Spanish Program News

For over a century, Western Carolina University has helped put teachers in classrooms across the region and beyond. Now, looking to address the state’s ongoing teacher shortage, WCU’s impact on education in North Carolina just grew stronger.

This August, Brandi Hinnant-Crawford will join the College of Education and Allied Professions faculty as the John and Deborah Bardo Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership. Her return is a homecoming that continues a nearly decade-long tenure as a Catamount and more than 12-year career as a researcher and professor.

Western Carolina University’s undergraduate elementary education program has earned an A+ from the National Council on Teacher Quality for its excellence in preparing future teachers to teach reading.

Western Carolina University’s impact on local education isn’t limited to the teachers it sends out to Western North Carolina schools. It helps nurture them, too.

Caitlin Torrence, professor in Western Carolina University’s College of Health and Human Sciences, recently received an $840,000 grant to fund a Health Policy Research Consortium over the next two years.

Kayleigh Kassel and Amanda Clapp aren’t usually the ones raising their hands in the classroom, but during a staff meeting, their arms shot up like one of their most eager students.

In partnership with the North Carolina School for the Deaf, Western Carolina University professors Jess Weiler and Cathy Grist were awarded a $70,000 grant from NC Collaboratory to conduct an organizational assessment of NCSD’s administrative structures.

There’s a lot that Canaan Frisby likes about his job. Being a physical education teacher is all he ever wanted to do since middle school.

Amidst the stress of college, there are a few calming personalities students occasionally run into on their way to class: pets. For a single moment while they stop to pet them, all those worries evaporate.

An estate gift from a retired Western Carolina University faculty member and his spouse, a current WCU staff member, will establish an endowed scholarship fund to provide financial support to students working toward undergraduate degrees in psychology.