educate mid-career early care and education professionals in public policy related skills and theory so that they can become early care and education policy leaders in Massachusetts.

Cambridge, MA – On September 16, 2005 at 4 p.m., Cambridge College president, Mahesh C. Sharma will host a reception to welcome the arrival of the Schott Fellowship in Early Care and Education to Cambridge College.

The Schott Fellowship in Early Care and Education was begun by the Schott Foundation for Public Education in 2003, and recently became a formal Fellowship offered by and at Cambridge College.

“We are thrilled and proud that Cambridge College will now be home to The Schott Fellowship in Early Care and Education. As far as I know, this is the only fellowship of its kind in the United States. And it is sorely needed. Each year hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts’ children, parents and educators struggle with fragmented and inadequate early care and education standards and funding available throughout the state. We at Schott realized a need exists to educate a whole cadre of public policy leaders from within the diverse early care and education populations in Massachusetts. So we decided to begin this fellowship,” says Rosa A. Smith, Ph.D., President of the Cambridge-based Schott Foundation for Public Education.

The Fellowship program annually accepts 12 mid-career applicants who participate in a one year learning community. The goals of the fellowship are to build support for the universal preschool movement in Massachusetts, while building fellows’ own leadership capacities and connecting to communities.

“Under the leadership of Dr. Valora Washington, the Fellowship offers early childcare professionals the opportunity to engage in public policy, build their leadership skills, and focus on social justice for children and their families. The Schott Foundation for Public Education has a long history of strengthening a new generation of education professionals who mirror the diversity of the clients they serve. This Fellowship in Early Care and Education will continue this journey by inviting senior leaders to become architects of change,” said Mahesh C. Sharma, president of Cambridge College.

The fellowship has three components: a collaborative policy-focused project that enables fellows to practice and demonstrate their capacity to lead system reform and community change; community roundtables and learning experiences; and on-site support from staff and other experts.

For more information on the fellowship, visit: www.schottfoundation.org.
The welcoming reception on September 16 at Cambridge College will be held from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Conference Room 305 at the Main Campus Building on 1000 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge.