Can anyone help me with my search?  I'd like to find out if/where/how
I can get financial aid to get certified to teach at the secondary
education level in the state of CT.  I already have a BS in Computer
Science (1983) with strong Art background.  I want to teach Art, if
possible.

Hi curiousone,

That's great you want to go into teaching, not many people do
nowadays!

I started my search by limiting it to Connecticut only, to find the
most specific information for you. I have found two very specific,
very helpful sites about CT financial aid, and one in particular
program you may find very interesting!

The first site is the Connecticut Department of Higher Education
(http://www.ctdhe.org/SFA/sfa.HTM). This website details exactly what
you would need as a working professional deciding to reenter the
educational process for certification. It details the major sources of
financial aid (15) available to most students, and provides details
for filling out the FAFSA. FAFSA stands for the Free Application For
Federal Student Aid. You must complete a FAFSA to apply for state and
federal financial aid. The information contained in this application
is used to determine your eligibility and is required by all colleges
and universities if you are seeking public aid. The amount of aid you
are eligible for is dependant on your income, and many other factors,
so there is no way to determine your exact eligibility until you have
completed an application.

Their site also provides a link to Connecticut's Institutions of
Higher Learning (http://www.ctdhe.org/cgi-bin/webplus.dll?script=/db2/school.wml)
as well as student financial aid resources
(http://www.ctdhe.org/SFA/SFAResources.htm), detailing and providing
links to other sources of financial aid available to you.

The site I think you will find most interesting, is the Board of
Governors for Higher Education site
(http://www.ctdhe.org/ARC/default.htm), which details a program called
the 'Alternate Route to Teacher Certification' or ARC, and the
'Alternate Route to Teacher Certification II' or ARCII. ARC is a
rigorous 8 week period of full-time intensive instruction during the
summer. ARCII is a very rigorous 24 week period of part-time
instruction on Friday evenings and Saturdays during the school year.
ARCII for teacher certification is SPECIFICALLY tailored for working
professionals who do not wish to or can not quit their current jobs to
obtain certification. You can find details about this program, as well
as links to online links to brochures, schedules and next dates for
these programs in Connecticut at http://www.ctdhe.org/ARC/default.htm

Hope this helps you in your search, if you need clarification, please
don't hesitate to request it, I'm on regularly. Good luck!

--mosquitohawk-ga

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Clarification of Answer by mosquitohawk-ga on 20 Jun 2002 13:49 PDT

I forgot to include my search strategy, so here it is:

I used google.com and searched with the following keywords:

1) financial aid connecticut teacher

The resulting search can be found using this link:

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=financial+aid+connecticut+teacher

One thing I know from personal experience (while I am not one, there
are many teachers in my family) is that if financial aid takes
priority over the your field preference, you should find out what the
state/county/district you want to teach in is lacking.  For example, a
family member received full tuition for a masters degree in special
education because the state needed special ed teachers.  I understand
that it's more difficult to get financial aid for teaching something
like secondary English.

Try networking with some folks who already teach in the towns for
which you're interested in working.  You should also contact the
University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education (860.486.3065 OR
http://www.education.uconn.edu ).  Even if that is not your school of
choice, someone should know what type of teachers are needed in the
state.

Migh be worth checking into!

Good luck as you pursue your future career!

>Librarygopher