Northern TOPP program set to help high school students become teachers

From Montana State University-Northern

Montana State University-Northern announced it has received one of three two-year Grow Your Own Educator grants from the Commissioner of Higher Education, funded by the 2021 Montana Legislature through Bill 403. 

The funding will support Northern's Educator Preparation Program to establish a pathway for juniors and seniors in high schools to become teachers for Montana's schools.  Northern's project, Teachers of Promise Pathway - TOPP - will create a pathway for at least 30 high school students to choose teaching as their career path and inspire them to complete their education degree in their home communities.

Northern will be partnering with two-year colleges in the region.

The TOPP project is designed to provide juniors and seniors financial, academic, and personal support for high school dual credit courses, engage in work-based experiences and be successful education majors in college.  Students will be supported by teacher leaders, professors, and mentors as they complete dual credits at their high schools and transfer them to their local two-year college and Montana State University-Northern as education majors.

In this first year, Great Falls College MSU and six school districts are partnering with Northern. Fort Peck Community College and 15 additional rural districts will join the project in year two.

This fall semester, 2021, efforts have begun to identify potential junior and senior students who hold a career goal of becoming a teacher.  Concurrently, recruiting local community members who will mentor TOPP students is underway. 

People who want to or know someone who dreams of teaching as their life's work or desires to support students to become teacher are asked to get in touch with their local high school counselor or TOPP Project Director Curtis Smeby, Ph.D., at [email protected] or 406-265-3517.