ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The 'Call Me Mister' program at South Carolina State University (SCSU) has been working to empower the next generation of Black male teachers.
The program, began over 20 years ago at Clemson University.
According to Clemson, African American men make up 2 percent of the teachers in the U.S.
In South Carolina, 25 percent of all first-year teachers hired for the 2017-2018 academic year are no longer teaching in South Carolina schools.
The 'Call Me Mister' program has been working to change that. What started as a single program at Clemson is now at 25 participating schools in nine states.
The South Carolina State University 'Mister' program was awarded a $90,000 grant from Life 2, a grant to provide education support for Calhoun and Orangeburg County school districts.
“Our task here is not only to produce Black male educators but highly qualified Black male educators," said SC State campus director Dr. Rashad Anderson.
“It’s an amazing opportunity just to meet higher officials, administrators, superintendents, teachers of the year, it’s amazing," said president Gabriel Million.
This funding will be used to help the 'Misters' prepare for teacher licensing exams and allow them to network at conferences across the country, while also learning different teaching strategies.
The mission is to bring more black male educators into high school classrooms across South Carolina.
“At South Carolina State the 'Misters' that have traveled and presented at national conferences have been named teacher of the year and so the proof is almost kind of in the data that these conferences are helping build a more prepared educator," said Anderson.
Javon Holt says growing up in Toronto, he only had one Black male teacher. He said it gave him perspective on the learning experience he wanted to create for others.
“A lot of students struggle in these classes and they’ll have someone that can connect with them along their way," said Holt.