Michael Mathiason inspires students

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.

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.

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

dresses for the girls. It was really cool to have that experience. Good news travels fast, I guess.”

For the moment, the “Dress for Success” program is on hold due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But Mathiason has the goal of not only starting the program back up again when it’s safe, but to spread and share the program with the entire school.

GIVING BACK TO STUDENTS IN THE COMMUNITY

During the 2020-21 academic year, Mathiason has found himself outside of the classroom for the first time in his nineyear teaching career, currently serving as the social emotional learning coach at Lincoln Elementary.

A bulk of his job includes building relationships with students while helping keep them motivated to be in school, among other things.

“I get to see everything from a different angle this year, which is really cool because it’s going to help me take Dress for Success and really branch it through the rest of the school,” he said. “The big thing for me is spreading positivity. I struggled at some things in school, so for me it’s just about reminding kids that it takes some time and we all learn at different speeds. “Building relationships with kids, it’s so much more than academics. There’s a lot more that goes into it than that, and I think that’s why I’ve been able to have some success in my career. That comes natural to me in trying to motivate kids and help build relationships with them so they are excited to come to school and to class.” Regardless of his role, Mathiason strives to give back to students in a community he has spent a majority of his life in, spanning back to growing up in nearby Belgrade or attending St. Cloud State to get his teaching degree. “Going to St. Cloud State and getting a job in the community has been really nice because we were kind of prepared for teaching in the community already. It’s where we got a bulk of our teaching experience before graduating,” Mathiason said. “I student taught at Clearview Elementary School and now I work in the St. Cloud School District, so I already knew what they were doing and it helps teaching in the community you went to college in and where you gained a lot of that experience.

“You can go through the program and just go through the motions, but St. Cloud State really taught me how important it is to be the teacher that you want to be.”

Michael Mathiason purchased and collected donations of clothes for students at Lincoln Elementary for his “Dress for Success” program.