DRESSING FOR SUCCESS: MICHAEL MATHIASON ’11 INSPIRES HIS STUDENTS WITH STYLE FROM THE FIRST DAY MICHAEL MATHIASON STEPPED FOOT IN A SCHOOL TO BEGIN HIS TEACHING CAREER, HE ALREADY STOOD OUT FROM HIS COLLEAGUES. BY MITCHELL HANSEN ’17
Michael Mathiason in a classroom at Lincoln Elementary in St. Cloud, where he is currently a Social Emotional Learning Coach.
32 Most days, Mathiason dressed up in a suit jacket and tie as a way to motivate himself in the classroom while helping him feel prepared for the days and weeks ahead with his students. His willingness to dress up quickly rubbed off on his students, sparking the idea of a unique program that has gained national attention. “One day, a boy I had in my class asked me ‘why do you dress up so much?’ I told him it makes me feel good and on top of my game,” said Mathiason, a 2011 elementary education alumnus and Notable Alumni of St. Cloud State University who is in his ninth year of teaching in the St. Cloud area. His career has seen stops at Talahi Community School, Discovery Community School and currently Lincoln Elementary. “He told me he had never worn a suit jacket and wanted to wear one. Instantly, my mind went to going out and finding him a suit jacket to bring to him,” Mathiason continued. “I went out and bought a suit jacket for him, and the look on his face was priceless. You could tell he was very proud and started to wear it to class.” Shortly after, more students wanted to take part, starting a trend inside of his classroom where students would “Dress for Success” on a weekly basis. DRESS FOR SUCCESS Mathiason began a weekly trend where his students would dress up together like they noticed him doing on a daily basis. HT TP S://TODAY.STCLOUDSTATE.EDU/MAG | SPRING / SUMMER 2021
Not long after that began, the program received attention from local and national media, starting with Boyd Huppert of KARE 11 in the Twin Cities featuring him in a story on television in February 2020. Mathiason and his students were also interviewed by CNN in the following months. “When I got the call from KARE 11 and Boyd Huppert, I couldn’t believe it,” Mathiason recalled. “It was all about some people noticing that I was doing it and it took off from there. It was awesome.” After that story, Mathiason was overwhelmed, as emails and phone calls began to flood in from people around the community, state and country asking how they could help support “Dress for Success.” “All of a sudden, I looked at my phone and started to get a bunch of emails from people saying they loved the story,” Mathiason said. “It was probably a minute after the show aired that I was getting responses from people all over asking what sizes of clothes I needed and how they could help. We got boxes of ties, I got clothing racks donated to me, suit jackets, scarves, blazers and
