PRESS RELEASES

Created in 2004, the Wachovia Teachers and Teaching Initiative provides funding through the Wachovia Foundation to organizations that enhance teacher recruitment, development, support and retention with the goal of increasing student achievement. 

“At Wachovia, we believe that every child is entitled to a high-quality education,” said Mike Rizer, director of community relations at Wachovia.  “With the Wachovia Teachers and Teaching Initiative, we can focus our giving on an area experts say is key to creating positive change in the classroom—teacher quality.”

Examples of programs and initiatives receiving grants in this round of Foundation funding include:

• A New Jersey program that creates a coherent, systemic and sustained program of science and math professional development for K - 12 teachers. 
• A North Carolina initiative that supports teachers by enhancing parental engagement through training, coaching and networking opportunities; special emphasis is on working parents and those who speak English as a second language.
• A Pennsylvania program that creates model literacy classrooms where aspiring teachers participate in pre-training. 
• A Florida initiative that identifies and prepares leaders to assume principal positions in urban secondary schools.

A full list of grantees appears at the end of the press release.

Under the Teachers and Teaching Initiative, the Wachovia Foundation makes grants to organizations that:

• Provide high-quality professional development opportunities and support for educators.
• Create world-class learning environments that are responsive to the needs of students from diverse backgrounds.
• Strengthen the infrastructure of the teaching profession through leadership and best practices by hiring and securing high-performing educators.

The Wachovia Teachers and Teaching Initiative is the most recent example of Wachovia’s ongoing strong commitment to education.  In addition to corporate, foundation and employee giving:

• Wachovia has a unique, far-reaching partnership with Teach For America (TFA), the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teaching in urban and rural public schools. 
  • Wachovia provides funding to support regional TFA efforts and enhance organizational capacity at the national level.
  • Wachovia employees are directly involved with TFA corps members in their communities and serve on TFA’s national and local boards. 
  • The 2003 and 2004 Wachovia Championships donated a total of $2 million to Teach For America ($1 million each year).
• Wachovia’s Reading First program sends employees into thousands of classrooms each week to read aloud and donate books to classroom libraries.
• Many Wachovia employees have established partnerships with schools in their communities, providing ongoing employee involvement and other support.

Eligibility
Organizations must have 501(c)(3) status and core programs to support public education in grades pre-kindergarten through high school to be eligible.  They must also provide these programs or services in Wachovia’s markets.

Because Wachovia is dedicated to thoroughly measuring impact and outcomes under the program—and is committed to dedicating resources to accomplish this—applications are accepted by invitation only.   Grantees are selected by a committee that looks at a proposed program’s impact, specifically in the areas of professional development, attraction, leadership skills, and work environment.

More information on the Wachovia Teachers and Teaching Initiative selection criteria is available at www.wachovia.com/teachers.

2005 Wachovia Teachers and Teaching Initiative Grantees

ABOUT WACHOVIA
Wachovia Corporation (NYSE:WB) is one of the largest providers of financial services to retail, brokerage and corporate customers, with retail operations from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas, and retail brokerage operations nationwide. Wachovia had assets of $506.8 billion, market capitalization of $80.3 billion and stockholders’ equity of $46.5 billion at March 31, 2005. Its four core businesses, the General Bank, Capital Management, Wealth Management, and the Corporate and Investment Bank, serve 13 million household and business relationships primarily through 3,277 offices in 15 states and Washington, D.C. Its full-service retail brokerage firm, Wachovia Securities, LLC, also serves clients through 693 offices in 49 states and five Latin American countries. Our Corporate and Investment Bank serves clients primarily in 10 key industry sectors nationwide. Global services are offered through 33 international offices. Online banking and brokerage products and services also are available through wachovia.com.