Earlier this month, the University of Mississippi notified Union High School senior Julia Dawn Alexander that she had been chosen as a Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program fellow.
Since 2013, the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation has awarded the College of Education at Mississippi State University and the School of Education at the University of Mississippi a grant for the METP to attract top-performing students to the field of education. Both Ole Miss and MSU currently accept up to 30 students to the program each year, and once selected, each MEPT fellow makes a five-year commitment to teach at a Mississippi public school after graduation.
Alexander said that until recently, she had never seriously considered teaching as a career but that her tutoring of younger students opened the door for her.
“In October of my senior year, the mom of a little boy I tutor asked me about my future plans. Until that day, that question always received the very rehearsed and almost robotic answer: ‘I am going straight to Ole Miss to double major in English and International Studies, and I then want to go to law school,”’ said Alexander. “This mom unknowingly changed my entire career path and future plans when she asked me if I had ever thought about becoming a teacher. At first, I laughed. She then told me that she understood, but she mentioned that I was great at tutoring and that if law school didn’t work out, I should consider teaching.
“Over the next few weeks, her suggestion lingered in the back of my mind; I slowly began to realize that I had tutored multiple students the past few years, that each student had improved, and that I actually enjoyed it.”
Alexander said that once she was almost convinced that she wanted to be a teacher, she received a letter in the mail from the Ole Miss Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program. The letter included a detailed list of everything fellows would receive full tuition scholarship for four years, room and board (or monthly stipends while living off campus), up to $1,000 for a new tablet or laptop and up to $6,000 to study educational issues abroad.
“Despite my previous thoughts about teaching, I decided to apply for the METP, just in case,” she said. “On March 2, I got a call from the director of the METP who told me that I was one of the 30 people accepted into the program. I was completely over the moon and started sobbing immediately. I am so grateful and so blessed to have this opportunity, and I cannot wait to see what else God has in store for me!”
