Consider this story the third part in an ongoing series chronicling Nadia Morris-Mitchell’s ’24, G’26 educational journey through Syracuse University.
As an undergraduate pursuing a part-time bachelor’s degree in creative leadership through the College of Professional Studies, the US Navy veteran was profiled by Syracuse Stories and the Office of Veterans and Military Affairs. Now she has answered a new call to serve her community, enrolling as a Baldanza Fellows Program teacher preparation student in the School of Education’s Inclusive Special Education (Grades 7-12 Generalist) master’s degree program.
Seeing the Impact
The Baldanza Fellows Program is a partnership among SOE, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and several Central New York school districts. It seeks to recruit, develop, and retain teachers to serve its partner schools, which include those in the Baldwinsville, Jamesville-DeWitt, Syracuse, and West Genesee school districts. Scholarship benefits include a tuition scholarship, a stipend, and a hiring commitment from a partner.
“Nadia is paired with the Syracuse school district, so she will have a middle or high school teaching position in special education when she successfully completes the program,” explains Professor George Theoharis, a Baldanza Fellows Program coordinator. “Local school districts are looking for teachers who bring varied life experiences into the profession, and we know this benefits students. As a Black woman with a military background, Nadia exemplifies the kinds of life and work experiences the fellows program supports. We are excited to have her and look forward to seeing the impact she will have on Syracuse students over her career.”
Despite her graduate degree studies and student teacher field placements, Morris-Mitchell has not stepped back from her other commitments. As during her bachelor’s degree, she still serves in the 174th Attack Wing of the Air National Guard, stationed at Syracuse Hancock International Airport, as a member of the unit’s public health team.
The health team “is like the Centers for Disease Control,” explains Morris-Mitchell. That gives some sense of the scope of work for this six-member unit. But it is also like the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, National Institutes of Health, Department of Agriculture, and any other government body responsible for mitigating occupational health hazards, monitoring diseases and disease vectors, inspecting food and lodging, or organizing vaccination programs, among other tasks for the approximately 2,000 guard members under its watch.
Helping the Community
In addition to her educational and National Guard duties, Morris-Mitchell continues her part-time work as a fitness instructor at a DeWitt, NY, gym. How does she fit in her multiple obligations? In her Syracuse Stories profile, she called herself “that person who’s always running a million miles an hour.” Today, her busy life is still “organized chaos,” she admits. “But I do well with schedule and routine.”
“In the military, I got used to waking up early in the morning and getting things done,” she continues. “Even today, I’m starting to get ready for bed at 8:30 p.m. and it’s ‘lights out’ at 10.” Morris-Mitchell enlisted with the US Navy in 2004, assigned first to the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (“Seabee”) 133 in Gulfport, MS, and then to Seabee Battalion 21 in Port Hueneme, CA. She deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, eventually leaving the Navy for the National Guard in 2016.
Morris-Mitchell’s decision to become a special education teacher combines her dedication to public service and a little bit of serendipitous outreach by SOE’s graduate admissions team. As she was completing her bachelor’s degree program, Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions and Recruitment Breana Nieves Vergara identified her as a good candidate for the Baldanza Fellows Program and reached out.
“Joining a program like this fulfills me and gives me more purpose; it makes me feel as though I’m helping the community.”
In response, the Syracuse native says she already recognized that city schools have “a real need for special ed teachers.” She adds, “Joining a program like this fulfills me and gives me more purpose; it makes me feel as though I’m helping the community.” Plus, Morris-Mitchell says she feels comfortable working with students with disabilities having helped with geriatric patients as a teenager in the same facility in which her mother was a nurse: “I’ve always been told how good my patience and relationship building is.”
One of Us
As part of her application process, Morris-Mitchell interviewed with the Syracuse school district, in anticipation of being offered a teaching position when she graduates. Beginning her program of study in summer 2025, she already has two field experiences under her belt, one in the Solvay, NY, school district and another helping to teach English Language Arts in Syracuse’s Nottingham High School.
Mitchell-Morris says her field experiences have helped her to understand resource disparities between city schools and the suburban high school—Cicero-North Syracuse—she attended: “This experience has opened my eyes to differences in classroom behaviors and class management.”
Moreover, her keen eye and military understanding of logistics and public health have led her to notice other distinctions, such as how many Syracuse students rely on city transportation instead of iconic yellow school buses or the narrow food choices at Nottingham’s sports complex concession stand. “There’s little choice other than hot dogs and chips in an area of food insecurity,” says Morris-Mitchell. “It makes me wonder why things here have to be at a bare minimum.”
Most importantly, she says, the students in her placement classes “have been great” and—an especially good sign for the Baldanza Fellows Program—some have voiced appreciation about having a teacher who looks like them: “‘You’re one of us,’ they’ve said to me.”
Learn more about the Baldanza Fellows Program and teacher preparation master’s degree programs.