A Brief History of the Delaware Valley Educational Consortium

Over twenty years ago, Philadelphia area career service departments in institutions of higher education decided to get together to exchange ideas. This effort to communicate brought about the formation of a group called the Delaware Valley Career Planners. To this day, the group meets twice a year at various campus sites to exchange ideas and listen to experts in career related fields. In 1993, those institutions with teacher education programs created an off-shoot called the Delaware Valley Education Consortium (DVEC).

The Consortium, composed of 27 Philadelphia institutions of higher education, exists solely for the purpose of sponsoring an annual teacher job fair. The Consortium has acted as an intermediary in the teacher job search process by providing candidates the opportunity to meet employers from not only the Delaware Valley but from employers across the United States. The DVEC sponsored its first teacher job fair on March 30, 1994. One hundred employers and 1,680 candidates participated in this first fair.

Over the years, both the number of candidates and the number of employers have grown. Currently, approximately 100 school districts/employers and approximately 2,000 teacher candidates attend the annual event. The fair is open to both graduating students and alumni from consortium schools, as well as candidates from other schools.

The event has held fairs at several member campuses, notably Villanova University for the first event and West Chester University on three occasions. Other venues have included the Fort Washington Expo Center (now closed), Valley Forge Convention Center, and the Wachovia Center (now the Wells Fargo Center).

In 2002 the group began to award scholarships to students at member institutions and today annually awards up to 5 $1,000 scholarships to junior education majors from member schools. The scholarships are named in memory of the original chair of the scholarship committee, Hannah Amgott from Widener University. The scholarships are awarded annually at the May meeting which has traditionally been held at the William Penn Inn.

The original chair of the Consortium was Pat McGlynn from Chestnut Hill College who guided the group through the first years and developed the original constitution which is still used by the organization today. Phil Tripp from West Chester University has served as chair of the group since 2001. In 2000, the consortium hired a Program Administrator and Sue Crump has served in that role until 2012. Neumann College (now University) has served as the logistical center and home of the treasury with long time Treasurer Carol Dougherty. Otto Rust has served as the technical coordinator and website host for many years.