WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Feb. 22, 2010 -- Himilcon Inciarte ’10 from Norwalk, Conn., has won an inaugural Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color. He is one of 25 students across the country to win the competitive fellowship.

The fellowship will provide Inciarte a $30,000 stipend to complete a master’s degree in education, preparation to teach in a high-need public school, support and mentoring throughout a three-year teaching commitment, and guidance toward a teaching certification. Inciarte has his eyes on a dual certification in elementary education and literacy. 

Inciarte said that he was at home when he learned he’d won the fellowship: “My mom casually told me I had mail from a Woodrow Wilson Foundation.  I asked her if it was a big envelope or a small one.  On opening it, I was surprised, and very happy.�

Inciarte was born in Venezuela but moved with his family to the United States when he was eight.  He graduated from the Norwalk Public High School and matriculated at Williams College where he has majored in anthropology. 

“This is wonderful news,� said Williams anthropology professor Antonia Foias, who met Inciarte as a first-semester freshman when he took her course The Rise & Fall of Civilizations.  “I saw what incredible intellect he has. There is no one more deserving; he is an excellent student and a wonderful person.� 

Summers between his study at Williams, he has worked as a teaching assistant in the Williams Summer Humanities and Social Sciences program, as a research assistant for a DC-based education reform non-profit, and, last summer, as a history teacher in Breakthrough New Haven, a program for high-achieving inner-city students.  He has also spent time abroad, in a yearlong Mandarin program in Beijing, China and with the Maya Research Program in Belize.

He is the youngest of three children, the second to graduate from high school, and the only one to attend college. 

“An anomaly.  That is the word people tend to use when describing me,� he wrote in his application for the fellowship. “But thinking about it, my success is far from extraordinary. I had parents who inculcated in me the most basic of values: conviction, humility, and optimism. … And that is exactly why I want to teach.

“Teachers impart academic skills, but … they also build character.  It is especially true in urban schools, set against a world where children are constantly exposed to the raw realities of life, and where students tend to lack role models, that teachers must embrace this latter responsibility…  I want to be an urban school teacher because I want to be that role model.  I want to be an urban teacher because it cannot be considered an anomaly for these kids to succeed.�

“I believe that all kids can succeed academically, and I think I can help them to do that. More importantly, I believe that a lot of people can be great teachers.  But for the field to attract capable professionals, we need to reform the education industry.  I want to pursue a career in education because I want to help bring about that reform.� 

On learning that Inciarte had won the fellowship, Michael F. Brown, the James N. Lambert ’39 Professor of Anthropology & Latin American Studies said, “Himilcon Inciarte is an accomplished and impressively resourceful person who will bring energy and intellectual focus to the urban classroom.�

Established in 1922 by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Fellowships for Aspiring Teachers of Color were created to help recruit, support, and retain individuals of color as public education teachers and administrators.  Since the program’s inception, it has awarded nearly $8 million in grants and financial assistance to 350 fellows.  In January 2009, the fund transferred the program to the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. 

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