“For Call Me MiSTER (CMM), the goal is simple,” said the founder of the inaugural Denver chapter, Dr. Rashad Anderson. “We want to recruit and train Black male educators for the community, but not just settling for Black males; we want revolutionary educators.”
Dr. Anderson was recruited from South Carolina State University’s CMM chapter to start an MSU Denver cohort in January 2024. He is now the standing director and associate professor at the School of Education at MSU Denver but also stands as a speaker and consultant around the country and abroad.
MiSTER is an acronym for “Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models.” CMM is a national program that organizes university-sponsored cohorts to help underserved students enter teaching programs. CMM clubs are integrated into each student’s degree progression to help them become degree-certified teachers. Dr. Anderson was joined by three CMM members from the South Carolina State chapter, Jordan Puch, Joshua Barringer and Christopher Livingston II, who are deeply committed to the organization’s mission.
“Out of all the educators in America, only 2% are Black males,” Puch said. “I knew there was a need for Black males in the classroom, and that was the first time I thought of education at a national scale and what it looks like to lead my neighborhood and make a national impact.”
Underserved communities face a representation gap in schools. The MiSTERs are given a model to guide them through the program and fill in the gaps. When each member completes the program, they will be able to have the same impact on another child’s life.
The standing CMM vice president, freshman Brandon Edmon, is in his second semester at MSU and is also a product of MiSTER outreach. Edmon has only been a Denver resident and a member of the CMM undergraduate program since January 6, this year.
Edmon, who is originally from Montego Bay, Jamaica, met Dr. Anderson while attending a CMM brotherhood retreat in his hometown. As the student leader of nearly 1200 students at Anchovy High School, Edmon was able to connect with the MiSTERs at a conference in a neighboring high school, where Dr. Anderson encouraged him to apply to his program.
Edmon was inspired by Dr. Anderson’s comments about CMM’s plan and purpose. “I grew up in a very violent community,” Edmon said. “There were not many role models to model in the community.” Mr. Gentles, Edmon’s teacher, was one leader who had a positive influence on his life.
“He was that guide for me as a young man who was coming from a ghetto,” said Edmon. “I say to myself, ‘If this man can make a genuine impact on me, why can I not do the same thing for another child who is in a similar situation as me.’”
The MiSTER program addresses the education diversity gap in Black men’s representation in education early on. CMM provides classroom opportunities for its members to be placed in schools for assemblies, interactive events, and other face-to-face interactions with students.
As their first taste of Denver, Puch and his fellow MiSTERs attended the ASCD Conference for education at the Colorado Convention Center in April 2023, where Dr. Anderson connected them with Colorado educators.
Puch was able to speak to Denver Public School students and they revealed to him that they never had the privilege of a black male teacher. As Puch and Anderson worked the room, ASCD panelists were inspired by the CMM movement. “[He] was so amazed that I was going to become a teacher and that Dr. Anderson was a professor,” said Puch.
Barringer, the current CMM president, is a junior majoring in secondary education. As one of the founding members of the Denver cohort, Barringer was able to help expand the vision of the MiSTER program.
“It’s rooted deeply in my family,” Barringer said. “My mom’s a principal. Being in her school all the time; seeing the inspiration that she was … that was my role model and my push. This is what I want to do. This is what I love doing.”
The MiSTERs are currently building relationships with public schools around the Denver metro area to recruit more program hopefuls. The Denver cohort has an extension at Green Valley Elementary, which allows CMM to plan classroom time, events, and assemblies for the “Little MiSTERs.”
The MiSTERs, upon entering the program, are paired with an upperclassman in a mentor-to-mentee relationship. They will also spend all four of their undergrad years living amongst each other in a designated section of the Auraria Campus dormitories.
“We grow as a cohort,” Edmon said. “There is a part of our vision statement where we say, ‘Dream work makes the teamwork.'”
In recognition of its work, CMM was awarded “Education Organization of the Year” at the 2024 Excellence in Education Gala on Friday, September 13. Hosted by the Colorado Men of Color Collaborative, the BIPOC education community was given recognition at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Dr. Anderson gave the keynote speech on the power of diversity within the education community and Edmon was awarded the Teach Colorado Call Me MiSTER Scholarship.
Less than a year into setting up the foundation for Call Me MiSTER’s work, the cohort has firmly planted its presence in the Denver metro area. It looks forward to expanding its mentoring program to recruit new MiSTERs from other district schools in 2025.
“I always ask, ‘Are you a thermometer or are you a thermostat?’’ Dr. Anderson said. “What I mean by that is that we want people to enter a space and change the whole temperature of that culture for the positive and for the good.”
