Wesley Mullens recalls having one African-American teacher throughout K-12, a fourth-grade teacher at Garfield Elementary School in Elgin.
The impact she had on Mullens, also an African-American, helped mold Mullens' post-secondary plans to pursue a career as an elementary school teacher - a career field underrepresented by minority men. The Elgin High School senior will attend the University of Illinois at Chicago this fall to pursue elementary education.
His upcoming enrollment at UIC received a significant financial boost Thursday, when university officials surprised Mullens at Elgin with a full scholarship. The scholarship comes from UIC's Call me MiSTER program, an effort to recruit men of color to teach at elementary schools.
"I was very surprised, very happy," Mullens, 17, said of Thursday's announcement. "Dad's here, so it's got to be important."
UIC officials, Elgin High School principal Krystal Thomas, other Elgin staff, and some family members stopped by Mullens' physical education class Thursday. Mullens did not have a clue the surprise was coming. In fact, most of the school did not receive word of the surprise announcement until Thursday morning, said Thomas.
"I think any student who has Wesley as a teacher (in the future) will benefit," said Thomas. "So many of our minority males don't see minority males as teachers. Sometimes we only hear of the negative things, we don't hear about the positive images, things our black males like Wesley are doing."
The MiSTER program - short for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models - will welcome its second group of students this fall. More than a dozen males of color make up the first two groups of MiSTER students, including Mullens. Mullens is the first student selected from a School District U46 high school, with the others coming from Chicago and Edwardsville, said Alfred Tatum, dean of UIC's College of Education.
Tatum said the program fits in line with the college's efforts to improve inclusion and equity in schools, particularly in urban schools. Studies have suggested black boys are more likely to find academic success in elementary school with a black teacher and are less likely to be expelled or suspended. Researchers believe male teachers of color can act as role models to boys of color in the classrooms.
About 2 percent of all teachers nationally are Latino or African-American men, said Tatum. In Illinois, the percentage is closer to 1 percent.
"We have to break the cycle of when you ask African-American or Latino males if they've ever had a teacher that looked like them and they say never," said Tatum.
The MiSTER program provides the prospective teachers tuition assistance via the scholarship, academic, social and cultural support systems, and job placement assistance.
In his application, Mullens wrote about his fourth-grade teacher, whom he believes helped unleash his academic potential. She moved him up to fifth grade math, providing a much-needed academic challenge, he said. Mullens eventually became a student in U46's gifted programs in elementary, middle and high school.
"If I was sitting alone, I would talk to myself," he said of his elementary school experience. "It wasn't because I was trying be a nuisance or be disruptive, it's because I was bored."
"There wasn't enough things going on to keep me occupied physically or mentally...she helped me realize I wasn't a disruption, I wasn't someone to be put into a corner to be tossed away," he said.
Mullens' father, Auvell, described the scholarship as "a gift" to not take lightly. His father believes Mullens can be a great teacher and role model to children, noting how Mullens' younger siblings gravitate toward him and look for his approval.
"I've been blessed, I'm very proud and happy," said the older Mullens. He found out about the scholarship win only two days earlier and joked how difficult it was to not spoil the surprise to his son.
In his application, Wesley spoke highly of the motivation his English teachers at Elgin High gave him.
"I want to be someone that is important to someone's life, someone that matters to them," he said.
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