Baltimore County Public Schools’ teacher scholarship program limited to students who are ‘black, indigenous, a person of color (BIPOC) and/or women pursuing a teaching certificate in STEM’

Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS), in partnership with the Baltimore County Government and the Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools, Inc, is offering students who are “black, indigenous, a person of color (BIPOC), and/or women pursuing a teaching certificate in science, technology, engineering, and/or math (STEM)” the opportunity to apply for scholarships towards teacher certification.

The Baltimore County Government has granted the district’s foundation $1 million dollars to fund the Growing Our Own for BCPS program. Eligibility requirements state that applicants “must be a college student in the Junior or Senior year, a BCPS para-educator, and/or a career changer studying education between June 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026,” “must be a student who is black, indigenous, a person of color (BIPOC), and/or a women [sic] pursuing a teaching certificate in science, technology, engineering, and/or math (STEM),” and “must personally write the Growing Our Own for BCPS Scholarship Application Essay.”

The program is intended to “support the efforts of the BCPS Department of Human Resources in recruiting, training, and retaining BIPOC teachers and women in STEM fields to teach in BCPS.”