Teachers are a rare breed. They are grossly underpaid and severely overworked. To make matters worse, the type of diversity we really need to see in classrooms to reach students doesn’t exist.

It’s also why teacher recruitment is a fluid process.

The Call Me MISTER Program first instituted in South Carolina has made its way south and onto the campus of Edward Waters College. Starting in 2000 at Clemson University, the Call Me MISTER Program was started to “increase the pool of available teachers from a broader more diverse background particular among the State’s lowest performing elementary schools.”

In essence, the program is needed to tend to the low number of minority male teachers. According to the Department of Education, just two-percent of teachers nationwide are black.

This program has the aim of increasing that number by offering scholarships to qualified applicants.

To submit for the program, applicants must have a higher school diploma with a 2.5 GPA or better, letters of recommendations, an ACT score of 21 or higher, an SAT score of 1000 or better, and two essays. One with detail as to why one is interest in the program and the other regarding “Why I Want To Teach.”

Having more black men in the classroom is great for the purpose of diversity and to increase numbers that are tracked by the government. But for many students who need positive reinforcement through sight and viewing black men as strong role models, this program certainly is one of the more important ones offered by our institutions of higher education.