Interested in Teaching Science or Math? We PERSIST!
Pre-College Experiences to Recruit Students Into Science Teaching (PERSIST) is a science and mathematics teacher recruitment program for high school students with high potential, but who may not have been encouraged to pursue mathematics or science teaching as a career.
The NC MSEN PERSIST Scholars Fall Leadership Conference, Pathways to Teaching, hosted 55 high school seniors from across the state on October 2. Dr. Rita Fuller, Director, NC-MSEN Pre-College Program; Mr. Braska Williams, NC State University NC-MSEN Pre-College Program Coordinator; and Danny Bland, Director of the NC Teaching Fellows planed the conference for the students in the PERSIST Scholars Program. It was held at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation on NC State University’s Centennial Campus.
“This conference is necessary so that students understand that we want and need people to pursue careers in math and science teaching. Also, it was great for them to understand more about the NC Teaching Fellows program and the support that it provides,” said Williams, Coordinator of the NC-MSEN Pre-College Program at NC State.
Sponsored by a Burroughs Welcome Fund grant to the North Carolina Mathematics and Science Education Network (NC MSEN) Pre-College Program, five UNC campus sites (Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte, and Winston-Salem State University) are involved. North Carolina State and North Carolina A&T State universities have identified high school freshmen to begin later this month.
From the beginning, one of the goals of PERSIST was to not only encourage the participants tobecome teachers, but to also prepare them to take advantage of available scholarship opportunities as seniors. The leadership conference was created to prepare the PERSIST seniors to apply for available teaching scholarships this fall.
Pathways to Teaching gave the students all of the necessary information to make the transition from high school student to college student, and then to teacher preparation program participant. Special guests included: Dean Jayne Fleener, NC State University’s College of Education; 2010-11 NC Teacher of the Year, Ms. Jennifer Facciolini, a 1998 Meredith College Teaching Fellows graduate; Ms. Tamica Stubbs, a recent Burroughs Welcome Fund Science Teacher Award winner; Dr. Vincent Snipes, Winston-Salem State University; Dr. Elaine Franklin, Western Carolina University; Mrs. Sarita Broadway, College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC); and a panel of freshmen through senior Teaching Fellows from NC State and North Carolina Central universities.
The students had the opportunity to hear short presentations from each of the education recruiters in attendance regarding requirements for admission and available program offerings. Breakout sessions included: Thinking about Teaching; College Matriculation: Requirements for Teaching; Professional Teaching Requirements; and College Affordability.
