How do you make a difference in the world? Victoria Thompson ’15 and her wife, Kourtney Johnson, spent a recent evening in their Tacoma, Washington, home pondering that question. They talked about their education and ways to change the landscape for educators, particularly for people of color.

That’s when they hit upon how they could make a difference. Despite being very early in their careers, they decided to create a scholarship to help education majors at the College of Charleston offset the financial challenges of their clinical internship semester, with a preference toward students of color.

“The bottom line is that there are not enough educators of color,” says Thompson, who majored in elementary education at CofC. “I was the only Black woman in my graduating class, and one reason why is the lack of incentive to pursue a career as an educator. Becoming an educator requires a lot of sacrifice. While there is a lot of personal return as a teacher, there is not a lot of financial return. That’s why dedicating a semester [to student-teaching] without payment or part-time work serves as a huge obstacle for educators.”

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