Innovative partnership with barriers to teaching and fills local shortage

Lipscomb University and Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) launched LIFT Off to Lipscomb in April to create a pipeline of teacher candidates to return to the district to teach. The program will prepare MNPS students who aspire to be teachers to enter the profession.

Director of Schools Adrienne Battle and President Candice McQueen announced the Leading and Innovating for Future Teachers (LIFT) program at a press conference that was also attended by Nashville Mayor John Cooper.

The program will provide full tuition and fees for a cohort of 10 MNPS students every year to enter Lipscomb’s teacher preparation program beginning in fall 2023, meaning a total of 40 students will receive full tuition through the program during any given school year once the program is fully populated.

The mission of LIFT Off to Lipscomb is to recruit and retain teachers in the areas most needed by MNPS recruitment, scholarships, early teaching contracts, personalized degree programs, experience with high-quality faculty, content and field experiences.

2022 was a hallmark year for Lipscomb Missions, which not only celebrated the re-launch of global mission travel with 23 teams who served around the globe, but also celebrated the 20th anniversary of missions becoming a formal program within the College of Bible & Ministry.

The foundation of the current program was laid by Batsell Barrett Baxter, longtime Lipscomb faculty member and minister, who established Project Good News in 1973 to train missionaries. During the late Harold Hazelip’s administration, the mission program was restructured to incorporate more service days and short-term mission trips.

Jeff Fincher, the modern program’s first full-time director, came aboard in 2002, after having led Lipscomb’s first mission team sent to the City of Children orphanage in Ensenada, Mexico, while still a student. Mark Jent was hired in 2003, and the two coordinated around 45 trips each year to locales both domestic and international.

Since Lipscomb Missions was officially launched, more than 10,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends have partnered with longterm ministries and nonprofits across the U.S. and around the globe, said current director Tyler Kemmerer.