Evan Merkhofer, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Mount Saint Mary College, and Bettye Perkins, president and CEO of Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers, shake hands after signing the paperwork officially naming the college as a TSTT partner. Jennifer Bready, Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences, and Education and Professor of Mathematics at the college (far right), served as both a driving force behind the new partnership and master of ceremonies at the signing event.
Mount Saint Mary College and the non-profit organization Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers (TSTT) recently celebrated a new partnership, strengthening the pathway for diverse and economically challenged high school students to become teachers.
Administrators from both organizations joined at a signing event on Thursday, October 23, held at the Mount campus.
“When the Mount started as an institution founded by the Dominican Sisters over 60 years ago, the focus was on educating teachers – and it still is,” said Evan Merkhofer, Vice President for Academic Affairs at the college. “We need great teachers for our schools, and we educate great teachers here at the Mount. I’m really excited that we’re able to become part of this partnership and give this opportunity to many students.”
TSTT, which was founded in 1994 by president and CEO Bettye Perkins, is a career development model that recruits, mentors, and trains culturally diverse and economically challenged students from high school through college. TSTT serves more than 800 high school and college students in New York, Connecticut, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Forty-five percent of the students are African-American, 40 percent are Hispanic/Latino, and 75 percent are the first in their families to attend college.
As a college partner, the Mount offers TSTT students eligibility for a minimum 50 percent tuition scholarship upon successful completion of the program.
“I grew up in a very small rural community in South Carolina,” Perkins explained. “If it were not for those caring, committed teachers, I really don't know where I would be. They were the ones who believed in me, who helped me to build good character and self-esteem.”
Those teachers inspired Perkins to found the TSTT program and pass that opportunity for success on to future generations, she noted.
TSTT provides its students with a comprehensive, research-based, eight-year syllabus. They are required to maintain a B+ average by their senior year in high school and volunteer as tutors. The organization boasts impressive results, including a 95 percent high school graduation rate and a 96 percent college admission rate.
Mikaela Beaubrun, a senior at Roy C Ketcham High School, discussed how the TSTT program is helping her to achieve her dream of becoming a science teacher.
“Through TSTT activities, college tours, and group meetings... I’ve gained invaluable insights into the world of teaching,” Beaubrun said. “I hope to become a middle school teacher and create a classroom where every child feels safe. That’s why I want to attend Mount Saint Mary College, because of the strong education program and commitment to community engagement.”