Dr. Rhonda Gaede, interim associate provost for undergraduate education at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), has pledged $27,500 to endow the Shirley Gaede Scholarship in Education at UAH in honor of her mother. Dr. Gaede is also an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UAH, a part of the University of Alabama System.
The Shirley Gaede Scholarship is Dr. Gaede’s latest investment in education – or, as she calls it, the family business. Previously, she endowed the Robert E. Gaede Memorial Scholarship at UAH in memory of her father.
“Educators in my family include both of my grandmothers, both of my parents, my sister, three of my uncles and one cousin,” she says.
Dr. Beth Quick, dean of the College of Education, points out the dividends from this investment.
“Scholarships such as the Shirley Gaede Scholarship in Education provide much-needed financial support to our interns as they anticipate graduation and finish their final semester of their degrees by teaching full-time in a classroom,” she says. “With the financial support provided, interns can better focus on planning, teaching and interning without the added stress and worry of financial concerns.”
Dr. Gaede’s parents met as children, but their relationship did not develop until they were students at Concordia Lutheran Teachers College (now Concordia University) in Seward, Neb.
“I’m not sure why Mom chose (to attend Concordia), but she says that at the time women could go into teaching or nursing, and nursing held no appeal for her.”
Robert and Shirley Gaede married the year before they graduated from Concordia.
“Family lore has it that they were the first married couple to graduate from Concordia,” Dr. Gaede says. “Upon graduation, Mom and Dad were sent to Texas so that Dad could teach at St. Paul Lutheran Church there.”
At that school, Rhonda learned that being the child of a teacher did not come with behavioral privileges.
“My father was my principal for a time. He assigned me a 25-word essay for talking too much in class. I joke that I decided then and there that I would have my own classroom where I would talk as much or as little as I wanted.”
Shirley Gaede took a break from teaching for a few years when Rhonda and her older sister arrived. She returned to the classroom when Rhonda was 4.
“They wanted her to teach kindergarten. She said she would as long as she could bring me with her. I joke that I was held back in kindergarten.”
Shirley Gaede received a master’s degree in early elementary education from Trinity University, Dr. Gaede says, but her passion and abiding love remained with kindergarten students.
“She joined El Dorado Elementary School in 1973 and taught there until her retirement 26 years later. She had many former students’ children in her class.”
The Shirley Gaede Scholarship will be awarded to junior or senior undergraduate students pursuing a degree in the College of Education. Recipients must have a minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Preference will be given to students who are seniors, specifically in their internship semester, and who demonstrate financial need.
