Mario Jovan Shaw and Jason Terrell discuss Profound Gentlemen, the movement they created to help build and retain communities of male educators of color. Shockingly, 40% of all early career teachers will leave the field, but for men of color, that number is 25% higher. Mario and Jason are working to develop black male school teachers to positively impact the graduation rates, self-esteem and lifelong success of boys of color.

Mario and Jason are both the co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Profound Gentlemen. Mario taught seventh grade and also created a program called the BrotherHood, which addresses the needs of young black males in the classroom. Jason spent three years as a teacher and served as a mentor, athletic coach, and tutor for students. Don’t miss this episode in its entirety – it’s too good to skip!

Key Topics

The Start of Profound Gentlemen

• Mario and Jason met through Teach For America.


• Teach for America places recently graduated students into places where teachers are needed.


• They train you for 6 weeks, and during that training, Jason and Mario were roommates – they talked a lot about what type of educators they wanted to be.


• Mario was selected to be followed by Teach for America to show what he was doing in his classroom.


• He decided to use this platform as a way to talk about why we need more black male teachers.


• The story was picked up and Mario and Jason then decided to apply for Teach for America’s recruitment team.


• They didn’t receive the job, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because they then decided to start Profound Gentlemen.


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