Pittsburgh Promise Creating New Advancing Educators of Color Scholarship

By: KDKA-TV News Staff

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Pittsburgh Promise is creating a new Advancing Educators of Color scholarship.

The goal is to add 35 Black educators to the Pittsburgh Public School system in the next seven years.

The AEC scholarship complements the Promise Scholarship, which is available to eligible Pittsburgh Public School students.

It is designed to encourage students to pursue teaching careers in the Pittsburgh Public Schools after they graduate.

"It's a $1 million scholarship that is being funded personally by Bill and Debbie Demchak," Saleem Ghubril, the Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Promise, said. "And it is to make it possible for students of color who wish to become teachers, study education, get certified and then join the teaching workforce in Pittsburgh Public Schools to go through their post-secondary education, get certified, pass the test and graduate without any debt."

PTL's Something Good --

The Pittsburgh Promise has provided post-secondary scholarships to more than 10,000 PPS students since 2008.

Just over half of them are students of color.

And 95% of those who received scholarships represent low to moderate income households.