Aspiring educators visit Montana State in celebration of National Be a Teacher Day

BOZEMAN - Nine aspiring educators from the small southwest Montana community of Manhattan visited Montana State University ahead of National Be a Teacher Day on Oct. 8.

The Oct. 1 event marked many participating high school students' first step toward navigating college decisions, from scholarship applications to exploring majors. It was also part of a national initiative connecting students to colleges through Family Career and Community Leaders of America, of which Manhattan High School senior Brock Romero is a national officer.

Romero hopes to one day teach family and consumer sciences, and he noticed MSU has the only such degree program in the state. The university also happens to facilitate the online Future Montana Educators' Club, where Romero develops leadership and teaching skills and connects with other Montana students who may attend MSU's College of Education, Health and Human Development in the future.

Though he has visited MSU before through a Future Montana Educators camp, he found there were still things left to learn about college life during the Oct. 1 event he spearheaded.

"What kind of surprised me is the amount of people that are there for you," he said. "If you need help, there are so many people that you can go talk to and that genuinely care about you succeeding. They're looking at what impact you can make and what potential you have."

During the event, MSU's financial aid staff told students they are available to discuss scholarships and college budgeting any time, whether or not the high schoolers will attend MSU. Participants also met with MSU student ambassadors, academic advisers and took a faculty-led tour of Herrick Hall's food and nutrition labs, which were of interest to the several aspiring family and consumer sciences teachers.

Romero values the subject's ability to provide students with life skills such as cooking and financial literacy, as well as its community impact. His local FCCLA chapter cooked and packaged meals for a senior center and others struggling with food insecurity last year. He credits these experiences and the mentorship he receives from his FCCLA adviser, Amanda Swenson, with helping pave his path to teaching.

Swenson, who graduated from MSU in 2018, has entered her ninth year teaching at Manhattan High School. In that time, she said she has seen the nationwide teacher shortage impact Montana, where open teaching positions that once received about 10 applicants now often receive less than three.

Data from the Institute of Education Sciences show that more than half of Montana school districts have difficulty filling positions, and there are hundreds of teacher vacancies across the state.

"In Montana and across the nation, there's a shortage of teachers," said Marcie Reuer, associate teaching professor and director of outreach and engagement for MSU's Department of Education, who facilitated the Oct. 1 event. "Any time we have a high school student expressing interest in becoming a teacher, we want to help them navigate their path into post-secondary education and into the teaching profession. By fostering students' love of teaching through thorough preparation, a diversity of classroom experiences and dedicated faculty, we hope to grow the pool of passionate, quality teachers in Montana."

When the high schoolers shadowed a science education methods course, they learned about MSU student experiences in classrooms across the state, particularly those in rural towns most impacted by national teacher shortages. Clara Jones, a senior from Kalispell studying general science broadfield teaching, shared with high schoolers a recent weeklong teaching experience in Troy as part of MSU's Rural Teacher Pathways program.

"It's fun remembering where I was, starting off teaching, and now I'm so confident with it," Jones said. "[Events] like this in high school are what got me to be a teacher."

Jones and other education students also worked with the high schoolers on an exercise incorporating indigenous expertise into science lessons. Terilyn Solomon, a Manhattan High School senior, was particularly excited that the assignment mentioned her tribe, the Lummi Nation in northwest Washington.

Her parents taught the Lummi language, among other subjects, to middle schoolers in Ferndale, Washington, before they moved to Manhattan. Solomon said her desire to teach history or math came from their impact on students, as well as her middle school teachers who also taught her parents in their youth.

"I've always kind of loved that generational impact teachers have," she said. "I just want to be a teacher that is caring about my students and catering to the students' needs."

Gracie Bassett, a Manhattan High School senior, shares a similar goal inspired by her dyslexia diagnosis in fifth grade. She said she struggled to read and felt insecure because she learned differently than her peers. Teachers played an important role in supporting her at the time, and she is now a state FCCLA officer aiming to teach family and consumer sciences.

"I really want to be that for someone else and be able to help students as much as my teachers have been able to help me," Bassett said.