The Future Teachers Organization (FTO) is a club at Bucks for students looking to pursue a career in education. They volunteer and help Bucks county schools and organizations.
One of the FTO’s main functions is volunteering for the Autism Cares Foundation, a local organization that offers over 150 events a year for children and families dealing with autism. Stacy Hilman, Adjunct Instructor in Social and Behavioral Science at Bucks is a volunteer liaison between FTO and Autism Cares Foundation and sees great importance in the FTO’s impact for Autism Cares. “FTO supports Autism Cares by volunteering and engaging with the kids with autism and getting them to have fun,” Hilman says.
Emily Maurer, president of the FTO, also see’s the importance that the organization has on Autism Cares. “If you go to an Autism Cares event and you see the impact that the volunteers have and how happy the kids are, it really inspires you to keep volunteering,” Maurer says.
Most students involved with the FTO are early education majors, and getting experience with autistic children would be great experience for them to have.
“The involvement with the events is the most important part of FTO, it impacts the kids lives and makes you stand out,” Maurer says.
Russ Dunlevy, who received an associate’s degree in communications from Bucks but has returned to study Early Education, “it’s a good thing to be involved in, and I think it will be good to bounce ideas off of other people who want to be teachers,” Dunlevy says.
Networking can also be a great upside not just for FTO but for any club that is trying to meeting people of similar interests.
For Christine Zayon, this was one of the reasons she joined FTO, “I thought it would be good to meet with other people in my major as well as volunteering and getting experience in my field,” Zayon said.
The FTO recently had a fundraising bake sale on campus, which featured various baked goods made by student members of the FTO as well as the teacher advisors. The proceeds of the fundraiser will go to helping Autism Cares with events and sponsoring events for the organization.
FTO also does events for the early childhood learning program, ELC, at Bucks. The ELC is a preschool program for children ages three to five on the Bucks Newtown campus.
The FTO is looking to organize a Halloween event in mid-October for the ELC, which they hope to include pumpkin painting and other events for the children in the program.