FARMVILLE – “We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are.” This quote from the director's page of the Call Me MISTER program website encapsulates its goal: to find and prepare not just diverse teachers, but diverse role models for the next generation of students.

Working in education at the grade school and college level for 28 years, Maurice Carter began his tenure as the director of the Call Me MISTER program at Longwood University this June. He is adamant that education is the key to healing and helping communities and the reason the Call Me MISTER program is so important for Southside Virginia.

With Booker T. Washington as his great-great-grandfather, Carter believes that education is his family's calling. For him, the purpose of education is to enrich, allowing a group to “pull itself up by its own boot straps with the brightest, the most committed.”

Although many of the current 22 participants are first generation college students, Carter says that they don't want a free ride; instead, “we want to help this community…”

Call Me MISTER – Mentors Instructing Students Towards Effective Role Models – is a scholarship teaching program designed to increase the pool of available teachers from a broader, more diverse background.

Started at Longwood University in partnership with the College of Education and Human Services in 2007, the program is patterned after the Call Me MISTER program at Clemson University. The concept, logo and trademark are shared with Clemson via a financial partnership.

The Longwood Call Me MISTER program is officially partnered with Prince Edward and Cumberland County schools, as well as Southside Virginia Community College and St. Paul's College.

The Need For Diversity

Carter is quick to point out that the number of male teachers in elementary schools is dismally low and that the proportion of minority teachers is even lower.

According to a report issued by the Virginia Department of Education this year, while 24 percent of all Virginia public school students are African American, only 12 percent of all teachers in the state are. Additionally, the number of male teachers in the United States as a whole has dropped from 31 percent in 1986 to only 16 percent.

There are only five minority male elementary school teachers in the eight-county area of Southside Virginia, according to a flier published by the Call Me MISTER program.

The program supports diverse students who are interested in teaching anywhere in the K-12 curriculum. Two of Carter's own children, one in high school and the other in college, have neither ever had a minority teacher.

Carter finds this disappointing because he believes that classrooms should reflect the diversity that is present throughout America in terms of both gender and ethnicity.

He adds that the bottom line of education is “engagement…If you have teachers that are diverse, the opportunity for engagement and the perspective of cultures can be enriched in that classroom.”

The Call Me MISTER program offers up to 80 percent tuition assistance, based on student need, to qualified applicants, as well as support and additional training in education.

It is supported by Longwood University, outside donations and fundraisers, such as the upcoming Basketball Tournament which will be held December 14 and 15 at Longwood's Willett Hall.

Participants are expected to serve as a teacher for each year they received support in the program.

More Than Facts

Carter points out that anyone can share facts and statistics with children, but not everyone can relate to the students they are teaching. It is challenging, he says, “but when you can reproduce who you are in terms of character, integrity…the refusal to give up. Those are the other attributes that are transferred to students when we're providing them with knowledge.”

Carter sees himself as near the end of his teaching career. He also sees a great vacuum of “master teachers” and through this program hopes to train others to take his place. Others who are willing to go the extra mile with troubled students, “not someone who is going to pity young people or a community,” but help them go to the next level.

And, this is not just Carter's vision.

Cainan Townsend, a Prince Edward High School graduate, MISTER and sophomore at Longwood University, says he wants to teach children at the elementary school level because, “it's easier to instill good habits than it is to break bad ones.

“So, my thing is, if I can get to them early and drill in good habits that are going be hard to break later, then they can go throughout high school and college and go on to pursue a career.” He feels his chances of breaking bad habits by the time they reach him as a high school teacher would be a lot less.

Townsend hopes to teach his students the importance of reading and good study habits in particular, priorities which he wishes had been instilled in him at a younger age.

Delano Green is a MISTER and graduate student at Longwood University's College of Education and Human Services. He hopes to be an elementary school guidance councilor. His goal is to see his students be successful at whatever they are passionate about doing. He said, “It gets frustrating to see every generation do the same thing, same thing, same thing.”

