The University of Tennessee at Martin Call Me MiSTER program will recognize its first five graduating seniors at 6 p.m., Monday, April 17, at the 2023 Louis C. Glover UT Martin Call Me MiSTER Celebration. The event will be held in the Boling University Center’s Duncan Ballroom and is being sponsored by Tosh Farms in Henry County. UT Martin has the only Call Me MiSTER program in Tennessee.
The Call Me MiSTER program, founded at Clemson University in 2000, seeks to increase the pool of available teachers from a more diverse background, particularly among the states lowest-preforming elementary schools. Student participants are largely selected from among under-served, socio-economically disadvantaged and educationally at-risk communities. The teacher leadership program provides participants with the tools necessary to succeed as pre-service teachers.
Students graduating from the program and to be honored April 17 will be Logan Davis, a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies major with a Health and Human Performance K-12 focus from Memphis; Jonathan Utley, a Health and Human Performance K-12 major from Jackson; Tydarius Blackwell, an Education Integrated Studies 6-8 mathematics major from Jackson; Justyn ‘Jax’ Johnson, an Education Integrated Studies 6-8 social-studies major from Union City; and Lathon Ross, an Education Integrated Studies K-5 elementary education major from Jackson. Each will later receive his degree during the university’s 2 p.m. commencement ceremony, Saturday, May 6, in the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
The invitation-only program April 17 will feature the presentation of Call Me MiSTER blazers to the five seniors. The presentations will be made by Cynthia West, dean for the UT Martin College of Education, Health, and Behavioral Sciences; Dr. Roy Jones, of Clemson University, and national director of Call Me MiSTER; Dr. Philip Acree Cavalier, UT Martin interim chancellor; Austin Ferrell, program co-coordinator and academic success coordinator for the UT Martin Call Me MiSTER program, and UT Martin lecturer of educational studies; and Samuel Tharpe, program co-coordinator and community outreach and advancement coordinator.
The program emcee will be Dr. Mary Giles, development and training coordinator for the UT Martin Call Me MiSTER program, and assistant professor of educational studies. The event coordinators are Ferrell, Giles and Tharpe. The celebration event is named in memory of the late Dr. Louis C. Glover, initial program coordinator for the UT Martin Call Me MiSTER program who also taught in the university’s Department of Educational Studies.
For more information, contact the College of Education, Health and Behavioral Sciences at 731-881-7125, or contact Tharpe at stharpe@utm.edu, Ferrell at ausferr@ut.utm.edu or Giles at mgiles7@utm.edu.
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