Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools hosted a “Day in the Life” on Oct. 30 for university students to tour schools and speak with different district representatives. This inaugural event served as an opportunity to showcase CMS schools and give students a firsthand look at what the district has to offer.

“At the career fairs that we go to, we’re often asked, ‘what is it like being a teacher in Charlotte? It’s such a large school district, will I get lost in the fray?,’” said Recruiter MeLisa Millner. “Today they learned by first glance, by hands-on activities, by being engaged and present that our school district, although it’s large, we have intimate connections with our schools. Their school community becomes family and it includes the teachers, the administrators, the students and the parents. They were able to see today that they wouldn’t get lost in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. They would be a viable element that makes our district so great.” 

For the first half of the day, students spread out to assigned schools and visited Esperanza Global Academy, Myers Park Traditional Elementary, McClintock Middle and East Mecklenburg High. Students toured the campus, visited classrooms and interacted with teachers and administrators during a panel discussion. 

After the school visits, students spoke with various teams within Recruitment, Retention and Talent Development including Beginning Teacher Development and Support, the Teacher Leader Pathway and the National Board Support Program, and learned about resources including At Home in CMS and the Total Rewards Estimator.

Seniors Sarah Felder and Cora Cohen-Barnes at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University both enjoyed their visit and loved seeing how diverse the schools were as well as learning about the resources the district offers.

“Knowing that there’s a community of inclusion that I didn’t know about in Charlotte was really eye-opening and good to see,” said Felder.

Cohen-Barnes visited Myers Park Traditional Elementary and loved the student-led environment and having the students give the tour of the school.

“This is very beneficial, especially for your senior year as you’re looking for your next steps of interviewing with different schools and what school you want to teach at,” said Cohen-Barnes. 

Recruiter Carla Stanback hopes to see this event continue to grow and develop, and hopes the students were able to see how unique and diverse CMS is.

“It’s one thing to go to a college campus and talk about CMS, but it’s another thing to come in and really experience it firsthand,” said Stanback. “We will continue to go to college campuses, but the one thing I think the candidates are seeing now is that what they’re experiencing in their student teaching now is real — those ‘aha’ moments of what they think they’re going to experience and what they truly are experiencing are two different things. As a recruiter, I can explain what CMS is like and what the culture is like, but because CMS is large, I think what makes us unique is that diversity and the different experiences on every campus that you go to. So that’s what we were trying to push with the concept of them coming to us versus going to them.”