Teach for America attracts Penn talent

While Penn students may spend much of their time within the confines of 34th to 40th streets, many Philadelphia students beyond these boundaries are struggling to receive a quality education.

To combat this inequity, there are currently 250 Teach For America members instructing students in 36 different Philadelphia-area schools.

TFA began in 1988 as the senior thesis project of Princeton University student Wendy Kopp, who envisioned finding a way to eliminate educational inequity and put low-income areas on a level playing field with affluent communities. Sixteen years later, TFA has impacted the lives of 1.75 million students around the country.

In order to find a way to improve schooling opportunities, TFA has established 22 regional sites where dedicated corps members spend two years of their lives teaching in low-income rural and urban areas.

TFA, however, is not a teacher recruitment program. In fact, according to Mid-Atlantic Recruitment Director Patrick Pontius, TFA is looking "for students of all majors to [apply for TFA]. Only 1 percent of last year's corps members actually came from educational backgrounds."

Part of Pontius' job includes recruiting students right from Penn's campus.

"Applicants that come from Penn are top-notch, academically doing very well, highly involved in leadership [and] are aware of the [educational] disparities that exist between West Philly and the main line," Pontius explains.

Penn students have a high rate of success in joining TFA -- they average a 31 percent acceptance rate compared to the national average of 15 percent, according to Pontius.

Recruiting 20 to 30 TFA members each year at Penn would be a very daunting task for Pontius if it weren't for a staff of juniors, seniors and sometimes alumni recruiters right on Penn's campus.

College junior Meredith Atkinson is just one of many on-campus recruiters. She's an urban studies and art history double major and comes from a long line of educators, who have taught her that "there is definitely a need for people to take the initiative and step up" when it comes to educating the youth, Atkinson says.

Atkinson hopes to become a teacher with TFA when she graduates, but until then she works to promote the organization and its mission to students of all backgrounds and fields of study. In her time with TFA, she says she has met "the most diverse, creative, outspoken people," in all of her life.

To expand upon Atkinson's efforts, Sujie Shin, a graduate student in education, works as the alumni recruiter on campus. Shin came to Philadelphia after teaching for three years in South Central Los Angeles.

During her time teaching fourth- and fifth-grade students, Shin says she learned as much from them as they learned from her. While in California, Shin went to an endless number of first communions and birthday parties, and truly became a part of her students' families.

Now, each time Shin hears of one of her students graduating from high school, she looks at the graduation "as a personal success."

Shin and other corps members are fulfilling what Atkinson believes is one of the overarching goals of TFA, and that is "to give back more than you've taken."

Pontius says he has learned that lesson. He was first introduced to TFA his sophomore year of college. At that point in his life, he knew he wanted to be a part of a social impact movement, and TFA seemed like the perfect fit. He taught for three years in Compton, Calif., before becoming a recruitment director.

Yet before he took on his new role, Pontius learned that applying to TFA is not a simple task, just like fighting educational inequity is a long-term battle.

To become a corps member, students go through a series of rounds beginning with a written requirement and ending with an intensive one-on-one interview with TFA directors and alumni.

Of those students who become corps members, 60 percent of TFA members stay in education after their teaching experiences. Others go on to a variety of fields, taking advantage of the deferments offered by many graduate programs to TFA participants. Pontius believes that the opportunities for these members are limitless once they finish two years of teaching.

For Penn students interested in learning more about the TFA experience and joining the corps, a group of alumni will be coming to campus this fall.

Ultimately, with the help of Atkinson, Shin and the other 250 Philadelphia corps members, small but important steps are being made to eliminate educational inequity. Still, Pontius reminds Penn students that the fight is not over, "because, in an ideal world, Teach For America would not exist."

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