MARTIN, TN — "Exceptional."
That's the word Administrative Coordinator Samuel Tharpe uses to describe the first five young men graduating from Tennessee's only Call Me MiSTER® program at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
UT Martin will recognize these graduating seniors at the Duncan Ballroom in the Boling University Center at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 17, where they will be presented with Call Me MiSTER® blazers.
According to a release from UT Martin, student participants are "largely selected from among under-served, socio-economically disadvantaged and educationally at-risk communities."
The Institute of Education Sciences explains on their website the primary mission of the program when it was founded at Clemons University in 2000 was to address the "significant shortage of African American men teaching in K-8 public elementary school classrooms."
UT Martin says participants are guided by their vision statement, which reads:
I am a dedicated Servant Leader who is perpetuating a sorely needed concept - Servant-Leaders as role models in elementary schools. I am devoted to planting seeds of dignity and respect in children and inspiring them to cultivate those seeds producing a crop of unprecedented success. I will teach reading, writing and arithmetic and progress to self-esteem, imagination, and determination. Because of my immeasurable promise, not only have I earned your respect, I demand it! A title is only important if ones character and integrity dictate its use. When you address me, please verbalize my destiny ... please do not call me by my first name ... call me in reference to my great vision ... call me MiSTER®!
UT Martin's five graduating seniors include:
- Memphis native Logan Davis, graduating with a bachelor of interdisciplinary studies major and a focus in health and human performance for grades K-12.
- Jackson native Jonathan Utley, graduating with a health and human performance major for grades K-12.
- Jackson native Tydarius Blackwell, graduating with an education integrated studies mathematics major for grades 6-8.
- Union City native Justyn ‘Jax’ Johnson, graduating with an education integrated studies major for grades 6-8.
- Jackson native Lathon Ross, graduating with an education integrated studies elementary education major for grades K-5.
According to the release, students will receive their degrees at the university's commencement ceremony in the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center at 2 p.m. on May 6.
In a phone call with Local 6, Tharpe called the graduating students exceptional and incredible, and said he expects the event to be well attended.
The program is also available at Eastern Kentucky University.
