{"id":6409,"date":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2017\/02\/03\/the-class-project\/"},"modified":"2024-07-23T16:51:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T20:51:19","slug":"the-class-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/the-class-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The class project"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jason Terrell \u201912 began teaching English at James Martin middle school in Charlotte a few years ago he noticed something both interesting and disturbing\u2014the diversity of the student body did not reflect the diversity of the teachers. Truth be told, there was not much diversity among the teaching population. For some of Terrell\u2019s students he was the first black male educator they had ever seen, not to mention their first positive, black male role model. But he\u00a0wasn\u2019t really all that surprised. What his students were experiencing in Charlotte was very similar to Terrell\u2019s experience as young student in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t the best in middle school or high school,\u201d he\u00a0says. \u201cI really didn\u2019t have any role models in school so I didn\u2019t care, it just wasn\u2019t very important to me.\u201d Despite being pushed by his parents and grandparents to \u201calways do his best\u201d and \u201ckeep striving to improve\u201d Terrell\u00a0didn\u2019t find that same type of support in the classroom. \u201cThe teachers cared, but they seemed more focused on keeping order than really investing in the students growth,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I had someone at school reinforcing what my parents were telling me at home it would have helped me tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Terrell\u00a0is an intelligent guy, and through some hard work and self-motivation he entered Furman in 2008 with plans to study political science and eventually attend law school. During his junior year he\u00a0met Glen\u00a0Halva-Neubauer,\u00a0Dana Professor of Political Science\u00a0and director of Furman’s\u00a0Mock Trial<\/a> and Public Service Internship programs. \u201cHe became my mentor,\u201d Terrell\u00a0says. \u201cHe asked me about my interests, got me involved with mock trial, and told me about all the things Furman could offer me. He really took the time to coach me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a member of the NAACP at Furman<\/a>, Terrell\u00a0worked with the Urban League of Greenville which led to an internship with the Urban League of Atlanta in his\u00a0hometown the summer before his senior year. During that summer Terrell\u00a0worked alongside other Urban League interns and staff, helping local inner city high school students. \u201cIt was basically a college prep class, and I was an assistant director and teacher,\u201d he\u00a0says. \u201cSome days we took\u00a0students to visit colleges and universities, and it was amazing to watch them walk around these institutions and began to think that they might actually belong there. That summer changed my whole trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrell returned to Furman in the fall as a man at a crossroads. For years being an attorney had been his sole focus, but now he was beginning to imagine the impact he could have as a teacher, a mentor, and a positive black male role model to students who felt isolated and disadvantaged. It was a tough decision to make, and the choice became significantly more difficult when he\u00a0was offered a full ride to law school on a diversity scholarship. \u201cOn the last day to accept it, I declined,\u201d Terrell\u00a0says. \u201cMy family was definitely shocked by that because I was so focused on being an attorney. But I had made the decision to go teach.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating Furman in 2012 Terrell\u00a0joined Teach for America where he found himself in that middle school in north Charlotte thinking about the lack of diversity among the teaching staff. He\u00a0started doing some research and discovered a troubling statistic: Only two percent of all of the teachers in the nation are men of color. \u201cStudents don\u2019t have very many opportunities to see men of color in the school building,\u201d he\u00a0says. \u201cSo the idea of being a teacher isn\u2019t a reality for a lot of boys, and that\u2019s just because there is a lack of representation.\u201d Terrell\u00a0also quickly discovered that as a black male teacher he was expected to take on additional duties, what the former U.S. Secretary of\u00a0Education John King Jr., labeled as “the invisible tax on teachers of color.” \u201cBecause you have a unique story and a unique identity schools look to you to handle a lot of responsibilities that you are probably not ready to handle, like discipline issues,\u201d he\u00a0says. \u201cJust having somebody to help navigate that is important. I was fortunate enough to have a male at my school named Mr. Brooks. He was a thirteen-year veteran, and he took me under his wing and became my mentor. I would go into his room and just vent. But a lot of teachers don\u2019t have that support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

HeartWork School Partners like Sedgefield Middle School in Charlotte, N.C., provide opportunities for Gentlemen to network.<\/p><\/div>\n

At the same time Terrell\u2019s friend Mario Jovan Shaw, another Teach for America teacher in Charlotte, was having a similar experience of isolation. So the two young men began hosting small house gatherings in Charlotte where teachers who were men of color could tell their stories and offer each other support. These were the humble beginnings of Profound Gentlemen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially it was just come over, hang out, and let\u2019s talk about what\u2019s going on in the schools and in the classrooms because it\u2019s very easy to feel isolated,\u201d Terrell\u00a0says. \u201cThose gatherings quickly grew from eight teachers to ten to twenty to thirty. We knew we had something and wondered how we could take it and replicate it in other cities.\u201d As the momentum of Profound Gentlemen picked up speed other organizations began to take note, and in 2015 Terrell\u00a0and Shaw\u00a0were awarded the Echoing Green fellowship, the same fellowship that funded Teach for America and AmeriCorps. \u201cThey fund you for two years,\u201d Terrell\u00a0says. \u201cSo this allowed us to quit our teaching jobs and focus full time on growing Profound Gentlemen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today Profound Gentlemen has 125 members as well as part time staff in four cities: Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Memphis. \u201cThese teachers are leading bi-monthly professional development sessions for other teachers and building a really great community atmosphere,\u201d Terrell\u00a0says. \u201cAnd now we want to increase our membership and the number of cities we serve. We\u2019re currently looking at New York, Philadelphia and some smaller communities as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal of Profound Gentlemen goes beyond just supporting and mentoring male teachers of color to also inspiring boys of color to reach their potential, both socially and academically, and see teaching as a career in which they can thrive. \u201cMen of color don\u2019t go into the profession because they fear they will be isolated,\u201d he\u00a0says. \u201cThat isolation is one of the biggest things we are trying to combat, and our way of doing that is using current teachers. Because who better to tell the story of teachers than teachers themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrell\u00a0will tell you that declining that full ride to law school was one of the best decisions of his life. His desire to \u201cmake a positive impact\u201d is now a daily reality as the retention rate for teachers in the Profound Gentlemen program is 95%, compared to 55% of men of color who are not in the program. So far Profound Gentlemen has directly impacted over 500 teachers, and in the fall of last year Terrell\u00a0and Shaw\u00a0were named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list of Social Entrepreneurs. \u201cIt\u2019s all been amazing,\u201d Jason says. \u201cLooking back Dr. Halva-Neubauer and also Dr. Sneed in the Education Department are the professors at Furman who pushed me to pursue my passion for teaching, rather than law. I\u2019m really glad they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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