Karen GJ Lewis Scholarship Award Winner 2022
The Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation are pleased to announce David Juan Crain as the recipient of the Karen GJ Lewis NBCT Scholarship Award, a $10,000 annual scholarship for the 2022-2023 academic year.
David is a graduate of Multicultural Arts High School and is enrolled in the Teacher Preparation program at Illinois State University. Through his essay submissions, David explained his plans to return to the West side of Chicago to teach, understanding the potential community impact of a Black/Latinx male teacher. In his application, David demonstrated his passion for social justice by having difficult conversations with his biracial family in the volatile time following the murder of George Floyd. In navigating the pitfalls of colorism and prejudice that exist for him as an Afro-Latino man, David expressed his desire to be seen for all he is and to help others embrace all parts of themselves without shame or fear in his future role as an educator.
“I refuse to see myself as a victim of society’s racial oppression. I will not allow institutional racism to continue to feel empowered and unchallenged, therefore I am choosing to become an Educator. I have come to realize that to make a change in society we need to empower Black and Brown communities to exercise the political power that we have.” – David Crain
We are confident Karen would be very proud to hear of David Crain’s perseverance and steadfastness as a future education leader in Chicago!
In addition to the financial support, Walter Taylor, Director of Professional Development, will provide academic and socio-emotional support to David as a mentor while our scholarship recipient is in college, to help him achieve his goal of becoming a teacher. One of our goals as a Foundation is to provide a mentor to the winner each year to do our part to retain more Black teachers in the profession. We plan to offer the other applicants, as well as David Crain, access to three (3) free Quest Center classes once they become CPS teachers and CTU members.