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A Chance to Learn and Freedom to Teach

A Donor’s Story

By Sara "Sally" Wheeler Cowan

When I heard what happened to Brother Jon on Jolo, I was already back in San Francisco. It was 1977, and I had capped off a summer of teaching in the Philippines by accompanying him to that stunningly beautiful island that was also the site of violent conflict. I was planning to teach a unit on the Philippines and its people to my fifth grade class in California, which included many children of Filipino descent. 

It is only thanks to the University of �˻�ֱ�� that I became a teacher.

At my high school in a well-to-do suburb of Washington, D.C., no one thought I was “college material.” I had no money, no friends in school, no mentors. Classmates had begun shunning me when I was nine, after my father was arrested and imprisoned. After that, I retreated to books. I often read about strong women, like my mother, surviving and sometimes thriving in difficult times.

I had wanted to be a teacher since the summer before second grade. I taught little neighborhood kids math, using sticks and acorns. They say teachers are born, and perhaps there’s some truth to that.

Against long odds, in 1965, I entered the University of �˻�ֱ��’s College of Education and graduated four years later with a bachelor’s degree in education and history, and a teaching certificate. I missed the graduation ceremony to catch a plane to California to begin a 40-year teaching career.

Without a full scholarship from �˻�ֱ��, I would not have attended college. That is why I have set up a scholarship fund to benefit College of Education students who want to teach.

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