FILE PHOTOTeach for America recruits, trains, and places nearly 2,500 of America’s brightest college graduates into low-income school districts across the nation every year.
In 1989, its founder, Wendy Kopp, was a senior at Princeton University searching for a thesis topic. What she found was a vision for a national teachers’ corps capable of ending education inequality in America. Kopp said that while speaking to Washington University students at last week’s lecture, she tried to reflect the idealistic passion that helped her to launch the program 14 years ago.
“I think that young people are really in a unique position to tackle some of the biggest problems facing society,” said Kopp. “Sure, experience can be great. But for problems like educational inequity, which people have a tendency to say is something that will always be around, it takes the energy and idealism of young people to really get results.”
Kopp delivered her address in conjunction with the Career Center’s Transitional Programs Reception, which was held in the Gargoyle immediately following Kopp’s speech. About 120 students turned out to talk to representatives from various transitional programs at the reception. The represented programs included the AmeriCorps, Catholic Charities, Coro, Hillel, JET, the Peace Corps, and Teach for America. Kopp also signed free copies of her book, entitled “One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach for America and What I Learned Along the Way”.
Students attended the program for a variety of reasons-many came just to hear Kopp speak. Sophomore Katie Murphy-Lubowicz said she thought this program might be a good stepping-stone for a career.
“I don’t know if I will do Teach for America, but I am thinking about becoming a teacher when I graduate and I think that Teach for America would be a good place to start,” said Murphy-Lubowicz. “By doing Teach for America I would get the opportunity to go to a school district that really needs help and see how to fix problems from the inside.”
Lubowicz said that although the speech was not what she expected, it was still helpful.
“I feel like I learned more about how she thought up the idea and how she started it,” said Lubowicz. “I think to actually learn about how I could do the program and what it consists of I will need to go to the Teach for America website. Still, it was inspiring to hear about how she made a difference.”
During her speech, Kopp related a story about the shaky beginnings of Teach for America.
“When I first got out of school I thought that a good way to get Teach for America off of the ground might be to enlist the help of the federal government,” said Kopp. “So I did what any college grad would do-I wrote a letter to the president. A few weeks later I got a job rejection letter from D.C. My letter must have ended up in the wrong stack. I decided maybe the president wasn’t the best place to look for help.”
Kopp eventually found funding for Teach for America in the form of corporate donations, which have allowed the program to place over 10,000 college graduates in school districts across the nation since 1989.
Kopp said the ultimate goal for this program is to achieve large advancements in every school where Teach for America members are located.
“In the past, we have had quite a few instances where our members have helped kids in certain districts advance two or three grade levels in a single year,” she said. “Our main goal right now is to recruit members of such quality that we will see those sorts of results in all of our school districts.”
For students interested in obtaining more detailed information about Teach for America and its application process, there will be an information session at 7 p.m. on Oct. 7 in January 110.