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SJRCC Press Release
April 2009
Meet the MISTERS: Two colleges join SJRCC in minority teacher incentive effort
The "Call Me MISTER" program recently welcomed nine additional members into the minority teacher incentive initiative. Students from Florida State College at Jacksonville and Lake City Community College were accepted into the scholarship program spearheaded earlier this year by SJRCC.
"MISTERS" representing FSCJ are: Marlon Livers, Jamell McKinney, Royce Thompson, Kenneth Tompkins Jr. and Michael Wesley. "MISTERS" representing Lake City Community College are David Dinkens, Lucious Lee, Tony Lee and Anthony Newton.
The 14 members are the first in the state to participate in the new scholarship program created to recruit, educate and place minority male teachers into elementary school classrooms. "Call Me MISTER," which stands for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models, is an adapted version of the teacher recruitment program first created by Clemson University in an effort to provide minority children with the crucial role models necessary to help them become successful students.
According to Ulysses Gilbert, the program's coordinator, statistics show that the Northeast Florida district poses one of the state's largest needs. "While the state has less than three percent of minority teachers who are male, our district has less than one percent," Gilbert said. "Male minority students who don't have a strong, male role model at home are more likely to not succeed in school. If we don't begin shaping these young men at an early age, we may lose them to stereotypes forever."
SJRCC President Joe Pickens, who presented the concept of a Florida version of Clemson's program to the Commissioner of Education and other government officials during his last year as a state legislator, said the program is overdue. Pickens said his dedication to the program emerged from his 17 years as the Putnam County School Board attorney where he witnessed first hand the shortage of minority male teachers and the effect it has had on local communities. "I saw an absence of male role models in the school system and realized something needed to be done," Pickens said. "There is an abundance of students who need not only teachers – they need heroes."
SJRCC will serve as the host site where future "MISTERS" will participate in what Gilbert calls the "key" to the program – mentoring.
Gilbert, who also serves as the North East Florida Educational Consortium coordinator of educator recruitment, added that five former "MISTERS" from the South Carolina program were selected as "rookie" teachers of the year from their participating schools. The current South Carolina teacher of the year was a graduate of the "Call Me MISTER" program.
The scholarship application is located on the SJRCC Foundation Web page at www.sjrcc.edu/foundation, or for more information, call Ulysses Gilbert at the North East Florida Educational Consortium at (386) 329-1294.
PHOTO CAPTION:
First row, from left: Lucious Lee (Lake City), David Dinkens (Lake City),
Dwight Williams (SJRCC), Jamell McKinney (FSCJ), Michael Wesley (FSCJ),
Marlon Livers (FSCJ), Tony Lee (Lake City).
Second row: Program coordinator Ulysses Gilbert, Aaron Espinoza (SJRCC),
Anthony Bellamy (SJRCC), Kenneth Tompkins Jr. (FSCJ), Royce Thompson (FSCJ),
Anthony Newton (Lake City).
Not pictured are Derrick Blue (SJRCC),
Emanuiel Roberts (SJRCC).
Return to SJRCC home page.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Susan Kessler
SJRCC Director of Public Relations and Publications
5001 St. Johns Avenue
Palatka, FL 32177
(386) 312-4020
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