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Gabriela Romero

Mrs. Jarrell

ENGL 1301-205

2/09/24

Future Educators of America

With an increasing population comes an increasing demand for educators, and with every

new day comes new advances in the sciences. These two facts are connected by an ever-

prevalent demand for science teachers, especially in the rural areas of South Texas. By utilizing

a brochure to convey information, the TAMIU ADVISE program is able to connect with more

students interested in becoming educators, therefore increasing the population of General

Science teachers.

Upon viewing the front cover of the brochure you see an image of the LBV Planetarium,

a feature of TAMIU that exemplifies the campus’s investment into the sciences. Inside the

brochure, you can find the purpose of the program, what participating in an internship will entail,

the eligibility requirements, and the details of the summer boot camps. On the outside of the

brochure is where you find the names, pictures, and titles of the program team, and more details

of what can be expected of the summer programs.

In the About Us section, the goal of this program is listed; by providing resources such as

training, bootcamps, and internship programs, more students are able to access the resources

needed to be not just educators, but educators that are already prepared on testing and teaching

skills. The brochure states that the purpose is to provide teachers that are “committed to teaching

high-need schools”,implying there is a heavy demand for such people. This serves to encourage
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students to join on the basis that they would be doing their community a great service by helping

an underserved population.

The internship program serves to help participants gain teaching experience early, so that

they won’t have a cold start when they start teaching in a classroom setting. Interns are expected

to tutor TAMIU students to practice what teaching in an actual class will be like, and must attend

the lecture of the subject they will be tutoring. In order to start tutoring, participants must attend

and complete two summer boot camps, as well as weekend teacher workshops, both provided by

ADVISE.

The program mandates two boot camps to be completed during the summer. The Summer

Education Pedagogy and Professional Responsibility (PPR) serves to both review science

concepts that participants are expected to teach to future students, as well as refine their teaching

skills. In addition, students are also taught test taking strategies and given a practice exam to

simulate what the State mandated test would be like. The second camp, aptly named the Summer

Science Bootcamp, also works to both educate on science topics, and also how to manage a

classroom and the skills needed to do so. By reviewing the topics that the participants will be

teaching in their future classrooms in addition to teaching them educational skills, they are

getting a headstart over those who might go into the teaching field without any kind of training

experience.

The requirements to join this program are fairly standard for any internship or specialized

program offered on campus. Students must have already completed their sophomore year,

maintain a minimum GPA of 2.75, submit 2 letters of recommendation, and a resume and

application essay. They must also attend an interview and switch their major to general science
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with 7-12 certification. These requirements serve to provide a level playing field for all seeking

to join the program. The letters of recommendation are presumably used to judge the character of

the applicant, something that is important to predict what kind of teacher they will become. A

teacher must not only be smart and well educated, but also have a passion to help others and

serve their community. Characteristics such as these are what is expected of the ADVISE

program, and are what separate the good teachers from the great.

In a world where everyone is on the go, especially college students, using the brochure

genre to provide clear and concise information to said students is an effective way for the

TAMIU Advise program to spread information and encourage those who are interested in

making a difference in students’ lives through teaching. By joining the program, TAMIU

students are able to train their teaching skills, engage with their fellow cohorts, and continue

their own education of the sciences. This collective effort all serves to benefit the future

generations by providing them with educators that are passionate about their job; furthermore,

the program helps those who might not have access to these resources on their own and helps put

them on the track for success.