FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: June 11, 2003
Contact: Loretta Meeks, 206-7008
SPRINGFIELD -- Project Minority Student Support for
Teaching, a program of the University of Illinois at Springfield designed to
prepare minority students for careers as teachers, will hold its 14th
Annual Summer Conference Friday, June 13, on the UIS campus.
Speakers at the daylong event include Dr. Jack E.
Daniels III, president of Lincoln Land Community College, and Dr. Robert
Schiller, superintendent of education for the state of Illinois.
Project MSS is an effort to assist the Springfield and
Decatur school districts to recruit and retain minority elementary and
secondary teachers. In addition to UIS, project partners are Lincoln Land
Community College, Richland Community College, Springfield District 186,
Decatur District 61, and the Springfield Urban League.
Director Loretta Meeks, UIS professor of Teacher
Education, explained, “There is a shortage of minority teachers, both locally
and nationally, especially in the areas of mathematics, science, and English.
This is one of the districts’ primary initiatives in addressing this shortage.
In fact we are recognized as District 186’s primary recruitment initiative for
African-American teachers.”
Students who participate in the project are recruited
in their junior year of high school and make a commitment to return to the
Springfield or Decatur schools for at least two years after obtaining
certification. To date, 16 graduates of the project have entered the teaching
force as a result of this program.
Meeks noted that Project MSS students also volunteer a
minimum of 10 hours to their
-more-
communities
each semester, last year donating a total of 500 hours. “In their professional
and
volunteer
efforts, these students are excellent assets to the Springfield and Decatur
communities,” she said.
Currently participating students from UIS are India
Clemons, Lester Hampton, and Kila Young (all 2003 graduates); Tijuana Akers,
LaTonya Davis, Ted Harrison, Matt Nunn, Jeremy Prather, and Shaunda Waters.
Community college participants are Robert Horton,
Serita Link, Artica Moore, Keesha Moore, and Gaylon Richards (all from LLCC),
and Tiona Johnson from Richland.
Participants from Springfield high schools are Jarika Alexander, Emory
Appleberry, Lance Dickerson, Quinn Gregory, Willie Gregory, Ashley Harden,
Ashley Jelks, and Simon Wilson (all from Lanphier); Markeisha Alexander and
Yo’Landa Robinson (both from Springfield); and Quianna Buckner, Adrean Davis,
Shanee Davis, Kiara Hickman, Kenneth Higgins Jr., Leah Kincaid, Merissa Pryor,
Veniya Robinson, Tanya Rolfe, and Nita Stowe (all from Southeast).
Participants from Decatur Eisenhower are Tiffany Jackson,
LaTonya Patterson, Haley Robinson, Katrina Taylor, and Charlotte Vaughn.
Student-inductees for 2004 are Betty Archer, Marco
Coelho, Diana Dobie, Merilyn Herbert, and Robert Horton.
For more information about Project Minority Student
Support for Teaching, call Meeks at (217) 206-7008 or go to
http://people.uis.edu/lmeek1/mssmain.html.
-30-