Five-Year Jumpstart to an Education Career

When it comes to career choice, sometimes figuring out the right path involves diving into the deep end and testing the waters. For Lyric Martin BA ’26, who aspires to be an English teacher, the opportunity to engage with real students at Jackson Middle School in Portland was an instant moment of affirmation. “I was able to prove to myself that working in education is not only something I want to do, but something I am capable of doing,” Martin says.

Martin is enrolled in Teacher Pathways, an accelerated undergraduate program that allows students to earn a BA and an MAT, including teacher licensure, in just five years. The program, a collaboration between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Education and Counseling, provides hands-on experiences in K-12 schools as well as mentorship and support for careers in education.

“The Teacher Pathways program has grown from an email list to a solid community,” says Carissa Zall, who serves as a clinical assistant professor in the graduate school and the advisor of the program. “There are teachers working in the field now who I knew as first years at Lewis & Clark. This is a space where uncertainty and intimidation is taken away—and a space where students have access to both information and relationships that will support them on their path.”

Zall traces the origins of the program to around 2017, when professors and administrators started to consider how best to support undergraduate students who might want to pursue careers in teaching. From the beginning, it has been “relationship-based,” Zall says. Social events like movie and trivia nights allow students to bridge connections to the graduate school, and a designated Living-Learning Community (LLC) in Copeland Hall provides a common space for support. Recently, Zall began hosting a “Senior Night,” where undergraduates can receive direct guidance and feedback on their L&C graduate school applications.

“Teacher Pathways has grown tremendously over the last few years,” says Rebecca Sexton-Lee, director of graduate admissions. “In 2021, we had fewer than 20 undergraduates in the pathway. Today, we have more than 100. In fact, more than 30 percent of current students in the MAT program were in the Pathways program as an undergraduate. From an undergraduate practicum with a local school to paid internships through community partners, the Pathways program offers plenty of opportunities to gain hands-on experience in a school setting.”

In the program, students meet with their Teacher Pathways advisor and enroll in two undergraduate education courses under Zall’s instruction. The first, Education in a Complex Society, acts as a critical examination of American public education. “What impacts the experience of students? What impacts the experience of teachers? It’s about those systems of justice and injustice,” Zall explained.

The second, Reimagining Teaching and Learning, is a methods course that enables students to spend eight weeks of the semester in an elementary or middle school under the supervision of a mentor. In taking the course, students log 20 hours of work with children, which is a requirement of the graduate school application. “This course gave me an understanding of the type of teacher I want to be,” says Martin, who worked with students across grade levels, education needs, and learning styles. “In just a short time, I went from thinking about how a community is built in a classroom to feeling like I was part of that community.”

Madi Pastores BA ’23 counts the Teacher Pathways program and Zall’s mentorship as powerful resources in her career as an educator. “The program focuses deeply on the power of critical reflection, which I have been able to use to develop and recommit to my priorities and values as a teacher,” says Pastores, who is now a social studies teacher in the Beaverton School District. “Building the student-teacher relationship is so essential to creating meaningful learning experiences for students. I always come back to my relationship with students in my own practice.”

Zall emphasized that the program is an important mechanism for creating a pipeline of diverse, well-prepared teachers in the Pacific Northwest. Alumni working in the field are real-life examples of what a path to teaching can look like—modeling for young students that the career does not have to be intimidating or unapproachable. “At the local level, we’re creating a cycle that diversifies who feels equipped to become an educator.”

Teacher Pathways Lewis & Clark Graduate School