About the Program
How the Coverdell Fellows program began….
Peace Corps Fellows have been serving local communities for more than two decades. The Coverdell Fellows Program is the brainchild of Dr. Beryl Levinger, former MIIS program chair of the Master of Public Administration and Masters in International Policy and Development programs. Dr. Levinger retired from the Institute in Spring 2020. Dr. Levinger was a volunteer in Colombia from 1967 to 1969 and a former researcher with the Institute of International Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. She realized that returned Volunteers had the specialized skills sought by the New York Board of Education in the early 1980s. They are:
- Innovative and practical ideas about education
- Sensitivity to cultural differences
- Tenaciousness in adverse conditions
In cooperation with the Peace Corps, Dr. Levinger and a team of colleagues proposed a program that utilized returned Volunteers to fill classroom vacancies. In 1985, Teachers College launched a pilot program to prepare returned Volunteers as teachers in New York City public schools. Since the Coverdell Fellows program’s inception in 1985, it has spread to more than 90 university partners offering nearly 200 programs.