Green believes programs like Call Me MISTER help break those generational cycles because it “gives you that hope and that drive and motivation to want to be successful.”

He added that “to have a passion for wanting to help someone else is a delight. One of the best feelings I can ever have. I think it is better than playing football, to be honest with you. And I love playing football…And being able to just give back to those kids and see them succeed… is just amazing.”

Best & Brightest

Not only does the Call Me MISTER program help the community by raising up diverse and strong role models for the classroom, it also helps to attract the best and brightest to Longwood University, according to Carter.

Take Green as an example. A graduate of Temple University and former wide receiver for the Temple Owls, Carter looked at Green's application and realized he could probably get into any graduate school he wanted. However, he chose Longwood University because of Call Me MISTER.

Twelve of the 20 students currently in the program are attending Longwood University. High school students can also be admitted into the program.

Townsend applied while he was still a sophomore at Prince Edward. Until he became a student at Longwood University, he attended the program's yearly Summer Institutes, a weeklong leadership training intensive.

Bryant Winbush, a senior at Cumberland High School, is another example of a local student being encourage to stay in the community through the Call Me MISTER program.

Carter is sure that Winbush could attend any university he wanted to with his high grade point average, talent as a star football player on the Cumberland High School team and student body accolades as this year's homecoming king. However, Winbush has decided to stay near to home and apply to Longwood University.

Winbush has also attended the Summer Institute as a high school student. The other MISTERs have taken him under their wing, affectionately referring to him as “Bo.”

Emphasizing the need for engagement with students, Carter is eager to see MISTERS return to their communities to teach if they so desire, saying “there is an advantage of a teacher that grew up in a particular area and then returns to that area to teach those students. Certainly he or she can relate to those students.”

Serving Longwood

Another benefit of the program, according to Carter, is not only that it diversifies grade school classrooms, but also helps diversify the Longwood student population or, rather, make the student population more representative of the local population.

Townsend points to his own experience of the disproportionate ethnic profile of Prince Edward High School in comparison to the Longwood student population.

(See the companion article in today's paper for more information on GROWTHE, a program designed to bridge the gap between Longwood University and Prince Edward County.)

Because the majority of applicants are identified from area schools, according to Carter, Call Me MISTER can help correct this imbalance.

Interested students must submit an application to the program, along with school transcripts and two essays by December 15.

In order to make the program more accessible, MISTERS are allowed to take preliminary courses at other schools, if needed, before completing their coursework in teacher education and baccalaureate degree at Longwood University.

Some students, such as Green, may enter the program in order to complete a master's degree if it will lead to their initial licensure.

Once admitted, MISTERs are required to maintain a certain grade point average, be good citizens, and attend the yearly Summer Institute and a monthly Saturday meeting that features talks on education.

Carter admits he is asking a lot of high school and college-age young men, adding “they should have fun but also not to forget who they represent. And, more importantly, not just the MISTER program but they represent their families.”

A New Director

Carter just became the director of Longwood's Call Me MISTER program in June and could not be more enthusiastic about working at Longwood University.

He expressed his appreciation for Longwood University, where he received his endorsement in Secondary Administration. He also knew Longwood produces “great teachers, because I've hired them as a principal.”

He added that he wished there had been a program like Call Me MISTER 20 years ago when he worked at Prince Edward County Schools as a guidance counselor and coach, because “there would have been many young men that I would have routed to Longwood University to take my place.”

Carter can't help but emphasize giving to the community. A minister in Buckingham County for over 20 years, Carter says “many of the things that we're talking about here, it's what I do. We're feeding the poor. We're clothing the naked.

“There are some people that are really hurting in our nation right now and they need a helping hand. They don't need pity. They need a helping hand. And I want to teach these young men that it is always ripe to do what is right.”

He reminds the MISTERs as often as possible, “You are your brother's keeper.” He also warns them that if they choose to be teachers, “you're not going to get rich being an educator. However, you are going to enrich many lives by being a teacher.”

More information on the program can be found by calling (434)395-2663 or visiting www.longwood.edu/callmemister