Mark Cary
Cred. '75
Alumnus Establishes Endowment To Support Reflective Educators
Written Fall 2008
“The credential program provided me with schemas for thinking about teaching. It gave me a foundation to keep asking new questions and exploring possible answers. In fact, it had a huge influence on my life.”
In fall 2007, Mark Cary and his wife, Marcia, established the Mark Cary Award, an endowment to support PhD students planning careers as teacher educators. The School expects to make the first award in 2009.
In an interview (excerpted below), Cary talked about his decision to establish the fund and his experiences at UC Davis:
“Marcia and I established this fund, in part, as a way to acknowledge the opportunities we’ve had. I received my credential from UC Davis and the program provided a structure in which I could continually evolve as a teacher.
“The program provided me with schemas for thinking about teaching. It gave me a foundation to keep asking new questions and exploring possible answers. In fact, it had a huge influence on my life.
“It’s my hope that in establishing this fund for a PhD candidate that it will help the School attract people who are naturally committed to teacher education and sympathetic to understanding the importance of self-reflection, both for teachers and their students.
“My own experience at UC Davis was one where my supervisors approached the art of teaching in a way that I, with my background in science, understood well: ask questions, test ideas, solve problems.
“I’m hoping that the endowment will highlight the School’s focus on bridging research and practice in K-12, along with the emphasis on student reflection and assessment.”
Cary is a life-long educator, having been a teacher and school principal. He has had a long-standing commitment to teacher education, having served on several state accreditation reviews of teaching credential programs. He also worked with Education here at UC Davis during our days as a Division, mentoring student teachers in his classroom, as well as working as a supervisor and a teacher-in-residence.