For three days, almost 100 rising high school juniors, seniors and recent graduates from 31 North Carolina counties immersed themselves into life as an education major at ECU.
One of the participants was Olivia Lundquist of Ronald W. Reagan High School.
Participants experienced all facets of college life including spending the night in Clement Residence Hall, eating meals in West End Dining Hall, playing games in the Eakin Student Recreation Center, and going to presentations and classes. Participants were in small groups with a student leader who will stay in contact with them throughout the upcoming school year.
“My favorite part of working with the PIRATE program has been witnessing the real-time growth of our participants,” said Arnez Wallace, outreach and engagement specialist and director of PIRATE. “When they arrive on campus for move‑in, many are understandably nervous about stepping into a new environment. Yet by the end of the very first day, I can already see them opening up, exploring their interests through education, and forming meaningful connections with their peers.”
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For Dr. Charity Cayton, every year working as a faculty facilitator in the PIRATE program is an amazing experience. Cayton, an associate professor and director of 6-12 education, has been involved with PIRATE since it began five years ago.
“Each year the participants come in with enthusiasm and passion to learn and experience what it means to be an educator,” she said. “I love the diversity of interests each year. We always have a range across grade levels, content and licensure areas. Many of them come in with experiences teaching/working with students from their schools through organizations like Teacher Cadet, which adds to the overall experience for all participants.”
The main improvements she has seen since the beginning have been the addition of the residential experience and expanding the number of faculty facilitators from four to six.
“We used this opportunity to pair up with another faculty facilitator and organize students within groups matched with faculty expertise,” she said. “We had three faculty pairings: elementary math education and special education, secondary math education and special education, and two literacy. This allowed us to have smaller individual groups and partner our groups together throughout PIRATE.”
Current secondary history education major and Honors College student Caroline Madigan was inspired to become a PIRATE student leader after her own experience in the program.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to encourage and support future educators as they begin their journey toward becoming teachers,” she said. “Participating in this camp helped solidify that goal even more. I enjoyed working with high school students and being able to connect with them on a deeper level while discussing the material. This experience reinforced my passion for teaching and showed me how rewarding it is to help students learn and gain confidence in their abilities.”
