MTSU Mondays: Teacher recruitment program launched, student-veterans earn degrees
Here's the latest news from Middle Tennessee State University.
Program creates teacher pipeline to high-needs school districts
The State Collaborative on Reforming Education, or SCORE, has joined forces for an innovative program to recruit prospective teachers from school districts within high-needs, rural areas of the state, train them at the College of Education and return them to teach in their local communities.
An agreement was signed on May 8 to help launch the Tennessee Teach Back Initiative, with SCORE initially committing to over $90,000 the first year, with subsequent awards upon successful outcomes over a three-year period. This funding will support the new recruitment and engagement specialist who will manage recruitment and retention with the initiative and assist with establishing partnerships with school districts across the state.
Under the initiative, participating school districts would agree to fund any last-dollar scholarships — remaining costs after all other scholarships and grants — for their students’ education to earn initial teaching licensure. In exchange, those students will return to their local districts to teach for at least the same amount of time they spent earning their initial teaching licensure.
University President Sidney A. McPhee praised the partnership during remarks at the signing ceremony hosted in the gymnasium at Homer Pittard Campus School, a K-5 teaching laboratory school located on the western edge of the campus.
SCORE is a Tennessee education and research nonprofit that works to ensure public education in the state continues to deliver academic progress for students from kindergarten through career, according to its website.
MTSU has previously partnered with the nonprofit, most recently in 2019 to support creating research-supported innovations to inform the College of Education’s continuous improvement process for its curriculum.
‘Resilience, determination’ drive graduating veterans to next phase
U.S. Army veteran Kenel Saint Soir’s voyage through life — from growing up in Haiti without running water and electricity to military service and graduating with a full-time job — “has been a story of resilience, perseverance, determination, and, most importantly, the divine power to never give up,” he said.
With an ever-present smile and a man of faith, Saint Soir (pronounced SAIN SWAH) of Franklin, Tennessee, studied land development and residential construction management (3.5 GPA) in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences’ School of Concrete and Construction Management between his military career (honorably discharged as staff sergeant) and working as production supervisor at Ryan Homes, building homes for customers.
He navigated MTSU without the G.I. Bill because he had been out of the military for too long. The university’s Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center “was instrumental in helping me to get vocational rehabilitation to cover my tuition costs and basic housing allowance, so thankful for their support.”
Saint Soir and a near-record 60 graduating veterans attended the spring Graduating Veterans Stole Ceremony on May 3 in the Miller Education Center’s second-floor atrium, with Amazon Military as the presenting sponsor. MTSU held its spring commencement ceremonies on May 5 and 6.
MTSU Mondays content is provided by submissions from MTSU News and Media Relations.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU Mondays: Teacher recruitment program launched, student-veterans earn degrees
