Pictured Above: Call Me MISTER, which stands for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models, will initially be housed at the St. Petersburg campus and is set to launch this fall.
Courtesy of USF
By Annalise Anderson
The USF College of Education has adopted the Call Me MISTER program in an effort to promote an increase in male educators of color in the Tampa Bay area.
Call Me MISTER, which stands for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models, will initially be housed at the St. Petersburg campus and is set to launch this fall.
Founded at Clemson University, Call Me MISTER has been integrated into more than 25 colleges and universities around the country. The national program aims to grow the number of male educators of color in local elementary schools, particularly those with at-risk student populations.
Brenda Walker, associate campus dean of education at St. Petersburg, has spearheaded USF’s adoption of the program and will oversee its operation. She plans to eventually introduce the program to the Tampa and Sarasota-Manatee campuses.
“This program will offer new opportunities to young male students of color while helping us build an important pipeline for our local elementary schools,” Walker said in a press release from the university. “All children, as well as all school personnel, need to be exposed to and benefit from voices of men of color in our schools.”
USF St. Petersburg has partnered with Pinellas County Schools to identify and recruit prospective students into the program. Walker hopes to enroll five students this fall and to double that number in the future.
Graduate students will also be permitted into the program.
Participating students receive tuition assistance, academic support, social and cultural support, job placement assistance and an opportunity to attend a national conference with other Call Me MISTER participants.
For every year they receive tuition assistance, graduates of the program agree to at least one year of teaching in urban or low-income elementary schools.
Students will be matched with education mentors from USF and the community and will work closely with them throughout their undergraduate or graduate studies. Mentors are not required to be other male educators of color; anyone interested in mentorship will be welcomed.
In addition to regular coursework, students will be required to participate in seminars focused on topics of social framework not typically studied in an education degree, such as human capital and emotional and mental health.
Sandra Vernon-Jackson, an education instructor at the St. Petersburg campus, is a coordinator of the program and is developing its curriculum.
Though the program is in its preliminary stages, Vernon-Jackson said that Pinellas County Schools has already identified “a few” prospective students and that USF is initiating student outreach to encourage them to apply to the university.
As someone who is passionate about education, Vernon-Jackson is excited about the program.
“Educators form the world we live in,” Vernon-Jackson said. “We educate doctors, we educate lawyers, we educate teachers, we educate everyone.”
“We are fulfilling a pipeline in a population that has, at times, not looked at education, and in a career that most people look down on… This will not only shed a light but allow people to see that education is still at the forefront of everything we do in our society. It also gives value to what’s going on, not only in our society, but also here on campus, where the College of Education (undergraduate programs were) almost closed down.”
Vernon-Jackson emphasized the importance of recruiting local students into the program.
“What this means for USF is enrollment, enrollment, enrollment,” Vernon-Jackson said. “And not only enrollment, but homegrown enrollment because we’re looking for individuals who are in the St. Petersburg area. They identify with the community because they are from the community.”
Cecil Howard, USF chief diversity officer and associate vice president of Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity, believes that bringing Call Me MISTER to the university is “a good start” to enhancing USF’s diversity.
Last semester, USF St. Petersburg enrolled only one new black freshman.
“Any program that is created to encourage young men, particularly African American men, to pursue a career in public education is just a plus all around,” Howard said. “Teaching is such a noble, honorable profession. It would be great to see men in the profession and it would be greater to see African American men in the profession.”
Editor’s Note
This article was updated on January 19, 2021, to clarify a quote about the College of Education.
what is the initial operating budget for the first 1-5 years of operation? Additionally what is the number of candidates in the project??