The Tech to Teaching project is creating an infrastructure on the Georgia Tech campus that encourages and enables undergraduate and graduate students to effectively pursue careers in K-12 or college teaching, and is developing and implementing programming that ensures these students succeed in their initial years in these career paths. This effort includes steps towards the institutional transformation of a research-extensive technical institute into an organization that effectively promotes and supports entry to teaching careers. The new infrastructure and programming align and adapt initiatives developed for other Georgia Tech NSF educational programs, such as the Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership (STEP) GK-12 program, the Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science (FACES) AGEP program, the numerous IGERT and RET programs on campus, and a Robert Noyce program awarded to Georgia Tech in partnership with Kennesaw State University. The Tech to Teaching infrastructure also is a collaboration between many units on campus, including advising, academic courses, mentoring, immersion experiences, and transition or induction support. In addition, the project is increasing ties between Georgia Tech and partner institutions of higher education in Georgia, such as Spelman College and Georgia Perimeter College, through the use of Georgia Tech graduate students as instructors in the partners' classrooms. Ultimately, Tech to Teaching will encompass the systems and procedures, personnel and resources to ensure that the pathways to teaching careers are clear and well-lit for both the students and their advisors with the necessary courses, mentoring, and immersion experiences in place to facilitate the students' successful transitions through the academic pipeline to these teaching careers. As Tech to Teaching comes to fruition, Georgia Tech will maintain the teaching infrastructure at the level needed to meet the demands of its student population, hopefully improving the STEM educational experiences of countless future students at colleges and universities across the country as the Georgia Tech students enter the academic world.
