The Golden Apple Accelerators Program provides a path to teaching for career-changers and college seniors who commit to living and teaching in targeted school districts in Illinois for four years after obtaining their teaching license.

The Accelerators program was designed to meet the teacher shortage crisis head on by recruiting, preparing and mentoring college seniors and non-educators with bachelor’s degrees in Illinois looking to make a difference in classrooms right in their communities.

Application Deadlines:

Priority deadline: October 18, 2024

Application deadline: January 15, 2025

• Priority deadline: October 18, 2024 • Application deadline: January 15, 2025


Benefits

  • Obtain a teaching license within 15 months

  • Tuition and fees at one of Golden Apple’s partner universities/colleges.

  • Stipend of $10,000 for additional education expenses

  • One-year residency and training program in a targeted partner school district

  • Pursue coursework and earn credit at a partner university

  • Begin teaching full-time in Fall 2025

  • Instruction from award-winning educators

  • Mentoring in the first years of teaching


Eligibility Requirements

  • College seniors attending universities or colleges who are not currently on a teaching pathway 

  • Career-changers who hold bachelor’s degrees

  • Illinois residents, U.S. citizens, eligible non-citizens, or Illinois Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students who live in or are from communities in Illinois

  • Able to commit to teaching in an Accelerator Partner School district in Illinois for 4 years after obtaining licensure