Future Educator: Ashton Newton ’26

Wittenberg junior receives 2025 Cornett Creative Teaching Merit Scholarship

Ashton Newton, class of 2026 from Medina, Ohio, has been named the 2025 recipient of The Claudia E. and Charles F. Cornett Creative Teaching Merit Scholarship, which annually recognizes a rising junior or senior education major or minor seeking teacher licensure who has a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA and exhibits creative behaviors and philosophies. Newton is pursuing a dual license in education P-5 and intervention specialist and is a member of Wittenberg Baseball. He also assists with Welcome Week as a Tiger Team member, serves as president of the campus spirit team for Get Witt Crew and as vice president of Best Buddies, and works in Wittenberg’s strength and fitness center.

As a high school student, Newton helped out after school with gym class at his local elementary school. He created relationships and aimed to make a small impact in any student’s life, which inspired him to “become a teacher in any possible way.”

The encouragement of his Wittenberg professors has influenced the type of teacher he is developing into. “My professors have consistently pushed me to be more creative and encouraged me to go out of my comfort zone by ensuring that my teaching methods are successful, exciting, and welcoming,” he said. “Additionally, they stress the value of establishing trusting relationships with students and have given me access to possibilities that I otherwise would not have had.”

Newton plans to pursue a master’s degree in physical education after graduating from Wittenberg next year and hopes to work as an elementary teacher and possibly as a baseball coach.

“Being awarded the Cornett Scholarship is truly an honor,” he said. “I’m incredibly grateful to be recognized, and it motivates me to continue striving toward excellence in everything I do. To me, this scholarship represents more than just an achievement but also reflects the values I aim to live by as a future educator and leader.”

Cornett Creative Teaching Scholarship
Creative thinking is the defining characteristic of The Cornett Creative Teaching Merit Scholarship. As lifelong educators, Claudia, professor emeritus of education, and Charles, retired superintendent of Clark County Schools, view “out-of-the-box” thinking as the core of effective problem solving and central to excellent teaching.
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Debbie Ritter
Debbie Ritter
Writer and Content Editor

About Wittenberg

Wittenberg's curriculum has centered on the liberal arts as an education that develops the individual's capacity to think, read, and communicate with precision, understanding, and imagination. We are dedicated to active, engaged learning in the core disciplines of the arts and sciences and in pre-professional education grounded in the liberal arts. Known for the quality of our faculty and their teaching, Wittenberg has more Ohio Professors of the Year than any four-year institution in the state. The university has also been recognized nationally for excellence in community service, sustainability, and intercollegiate athletics. Located among the beautiful rolling hills and hollows of Springfield, Ohio, Wittenberg offers more than 100 majors, minors and special programs, enviable student-faculty research opportunities, a unique student success center, service and study options close to home and abroad, a stellar athletics tradition, and successful career preparation.

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