Indiana Wesleyan University’s School of Teacher Education recently established a partnership with Marion High School (MHS) to co-sponsor a future teachers’ club called Educators Rising. The goal of the partnership is simply to bring IWU Education majors together with high school students who are interested in pursuing a career in teaching.
The MHS Educators Rising seeks to help high school students cultivate a passion for teaching, to provide hands-on teaching experience and to nurture the skills they need to be successful educators. The MHS program just launched this fall and is part of the Educators Rising national membership organization for aspiring teachers and their mentors.
Throughout the year, students involved in MHS Educators Rising will come to the IWU residential campus in Marion to hold joint meetings with the IWU Student Education Association (SEA). These meetings will serve as an educational experience while also cultivating mentoring relationships between college and high school students. The first joint meeting will happen on Wednesday, Nov. 8.
“The idea was that by pairing the MHS club with our Student Education Association, we could create a beneficial relationship for both high school students and our teacher education majors,” said Dr. James Elsberry, dean, School of Teacher Education.
In the future, sponsors of both the IWU SEA and the MHS Educators Rising hope to establish a cadet teaching program for high school students to shadow teachers in the Grant County area.
“We really hope to see this partnership expand,” said Dr. Angela Leffler, IWU SEA sponsor and associate professor of Education. “We’re really excited about investing in future educators and we really want to nurture that. Our ultimate goal is simply to fuel these students’ desire to learn about the teaching field and help prepare them to teach in their own classroom one day.”
For more information about the IWU School of Teacher Education, visit indwes.edu/undergraduate/majors/school-of-teacher-education.