Holmes Scholar Program

The Charlotte Holmes Scholar program is a university-based program that supports doctoral students who are pursuing graduate degrees in education and focuses on students interested in employment in faculty positions at institutions of higher education. We value mentorship, peer support and professional development. The Holmes Scholar program is sponsored by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and was founded in 1991.

Guiding Principles

• Mission: To create a professoriate and education leadership pipeline that is representative of the diverse student body in America’s schools, and to elevate and empower graduate students whose academic interests prioritize ensuring fairness, belonging, and equal opportunity in education for all. Diversity means the ways in which individuals vary, including, but not limited to, backgrounds, beliefs, viewpoints, abilities, cultures, and traditions that distinguish one individual from another.
• Vision/Theory of Change: To achieve its mission, the Holmes Program provides mentorship, peer support, and professional development opportunities to graduate students from Colleges and Schools of Education to enrich their scholarly experience. The program supports individuals whose scholarship aligns with the program’s mission.

Benefits for Students

• Students are paired up with a mentor to help them as they start and progress on their doctoral journey
• Students belong to a community of Holmes Scholars, both locally at Charlotte and at the national level
• Students receive extra professional development opportunities that support their journey to obtaining a doctoral degree and a job at a higher education institution
• Students get funding to attend national conferences, dissertation retreats and advocacy and policy institute in Washington D.C.
• Students have access to additional opportunities to present their research

BECOME A HOLMES SCHOLAR

Eligibility

• Doctoral student in the Cato College of Education
• Intends to work as a faculty member in academia upon graduation
• Identifies as representative of the diverse student body in schools in the United States, with diversity referring to the ways in which individuals vary (including, but not limited to, backgrounds, beliefs, viewpoints, abilities, cultures, and traditions that distinguish one individual from another)

Expectations

• Three-year commitment to the Holmes Scholars program
• Regular attendance to Holmes Scholars program meetings and sponsored events (4-6 per year)
• Attendance to routine mentoring meetings with your designated faculty mentor (4+ per year)
• Annually engaged in collaborative and/or individual research with annual refereed publication and presentation deliverables
  • (e.g. conference/chapter/grant proposal submissions, presentations publications, Cato Research Symposium)
• Engagement in service with professional organizations locally and/or nationally
• Engagement in teaching or co-teaching opportunities
• Attendance at the AACTE National Conference each year for two years
• Attendance at the Holmes Scholars Washington Week once
• Attendance at a Holmes Scholars Writing Retreat once
• Annual check-in regarding satisfactory progression toward Holmes Scholar Expectations

Holmes Scholars Coordinators

Daniel M. Alston, Ph.D. Reading and Elementary Education Associate Professor Cato College of Education		Clare Merlin-Knoblich, Ph.D. Counseling Associate Professor Cato College of Education

Holmes scholars adivsory group

The Charlotte Holmes Scholars Advisory Group is made up of a group of Cato College of Education faculty members who have a passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion. This year the Advisory Group is helping in the revitalization of the Charlotte Holmes Scholar Program. In the years to come, the Advisory Group will serve as mentors and supports for Charlotte Holmes Scholars.