Building the Future Of the Profession

The NEA Student Program creates strong educators who can advance great public schools.

Photo by Stuart Thurlkill

NEA Affiliate:
The NEA Student Program (NEA-SP).

Mission Accomplished:
This year, Brad Wellmann has evolved from a Nebraska Wesleyan University education major into a first-year teacher at Fort Crook Elementary in Bellevue, Nebraska. A traumatic transition? Nope--Wellmann has hit the ground running with skills, savvy, and connections gained as an NEA-SP member.

"Tons" of Student Program training on teaching and classroom techniques "have made it much easier to set up my classroom, schedules, routines, and rules," Wellmann reports. Moreover, this newbie knows how to find the best professional resources, how to sort out an "overload" of information on teacher standards, and even how the Association spends its members' dues.

The Stuff of Leadership:
"I understand the importance of my involvement in the Association at any level," Wellmann adds, "so I volunteered to be one of two Bellevue Education Association building reps for my school."

Thirty percent of NEA-SP members go on to become Association activists once they enter the teaching force. That's because many of them pick up valuable skills in leadership, networking, communications, and organizing, explains Student Arkansas Education Association President Lloyd Jackson, a graduate student at Henderson State University.

Creative Organizing:
With 900-plus chapters, the NEA Student Program is becoming ultraprofessional in union-style organizing--starting with one-to-one contact with nonmembers in campus libraries, testing sites, student center exhibit areas, and Intro to Education classes.

NEA-SP organizers' message may vary from state to state, but creativity is a constant. "We've found in Arkansas that the first step is to 'sell' the professors, many of whom were only in the classroom a short period of time and don't see the need for a union," notes Jackson. "So we sell professors on the pre-professional organization idea--learn all about teaching before you get into it--while we show education majors the ropes with courses, tests, and student teaching and give them a support system."

Getting the Real Deal:
Besides promoting NEA's popular $1 million educator liability program, California student organizers focus on "teacher quality, political action, and community outreach," says LaShay Roberts, a leader of the Student California Teachers Association and member of the NEA-SP Board of Directors. A big appeal of NEA-SP membership, stresses Roberts, a graduate student at California State University-Sacramento, is the opportunity to get the "real deal" about teaching through a range of workshops that "will truly prepare you" for the classroom.

"In my local chapter," Roberts says, "we try to have two meetings a month, one strictly for business and the other focused on something that will improve our skills. We invite speakers from the local community and from the California Teachers Association."

The Politics of It All:
Recently, California student members lobbied state legislators over preK-12 and higher ed spending. NEA-SP members, Roberts explains, quickly learn that "everything in education is decided by politics--what you teach, how you teach, and to whom you teach it."

"I think most college and university education programs just focus on getting us ready to teach, not on politics," observes Wellmann. "Being involved in the Association helps education majors realize they must pay attention to what goes on outside the classroom."

Your Support Needed:
Jackson urges active NEA members to learn about and promote the Student Program. "We have 60,000 Student Program members across the country and we have 2 million teachers retiring from the classroom," he points out. "They need to be replaced with union members, not just teachers. What better way is there to bring aboard quality educators who share your values?"

"We're college students from all walks of life, including people who are entering a second career and mothers and fathers, but eventually we're all going to be your colleagues," adds Roberts. "We are the future of this Association--why not support us?"

--Dave Winans

For more on the NEA Student Program, go to www.nea.org/student-program.