Rachel McClurg
Editor-in-Chief
Celebrating its 15th year as a program at Butler and Emporia, the Butler Emporia Student Teacher (BEST) Program has proven to be quite a success according to BEST Program staff.
“We have built a strong relationship between our key partners at ESU in our combined effort to serve students’ needs,” Education Department Chair Shellie Gutierrez said. “Our success stems from team work and commitment to create and maintain a quality program for future teachers.”
The students who have been apart of the program express how happy they have been to be apart of it at Butler.
“I’m happy to have been in this program,” BEST graduate Sarah Lawrence said. “Our teachers also told us that we should student teach near the area we wanted our ‘dream’ jobs. Butler was only half an hour from where I wanted to be. This allowed my future employers to keep tabs on me.”
Some might also mention the affordability of going through the program. Going to community college in general is usually cheaper than going to a university, so when students are able to go through a program like this, they are able to save a lot of money that they might not have been able to originally.
“Another thing is the total cost is much more affordable going through Butler and then Emporia as well,” BEST professor Todd Roberts said. “On the Emporia side of things, [it was] named the lowest public school per debt per student in the state of Kansas this past year, so I think that’s a big thing as well.”
The program has been able to grow throughout the years as well. The BEST Program was started in 2004 and only contained a limited number of students.
“This is our 15th year, and we currently serve 79 BEST majors this fall in our Butler Education Program,” Gutierrez said. “We have grown from a handful of BEST students in 2004 to almost have of our total 190 education majors at Butler during this Fall 2018 semester.”
According to Gutierrez and Lawrence, something else that students may want to think about when considering the BEST Program is how well known around the state it is by employers.
“BEST spells it out,” Lawrence said. “Schools know Emporia as a highly acclaimed teachers college. Over the years BEST has gained a fantastic reputation in the Wichita/El Dorado area. When people hear that you graduated from this program at ESU, there are no doubts as to the quality of the new teachers.”
For more information or if anyone is interested in applying for the program, visit the Butler website and search “BEST Program”. Those who wish to apply must submit an application before the Friday, Feb. 15, deadline in order to be eligible for the Fall 2019 semester.
