TAMPA, Fla. — We all know just how important teachers are. They give our children the tools to succeed.
So when Dr. Brenda Walker noticed a big gap in her classroom, she decided to act.
"I assumed an Assistant Professor position at the University of South Florida in 1991. And I was so excited, I moved, I'd done my doctorate at the University of Kansas. So, I was so excited to come to the Tampa Bay area because of the metropolitan area and knowing that it would be so diverse. I walked in my first class at the University of South Florida in the College of Education to prepare teachers. And there was a virtual absence of Black or African American men in my classroom. I was very dismayed," she recalled.
So, she decided to write a grant for Program PILOT, which stands for Preparing Innovative Leaders of Tomorrow.
"The whole intent of Project PILOT was not just to put Black men in front of classes. It was to put effective Black men, many of whom grew up in the same kinds of communities as the students, that we want to impact," she said.
Through federal grant money, it launched in 1995. She had a goal of finding 10 participants for the first cohort.
"Our very first cohort of Project PILOT men, we had 13. And I didn't have a lot of funds for recruitment. Xerox machine was my best friend. I ran off some fliers and took them to barber shops and places where African American and Black men frequent," she said.
Her idea for meeting young Black male students in a different way spoke to Ian Wilson, Sr.
"I enjoy building those partnerships with the students. First, pouring into those students, teaching them to believe in themselves and know their worth. For me, once you learn and realize their worth, and they're motivated, and they just need that one person that's going to support them. And that's all you need, the sky's the limit," he said,
Working with those students takes him back to his time in those same seats.
"In school, I was labeled ESC. Right. But they were never able to put me into classes because I tested out. I just had, you know, the behavior problems," he explained.
To this day, Dr. Walker is still working to help the children who are statistically left behind. She's launched other projects. Call Me Mister is the most recent one.
"In Call Me Mister now, there are women and there are educators of all racial backgrounds. But there are two criteria in particular. And one is that you have to be yourself from a low-income background. And you have to have the heart and the desire to be an effective educator in Turnaround Schools, or transition schools, or low-income schools," she explained.
Right now, she's looking for more people to join her.
"If you already have a degree and it's not in education and you want to teach and you want to be an effective teacher, we have our Master of Art in Teaching program or MAT program. So you can also be a part of Call Me Mister either at the Masters level or the Undergraduate level," she said.
If you're interested, you can call or email Dr. Walker. You can call her at (813) 974-1385.
