Have you ever considered being a teacher? If so, Educators Rising might be the club for you. Educators Rising provides students a chance to learn about teaching and to give back to the community.

Educators Rising is student run and supervised by Mrs. Mapes and Mrs. Dover, two government teachers. They want to be mentors to students in the club.

The club plans to have teachers from a range of grade levels talk to the club to help students decide which age group they would like to teach.

“We want it to be just informative. It’s not high stress,” Mrs. Mapes assured.

Mrs. Mapes says she wants the club to be “a place where we can all get together and talk about what it’s like to be a teacher.” She also plans for the club to be involved in community service projects. For example, the club is organizing a book drive for the first few weeks of March.

“The students will get raffle tickets as they donate. There will be a raffle prize, hopefully your number is called!” explained Mrs. Mapes. They also hope to pair up with Best Buddies.

“The club is an opportunity to create relationships with other people that are like minded (and) learn more about what it takes to be a teacher,” said Tatum Lombardi, a member of the club.

The club is also inclusive for people who aren’t sure if they want to be teachers.

“If years from now these students end up not being teachers that’s fine,” Mrs. Mapes said.

“You don’t have to be sure that you want to be a teacher… I think people think that ‘Oh, I don’t want to be a teacher,’ but there’s a lot of different things you can do and people should give it a shot,” said Lombardi.

Lombardi wants to teach social studies, specifically either geography or psychology.

“For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher, and I thought this was a good opportunity to learn about starting my career,” Lombardi said.  The relationships she’s had with her teachers have inspired her to teach.

“(Her teachers) have really impacted my life in a positive way and I want to do that for other people as well,” she said. “Mrs Mapes and Mr. Reed have been amazing teachers and have definitely influenced me.”

The club is part of the national organization, Educators Rising. The national organization’s goal is to cultivate highly skilled educators by guiding young people on a path to becoming accomplished teachers, beginning in high school.

The club meets the first and third Wednesday of every month in Room 326.