The advice and guidance of a cherished mentor…?
Simply priceless!
For retired educator Dee Dee Dietrich of Kingsport, inspiring and life-changing words of wisdom came from the late Cora Cox whom she knew from the Presbyterian church they both attended. Ms. Cox was also a well-known educator and teacher of special education.
Knowing that Dee Dee’s college plans were to major in English and minor in elementary education, Ms. Cox invited her to sit in on a class she was teaching for kids with autism.
Seeing Ms. Cox in the classroom with these students and hearing her stories about the journey as a special education teacher left a transformative impression on Dee Dee.
“I knew this was something that I really wanted to do,” she said.
Dee Dee and her husband moved to Memphis where she taught 2nd grade and also pursued a master’s degree in special education. She later became a GED instructor.
“There was a desperate need for more special education teachers and classroom aides,” said Dee Dee, who recalls starting a job at a school that never had a special education teacher. “In some ways, it was scary to watch. More and more people were being diagnosed as having special needs, and these needs were not being met in the classroom. Teachers were dealing with a multitude of issues.”
When Dee Dee and her husband Dan, a retired dentist, began giving to ETSU, they wanted to create opportunities for students who share the same passion the she and her mentor Ms. Cox had.
The Dan and Dee Dee Dietrich Special Education Scholarship Endowment will do just that by providing assistance to undergraduate students in the ETSU Clemmer College of Education and Human Development who are majoring in special education.
“We have watched generations and generations of educators graduate from ETSU and go into the classroom and change the lives of so many students,” said Dan Dietrich. “ETSU is so important to our community, and that is why we wanted to create this scholarship.”
“For students with disabilities, the sky is the limit for what you can do with them
as long as the right resources and instruction are in place,” Dee Dee adds.
For more information on the Dan and Dee Dee Dietrich Special Education Scholarship Endowment, contact Karen Sullivan, Director of Development, at sullivan@etsu.edu. Scholarship applications are available here.