The Teacher Cadet Program is operated by the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, & Advancement (CERRA) whose mission it is to provide collaborative leadership in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of outstanding educators in South Carolina. CERRA, which was established in 1985, is the oldest and most established teacher recruitment program in the country. This program provides the opportunity for high school juniors and seniors to receive college credit. Southern Wesleyan University is proud to be one of the Teacher Cadet sites in South Carolina. Each year cadets are welcomed to Southern Wesleyan for college day. They also have the opportunity to earn six hours in college credit through our dual enrollment program. Upon graduation, if these students attend SWU they will already have two of the required education courses, Foundations in Education and Ethics in Education.
The primary goal of the Teacher Cadet Program is to encourage academically talented, high-achieving, high school students with exemplary interpersonal and leadership skills to consider teaching as a career. An important secondary goal of the Program is to develop future community leaders who will become civic advocates for public education.