By Nemari Morales

With the demand for teachers on the rise, it’s no surprise that McCaskey has chosen to empower students in the field with a brand new opportunity — Educators Rising. Educators Rising is a community-based movement that serves schools and students interested in pursuing teaching careers, providing funding and foundations with the support of the State Departments of Education. EdRising reaches students through schools that choose to establish it as a club, and McCaskey has chosen to make the move starting in the 2023-2024 school year. 

The advisor, Amanda Funk, is a staff member at McCaskey who is currently co-teaching the Early Childhood Education program with Mrs. Johnson. In the near future, they hope to pilot a General Education program that will broaden the range of age groups students can work with. Funk’s passion for education is unmatched, having worked in various positions within the School District of Lancaster, known by many students for her time as assistant principal at Hazel I. Jackson Middle School. She has also served at other districts nearby such as Warwick. When asked what prompted her decision to bring the program to McCaskey, Funk stated, “The concept of grow-your-own is very intriguing to me. We can grow future educators to come back and teach in this district that represent the student population better than we currently do. That’s my main reason, truly. Also, my life’s work has been mentoring and teacher development as a former assistant principal and formal instructional coach. Now, I can put that into practice with future educators.” 

When beginning the program, Mrs. Funk distributed certificates to all seniors of McCaskey’s early childhood program, and to a select few juniors – Giovanni Morales, Zoe Patterson, Aryanna Raeford, Dyasia Alston, and myself, Nemari Morales. From there, we set a schedule that would work for all recurring members and got to work, settling on a few roles and plans for the 2023-2024 school year. 

Each year, Educators Rising hosts different events for members of the movement to participate in. This year’s series of events included competitions, two of which stuck out to our group – the Creative Lecture and EdRising Moment. The Creative Lecture challenged students to create a presentation regarding their beliefs on teacher salaries, while the EdRising Moment competition called for students to give an elevator speech on the moment they decided to become a teacher. On the day of the competition, students from all sorts of areas flocked to Millersville to compete and participate in the other promoted events. 

All McCaskey students who participated in the competitions were awarded – Zoe Patterson, Junior Vice President of our EdRising club won 2nd place for her lecture, taking the cake with her question: “What happens when smiles and laughter don’t pay the bills?” Aryanna Raeford, Secretary of our EdRising club won 3rd place in the competition. I competed in the EdRising Moment competition and won a certificate for achieving one of the top 10 rankings. The conference didn’t stop there, though. 

Following our entries, McCaskey’s group was offered a tour around the college. Millersville students engaging in early education studies lead the tours, detailing the opportunities the college had to offer and what brought them to their path. Different lectures were offered after the tour, one held by Elizabeth Raff – 2022 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. She spoke about ways to improve learning in the classroom, showing her methods of interactive learning that improved engagement and memory retention in her students. Her lesson lived up to expectations, using the same methods she had in her own classrooms in the room of educators to prove its functionality. The second lecture was a panel of college students and professors alike to answer any questions students had regarding the field. Another interesting factor of the conference was an opportunity for students to interact with children over zoom, all using avatars and voice changers to shield their identities. While it wasn’t exactly AI, many staff at the conference explained that the system used was one step in the right direction. With a creation like such, students in all sorts of early education programs could experience a classroom while not held back by location, transportation, or issues of liability. 

The experience was grand – so many students and faculty joined together to nurture a passion for education by learning together, all made possible by the movement. Penelope Kopchak, Senior President of McCaskey’s Educators Rising club, shared her view on the importance of such a program. 

“I think EdRising is important to both McCaskey and other schools/districts because it is incredibly important to explore a career field while in high school, and have the opportunity to explore both elementary and secondary school education. It’ll benefit in finding passionate and hardworking individuals. It’s an important institution that can provide scholarships and enrichment opportunities for students who need them. Within education, there’s the exploration of other fields. Having more things for students to do is how students can find their passion. It’s another opportunity to explore.” 

Penelope is right – Educators Rising provides students with additional resources to explore the field of education, while meeting a desperate need in our current society.