Diversity enhances the workplace in innumerable ways, and education especially benefits from the presence of educators from different walks of life. Unfortunately, in today’s classrooms less than two percent of all teachers in the U.S. are black males, and only a quarter of all teachers are male identifying. This ratio is highly evident to black male students and often contributes to the cycle by providing little inspiration to become educators themselves. CU Denver, with support from the philanthropic community, and MSU Denver are hoping to address this imbalance by introducing Call Me MiSTER, a nationally acclaimed program designed to provide support and opportunity to aspiring black male educators.

Short for “Mentors Instructing Students Towards Effective Role Models,” the Call Me MiSTER program offers its students, referred to as “MiSTERs,” financial coverage of tuition, academic support, and the opportunity to learn and grow within a cohort over the course of their academic careers. The program was inaugurated in 2000 at four South Carolina universities, three of which are Historically Black Colleges or Universities. The program since expanded to universities across 12 different states, including Georgia, Virginia, and Louisiana, and has contributed to southern states reaching the highest percentage of black male teachers in the entire country. 

Reducing Barriers to Impactful Careers in Teaching

MSU Denver launched Call Me MiSTER last fall and will partner closely with CU Denver’s  MiSTERs when the program debuts next fall, creating the first-ever regional cohort of the program; it will be known as Mile High MiSTER. “The program attempts to reduce some of the barriers to males getting into classrooms and makes it [teaching] something that’s appropriate as service to the community, with a focus on males of color in particular,” says antwan jefferson (pictured at right), an Associate Dean of the School of Education and Human Development (SEHD). “Like most institutions around the nation, our teacher-ed program at CU Denver is mostly female, which is fine. We need skilled and caring classroom teachers regardless of the parts of their identity, but drawing particular attention to the role of males in classrooms as teachers is a step in the direction of bringing a little more parity to what our children get exposed to throughout their childhood.” 

A black educator himself, antwan originally went to college to pursue a career in surgery and had never thought about going into teaching. It wasn’t until a group of black men at Morehouse College had joined forces to become teachers that the idea crossed his mind. “What this organization did when I was a student was communicate to me, ‘Oh, I should think about education, and there are other black males like me thinking about education,’ and I learned about it in an affirming space,” he said, reflecting on how all it took to find his desired career path was simply to be presented with the opportunity. “The invitation was to join this cadre of individuals who had demographic characteristics similar to my own and were also thinking about a career in this field, and that invitation is what sent me down that pathway.” Antwan believes that the Call Me MiSTER program will allow the same invitation to be more consistently offered to black and male students within the CU Denver community.

New Doors Will Open for Teachers and Students

With the Mile High MiSTERS, Denver is the farthest west the program has spread out of more than 40 cohorts in the country. The initiative utilizes co-curricular programming, meaning that students will be combining the required coursework of the teacher-ed program with MiSTER-exclusive opportunities such as visits to local schools, professional travel opportunities, and shared residence within a living learning community. Although the original curriculum was created specifically for black males, all aspiring male educators are eligible and encouraged to join. 

CU Denver faculty and supporters, including SEHD Dean Marvin Lynn, Provost Constancio Nakuma, and CU Foundation Trustee Phil Harding, have welcomed the program at CU Denver. “Every city needs [a program like] this,” says Phil, discussing his interest in bringing more inspiring male role models into the classroom. “I hope we get Call Me MiSTER in every major metropolitan city, especially larger cities with low-performing elementary schools.” The excitement and growing support around the program have greatly increased its potential for success and will allow new doors to open for passionate students inspired and motivated by a love for education.