Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action . Rachael Turner, junior elementary education major from South Bend, is among participants of the Urban Semester Program. With 50 percent of school children in the U.S. educated by 5 percent of the school corporations, urban schools are expanding and in need of quality teachers. Eventually the students are given teaching assignments as well. In addition to their teaching role, students take classes taught by Ball State professors at the Indianapolis school where they teach.
Classes typically last one or two hours each day.
The program is in its third year and is a combined project of the College of Sciences and Humanities and Teachers College. Students and professors either commute to Indianapolis from the Muncie area or live in the city for the semester. While every university has a field experience requirement involved in teacher training, Leitze is not aware of any other program where the professors and students travel 50 miles each day to gain this type of urban experience. Ball State also offers Urban Semester Programs for education majors at the middle and high school levels.