Education: Training the Valley’s future educators for 112 years

By BoNhia Lee

Illustration by Todd Graves (’03)

When C.L. McLane was superintendent of Fresno city schools in the early 1900s, he experienced firsthand the difficulty of recruiting teachers from other cities and keeping them from leaving.

That reality led to Fresno State’s founding in 1911 as a teacher’s college to attract students from the San Joaquin Valley who would be more likely to stay and put down roots in the region. McLane served as the university’s first president.

The university started with 150 students and offered only a teaching certificate that could be completed in two years. Now, the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at Fresno State offers a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies, advanced certificates of study, teaching credential programs, several masters programs and a doctoral degree in educational leadership.

More than 1,500 students enroll in the liberal studies program every year, making it one of the top majors at the university, and more than 400 students graduate from the college each year. Fresno State has consistently been among the top three public universities preparing the most K-12 school teachers in California.

Bulldog pride runs strong and has a deep presence in schools across the Valley, from teachers in classrooms to support staff and principals. About 60% of the school administrators across the region are Fresno State alumni, leading Valley schools and shaping the future of local youth.

Fresno County’s newest superintendent of schools is a two-time alumna who has spent her career serving the Fresno and Clovis areas. Dr. Michele Cantwell-Copher, who replaced longtime superintendent and Fresno State alumnus Jim Yovino, was raised in Riverdale and remembers taking trips to Fresno State as a child, which helped solidify her dream to study at the university.

“Fresno State was local. It was accessible and, frankly, there was something about having it featured prominently in my consciousness as a child and as a teenager and as a high schooler,” Copher says. “I even remember when I was in middle school and high school attending different student events at Fresno State’s campus — it always felt like a north star to me.”

Copher, whose father was a teacher, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and a master’s in educational leadership and supervision. She also earned a language development specialist certificate in what was then the early iteration of multicultural and cross cultural education.

“Fresno State has been my higher ed home and it’s interesting how many times I circle back to further my education whether it’s formally with degrees or even just weekend coursework to gain more skills or expand my own experience base both personally or professionally,” Copher says. “I’ve returned home to Fresno State many times over the last 32 or so years.”

She pointed to the John D. Welty Center for Educational Policy and Leadership as a program that brings hundreds of educators from around the region back to Fresno State again and again to stay on top of today’s best practices. The center works to bring best leadership practices to the education system in the San Joaquin Valley with a goal to eliminate the achievement gap and raise the performance of all learning. It does this through conferences, training, coaching and consulting activities in collaboration with school districts.

“Not only is Fresno State the source of placing teachers and administrators in roles in our community,” Copher says, “but it is the source that continues to refine the teaching skill set, to inspire, to continue personal growth and development.”

–BoNhia Lee is a communications specialist at Fresno State.

Can you imagine the Valley without Fresno State?

Neither can we. And that’s why, with continued support from alumni and the community, Fresno State is committed to educating and enhancing support for the future generation of teachers, principals and other educators who will impact the youth in our region.