The Association of Male Educators or AME, an unofficial group on the Wayne State College campus, met for the first time last week to push their message for support of male educators on campus as they look to put together their final pieces.
AME is run by freshmen students president Owen Elsasser, vice president Lige Reed, treasurer Lukas Worster and secretary Braden Soester. Elsasser came up with the idea for AME last semester after talking with Curtis Valentine, who is a founder of “Real Men Teach” and an overall leader in male education.
“The main goal of this group is finding males going into education and making sure they stay in education,” Elsasser said. “Because too many [males] start their journey to becoming a teacher and then just kind of leave and find a new career, because they don’t believe it’s the right fit for them. And my hope for this group is to combat that and create a space and support and opportunities for males going into education to make sure that they stay there.”
Elsasser and other board members held their first meeting on March 30 where they had all board members and two other members attend with the only major piece missing being an advisor.
“I think I’m talking to professor number four right now on if they would like to sponsor our club,” Elsasser said. “That’s the only reason we haven’t been able to hand the paperwork or anything, but in terms of like who wants to join and stuff like that, I’d say the club definitely has gained a lot of popularity… and so eventually, I just said, ‘I’m not gonna wait anymore.’ This is too good of an idea, too impactful of a thing that we’re doing to have to sit and wait and wait until eventually it’s next semester.”
Each member had reasons for wanting to join the group including becoming a better teacher and getting others to want to be teachers.
“It means a lot because it’s a bunch of guys that can support me in my decision to become a male in education rather than people saying that’s not something you should do as a guy,” Reed said. “Rather, they’re saying, ‘yes, this is great that you’re doing this,’ and where other people that have the same interest and want to support you through it.”
Member AJ Wiese said they’re starting small but thinking big when it comes to fostering confidence for future male educators.
“It’s kind of like the start of a big movement, maybe a nationwide movement,” Wiese said. “Where it’s just about getting those male educators into schools and making them more confident of going in [to education].”
As the group works to become official on the WSC campus, they are talking about the impacts they want to have not just at WSC.
“We wanted to create something that solved that problem,” Elsasser said. “Not only just like on our campus, but for everywhere. And so, we got to discussing the possibility of collaborating and starting these future male educator chapters on campuses across Wayne, and Nebraska, and then the Midwest, and then the country.”
AME is continuing to look for an advisor according to Elsasser, but if students are interested in being a part of the group, AME can be found on Instagram @ame_waynestatecollege or students can reach out to Owen Elsasser at [email protected] with questions.
