Dr. Ron Drayton, MTC vice president for academic affairs; Dr. Roy Jones, Call Me MISTER program director; Winston Holton, Call Me MISTER Program Coordinator; and Hayward Jean, collaborator for Claflin University's Call Me MISTER; participate in the Call Me MISTER summit at Midlands Technical College. Midlands Technical College hosted a statewide Call Me MISTER summit on Saturday, November 15, 2008, at the Airport Campus. Call Me MISTER is a program that seeks to recruit, train, and assist in the certification of black males who are interested in becoming elementary school teachers in South Carolina's public schools. This was the first time the biannual summit had been held at a South Carolina two- year college.

The summit, for which all Call Me MISTER students statewide were asked to attend, provided educational development opportunities and important program updates for participating students. Approximately 110 students statewide and five Midlands Technical College Call Me MISTER students participated in the summit.

The keynote speaker for the summit was Hotep, a Georgia elementary school teacher and founder of HustleUniversity.org, an educational resource for entrepreneurs. Hotep has produced/directed two award- winning documentaries, written two books, published a quarterly newspaper, and released four albums.

MTC's Call Me MISTER program prepares students for the first two years of a teacher education training program. Upon completion of the MTC Call Me MISTER program and/or prerequisite requirements, students may transfer to a participating four- year institution's Call Me MISTER program to complete a bachelor's degree in elementary education. Call Me MISTER was founded and is based at Clemson University.

Paul Livingston, academic coach for MTC's Call Me MISTER program, said, "What's most exciting to me is to see these young men come together sharing ideas about what they think about teaching elementary school kids."

For more information about MTC's Call Me MISTER program, please visit http://www.midlandstech.edu/mister.