SALISBURY, N.C. — Melvin Stewart has been playing sports since high school, but when he started college, he decided to add another notch to his belt.
Stewart is a senior at Livingston College, a football offensive lineman and a track athlete.
When he’s not training for Spring workouts, he spends the majority of his time as an apprentice teacher through a program at Elizabeth Duncan Koontz Elementary school in Salisbury.
“We go over math, science, reading, and social studies," Stewart said. "This program is an amazing experience just because I realized how much I didn’t know."
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Black teachers nationwide make up less than seven percent of educators in classrooms around the country.
In Rowan County alone, nine percent of Rowan-Salisbury Schools’ teachers are African-American compared to 18% of African-American students.
In a new partnership, Livingstone College and Rowan-Salisbury School County are working together to bridge the gap between the proportion of minority teachers to minority students that is underrepresented.
Through a ten-month program called Accelerate Rowan Lab School at Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, seniors who choose to major in the Teacher Education program can earn a $20,000 stipend by completing 30 hours per week in the classroom.
Stewart is the first and only candidate from Livingstone in the partnership so far now wants to have his own fifth-grade classroom one day.
“These people are paying me to become a better teacher," Stewart said. “I have all the opportunities in the world to become a better teacher at this school.”
The goal is to get more seniors at the Salisbury HBCU to help address the needs of children from diverse backgrounds.
“We need more people like me to come to this, we need more people to take advantage of the opportunity," Stewart said.
Contact Ruby Durham at rdurham@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.