Winthrop Will Begin Call Me MISTER Program In August With First Freshman Cohort

ROCK HILL, SC — Winthrop University will implement a new program in the fall that will offer tuition assistance and additional support to accepted male students from diverse backgrounds and under-served areas who are interested in public school teaching.
Call Me MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models) has been a highly successful program since its beginning more than 10 years ago at other state institutions, said Richard W. Riley College of Education Dean Jennie Rakestraw. She met several students in the program at the College of Charleston and Clemson University, prompting her to talk with Clemson’s Program Director Roy Jones about creating that same success at Winthrop.

“Winthrop’s administration and staff, and many local community and school leaders, have shown great support for this program since day one,” she said. “We are anxiously awaiting the start of our fall semester when we will begin our Call Me MISTER program with our freshman cohort,” Rakestraw added.

Call Me MISTER’s ultimate mission is to recruit, train and certify groups of diverse men who plan to teach in South Carolina’s public schools in order to increase the pool of available teachers from a broader, more diverse background particularly among the state’s lowest performing elementary schools. The program candidates are often from communities identified as educationally at-risk, socioeconomically disadvantaged and under-served.

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Program benefits include:

• Tuition assistance through Loan Forgiveness programs for students pursuing programs in teacher education. It is expected that a MISTER who completes his program of study and becomes certified to teach will assume a teaching position and teach for one year for each year they received financial support from the Call Me MISTER program;
• An academic support system;
• A buddy system for social and cultural support; and
• Assistance with job placement.

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To apply for the program, you must:

• Be accepted to Winthrop;
• Be enrolled as an early childhood, elementary education, middle level or special education major;
• Complete the FAFSA;
• Complete the program application and submit two letters of recommendation and two essays; and
• Submit a signed statement from a counselor or high school official certifying your status.

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