In college sports, there are big signing days for high school athletes choosing which college they’re going to take their talents to. 

But did you know that there’s a Future Teacher Signing Day for Parkway high school students pursuing a career in education?

On May 3, any Parkway seniors interested in majoring in education are encouraged to come to the Parkway Welcome Center at 6:30 p.m. to sign a “commitment letter” just like a college athlete.

Courtney Yeager is the organizer for the event.

“Instead of signing where they’re going to college like athletes do, they’re signing to pursue a career in education,” she said.

One of the main reasons this event came about is due to the teacher shortage throughout the United States. Yeager expressed her thoughts on the shortage.

“One less appealing factor about teaching is the fact that it isn’t a flexible schedule, which is very important to the new generation,’ she said. ‘Also, COVID has been a factor for why there are less teachers. COVID caused older teachers to retire early, which has made it stressful ever since.”

Some South students who want to be educators include Logan Busold, Zainab Faizi, Sarrah Fakhani, Morgan Lips and Gannon Rejniak. These five students all took part in the Spark! Teaching and Learning class this year, which is taught by Yeager.

Rejniak, said he highly recommends the Spark! class,

“Students should take the teaching class to explore if you want to be a teacher or if you think you want to teach to find your areas of focus,’ he said. ‘It helped me improve my communication skills and professionalism.”

The Spark! class has grown from 20 to 30 kids in the span of one year, and according to Yeager, it should grow to 40 kids next year.

According to Rejniak, this is a beneficial class for anybody thinking about becoming a teacher,

“This class helped me make sure that this is what I really wanted to do, and it also helped me find my focus, like if I preferred teaching elementary or high school,” he said.

Yeager said she can’t wait for the signing day to arrive.

“It’s been fun to organize, and it’ll be even more fun to watch,” she said. ‘I’m very excited for these students because they’ve worked so hard this year.”