"A major advantage of the PDS program is that you actually get to learn first hand how to handle a situation instead of someone telling you how to handle it." -- Jinny Green Emporia intern

A Career in Teaching

Projections indicate that thousands of teachers will be needed within the next decade. Newsweek's Career 2000 report, the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and U.S. News & World Report all estimate the demand for teachers will increase.

As an elementary teacher, you are the "first-line" of contact with children and shape the development of young minds.

Career 2000 shows the mean salary estimate for elementary school teachers to be $37,310.

ESU has an outstanding tradition in teacher education. Graduates are frequently commended by school principals and district superintendents for the depth, thoroughness, and up-to-date training they have received.

You can benefit from Emporia State University's many education resources, including the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence, the Jones Policy Center, the Institute on School Violence, the Kansas Center on Autism, the Reading Recovery program, or The Teachers College Resource Center.

Past ESU Student Success

Stacy Shipley, Olathe PDS intern, won the Sallie Mae First Year Teacher Award and a Met Life Fellowship.

Tara Drennan, Emporia PDS intern, was named Outstanding Undergraduate Student in the Early Childhood/Elementary Education Division in 1997. She now teaches second grade at Maynard Elementary in Emporia.

Thirteen of the 1998-99 PDS interns were hired as first-year teachers in the Olathe Unified School District. Other interns were employed in Bonner Springs, DeSoto, Emporia, Harveyville, Valley Center, and Wichita. Interns were also employed in Texas and Puerto Rico.