Mercersburg Academy is excited to announce a new partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Independent School Teaching Residency master’s program.

The program enables aspiring and early career teachers hired through Mercersburg’s fellows program to receive a master’s degree in education while completing an intensive teaching fellowship.

“The University of Pennsylvania graduate school of education is amazing,” said Associate Head of School for School Life Dr. Julia Stojak Maurer ’90, P ’18, ’20, ’22, ’23, ’28, who has benefited from UPenn graduate classes and certificate programs and sees multiple advantages of the partnership, including welltrained faculty and a well-connected network. “Our peer institutions that participate in this program have wonderful things to say about the impact on their community, in terms of growth of their teachers, professional development, and access to the latest pedagogy and research.”

As founding director of the Mercersburg fellows program, Maurer first reached out to UPenn in 2015 to inquire about a potential partnership. The UPenn fellows program was founded before Mercersburg’s program and was inaccessible for additional schools. Apart from the schools that were initially accepted into the program, the opportunity remained closed until recently.

Mercersburg’s selection to the program was based on the school’s record of supporting novice educators through an inquiry-based stance, committing to anti-racism and social justice in education, and engaging in innovative conversations and practices about teaching and learning, according to Charlotte Jacobs, director of the residency program.

For the 2024-2025 school year, Mercersburg hired two fellows, Tara Collier and Yonatan “Yoni” Weldeberuk. They will be enrolled in the UPenn graduate program, which features intensive on-site sessions at the university, in combination with collaborative online learning.

Collier said the fellows program is the perfect next step in her journey.

“Knowing about this program and the new partnership with UPenn, I was immediately interested when I started to explore future options,” Collier said. “This program combines both my love for working with kids as well as my math knowledge. Additionally, Mercersburg’s emphasis on extracurricular activities will allow me to continue swim coaching, which has been a passion of mine for many years.”

Weldeberuk said that in addition to handling dorm duties and advising, he also plans to contribute to Mercersburg by coaching. “By completing this program, I hope to become the best version of myself as a teacher and as a person,” said Weldeberuk, noting that several of his college professors and advisers recommended looking into schools that offer fellowships. “I aim to grow in various areas, such as content knowledge, classroom management, interpersonal relationships, and confidence.”

Maurer said it is important to note that the UPenn program provides the fellows and mentor teachers with another kind of professional network: “Our fellows will become part of the greater cohort of all the fellows in the UPenn program. Not only do they have access to learning from our faculty here on campus, but they’ll also have access to a network of educators through our partner schools.”

In addition, cohort member schools will have access to each other’s fellows.

“Not only will we be able to hire our own highly trained and educated fellows, we also will be able to connect with the fellows from other institutions where positions may not be open,” Maurer said. “If one of the partner schools has a fellow and Mercersburg has an opening in that discipline, the fellow could become a candidate for the open position. It’s a recruitment strategy for us.”

Mercersburg faculty mentors will be assigned to each fellow and will attend three off-site professional programs, one hosted on the UPenn campus and two hosted at partner school campuses—opportunities that will enrich veteran teachers who become part of the mentor program.

Dean of Academics Jennifer Miller Smith ’97, P ’23, ’24, who coordinates the Mercersburg fellows program, will facilitate the school’s involvement in the UPenn program.

“Leading the fellows program the past two years has been incredibly rewarding, and I’m excited about this new evolution of the program,” Smith said. “The partnership with the University of Pennsylvania will create additional learning opportunities for the fellows and will allow us to align the work we are doing here with established programming from a premier institution.”

Mercersburg’s fellows program has been in existence since 2016. The program follows a two-year plan that includes regular meetings with the dean of academics, classroom teaching with an increasing progression of responsibility over time, and additional assignments related to boarding school, including cocurricular involvement and residential duties.