Miami and Talawanda School District Continue Partnership Launched In 2001

BY DARICE CHAPEL
Miami University journalism student
For 16 years now, Miami University and the Talawanda School District have been in a partnership that benefits students from both sides through immersive learning opportunities.

Jean Eagle, one of the co-chairs of the Miami-Talawanda Partnership, said she and her co-chair, Holli Morrish, director of communications and public engagement for the Talawanda School District, “work together to look at projects and programs that we can support that are mutually beneficial to Miami students as well as the students in the school district.”

The partnership organizes programs that work for students of all ages from pre-K through 12th grade on the Talawanda side, and undergraduate students to doctorate students on the Miami side.

When asked what kinds of programs that the partnership sponsors, Eagle pointed out a science-week event held every spring for students in grades 1-5, for about the last 10 years.

“They have the opportunity to come to campus in the science buildings, and they do some basic experiments with graduate students and some faculty," said Eagle, director of partnerships for Miami's College of Education, Health & Society. "They get to experience first-hand what it’s like to be in a science lab.”

Even though Talawanda and Miami are close in distance, it’s important to have someone there to bridge the gap between the two schools. Irene Kleiman, a member of the Teacher Education Department faculty and a Miami liaison to Talawanda, is in charge of that. When asked how Miami students can get involved with the partnership, Kleiman said, “They can do it through their classes which is field experience, and there’s First Years for First Years where Miami students go and help first-graders with their emerging reading skills.”

According to Eagle, about 1,000 of the approximately 3,000 students within the Talawanda School District participate in the partnership.