MPRINT: Path to teaching certification aided by new gift

MERIDIAN, Miss. — Teaching demands a great deal of commitment and sacrifice. It requires every practitioner to decide if the calling truly is for them. Teachers’ assistants who are working in the classroom by day, then working toward their own degree by night, already know the mission is theirs. That’s why an annual scholarship at Mississippi State University has recently been endowed by its founder so it may continue to help in perpetuity.

The late Bebe Roberts Freeman was organized, dedicated and passionate in her 30 years as a teacher. She was a firebrand and an advocate, both for the students she taught and the faculty with whom she worked. She and her husband, Harry, each grew up amid humble beginnings and knew the pain of financial straits, knew what living every day with inadequate resources means. Harry established the Bebe Freeman PANTA Teacher’s Assistant Annual Scholarship in memory of his wife to help those who are working with students and studying for themselves. It will ensure the flames she left behind always continue to glow.

MSU-Meridian’s Professional Advancement Network for Teachers and Administrators, or PANTA, provides a pathway for teachers’ assistants to earn their degrees and become certified to teach. Freeman’s generosity funds educational expenses that remain after financial aid has been exhausted for five students per year. Initially, he had intended to fund the scholarship for a five-year term. The frank and candid gratitude expressed in a letter from one of its recipients inspired him to make it permanent.

“Most of these students are working full-time jobs, are full-time students, have multiple children and are taking care of families,” said Kristi Swift, director of development for the College of Education and MSU Libraries.

For Victoria Pigg, of Carthage, the Freeman scholarship was the deciding factor in whether she could continue her education. She is a teacher’s assistant at Leake Central Elementary School, and the scholarship has allowed her to go on in pursuit of her dreams. After her financial aid was exhausted, it covered the balance of her tuition and books — expenses she would not have been able to otherwise afford.

“When you go into education, you don’t go into it for the money,” she said. “I knew teaching was what I wanted to do. I did not have a lot of financial aid, and I was really concerned about how I would pay for my degree. Taking that load off me has meant more than Harry Freeman will ever know. It made a difference in my stress level, my being able to finish school and my becoming the best teacher I can be.”

Bebe Freeman believed passionately in the value of opportunity. Opening the world of teaching to those who aspire to teach spreads a ripple that reverberates around the world. Though the scholarship Harry established in her name, those ripples are stacking into waves, and the reverberation only gets stronger as it goes.