Spring Valley High School’s Bianca Gilyard Named SC Teaching Fellow


Rock Hill, SC – Bianca Gilyard, a senior at Spring Valley has been awarded the prestigious South Carolina Teaching Fellowship.

Bianca will join the freshman cohort at Columbia College this fall where she will be offered numerous professional development opportunities and involved with communities and businesses through various service projects and partnerships with local schools.

The state’s Teaching Fellows Program, operated by the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA), was established in 1999 by the SC General Assembly to address the shortage of teachers in our state. The mission of the program is to recruit talented high school seniors into the teaching profession and help them develop leadership qualities. Each year, the program provides Fellowships for up to 210 high school seniors who have exhibited high academic achievement, a history of service to their school and community, and a desire to teach in South Carolina.

Applicants for the program undergo a rigorous selection process that includes an online application, an interview and presentation in front of a team of three educators, and a scored response.

Following the rigorous selection process, applicants who are awarded a Fellowship receive up to $24,000 in yearly scholar­ships (up to $6000 a year for four years) to attend a Teaching Fellows Institution in South Carolina. Each Fellow agrees to teach in South Carolina one year for every year he or she receives the Fellowship.

For more information about the South Carolina Teaching Fellows Program, visit teachingfellowsc.com.


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About The Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement

The Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement, established by the Commission on Higher Education in December 1985 and funded by the South Carolina General Assembly, was created out of a concern for the condition of South Carolina's teacher supply pool and a need for a centralized teacher recruitment effort.

CERRA's agenda is a comprehensive one in which the Center sponsors a variety of programs for increasing the number of students in the education pipeline and recruiting and retaining qualified, caring, and competent teachers. The Center's primary target groups are middle and high school students, college students, and adults interested in changing careers. 



CERRA also targets groups of accomplished teachers through programs including mentoring, teacher leadership and National Board Certification. The network of educators in our programs overlaps in powerful ways to increase the level of collaboration for recruitment, retention and advancement of South Carolina educators. For more information about CERRA, visit www.cerra.org.