Mount Marty University Partners with Northeast Technical High School to Launch Innovative Teacher Pathway
- Steve Jurrens
- Sep 16
- 2 min read
Northeast Radio SD News - Watertown, SD - Mount Marty University’s Watertown campus has partnered with Northeast Technical High School (NTHS) to launch the Students to Teachers through Educator Pathways (STEP) initiative. The program allows high school students to earn college credits toward an education degree, potentially allowing them to complete a bachelor's degree in elementary education in three years.
The initiative is designed to help address the need for more educators in the region by recruiting high school students interested in a teaching career and providing them with an affordable pathway to a degree.
"This pathway, by utilizing dual-credit opportunities with high school partners, is an affordable approach to degree completion," said Heidi Schooley, campus director of MMU-Watertown. "This is designed to help recruit future and aspiring teachers from their communities into MMU-Watertown and back to those very same communities."
NTHS serves students from several area high schools, including Watertown, Castlewood, Waverly-South Shore, Florence, Great Plains Lutheran, Henry, and Summit.
Bert Falak, director of NTHS, said the program gives students the chance to explore careers in education through new courses that combine classroom learning with hands-on experience in local schools. Dr. Jeff Danielsen, superintendent of the Watertown School District, also expressed excitement about the partnership. “Partnering with Mount Marty in order to facilitate more potential educators is a very exciting prospect. I am hopeful that this relationship will benefit all parties and help grow the list of future teachers in our state.”
The dual-credit classes within the STEP initiative will be available for registration this fall. For more information on Mount Marty’s dual-credit opportunities, visit www.mountmarty.edu.
If you are a school district interested in this pathway, please get in touch with Nicholas Shudak, Ph.D., MMU dean of undergraduate studies, at nicholas.shudak@mountmarty.edu.
