Senior Adrien Myles at Woodlawn Leadership Academy has been accepted into a program hosted at Grambling State University aimed at providing young students with more diverse, male teachers.
The program, Call Me MiSTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role models) was created more than 20 years ago to increase the pool of available teachers from more diverse backgrounds. It particularly focuses on placing candidates in lower-performing elementary schools.
Research shows that having greater diversity in the teaching force yields positive outcomes not only for children of color but for all children. When children have access to effective teachers who look like them, they perform better academically and social-emotionally.
Prospective Misters must be a minority males and come from an underserved, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and/or educationally at-risk community. They must major in early childhood education, elementary education, health and physical education, or music education and demonstrate a record of high scholastic achievement and participation in extra-curricular and community service activities.
Call Me Mister provides recipients with a scholarship and also helps with leadership development, job placement and exposure to classroom environments. The program currently serves students at 19 colleges in South Carolina and 8 national partner institutions, including Grambling State University.