Recruiters hope to increase Penn's contributions to TFA | Interactive feature

By many accounts, the commitment of Penn students to Teach for America - a nonprofit that recruits college graduates for two years of teaching in low-income communities - is impressive. The number of students who join each year puts the University among the top 10 large schools participating in the program. And last year alone, Teach for America was the largest recruiter of graduates on campus, employing 37 Penn seniors.

But when compared to its peer institutions, Penn doesn't quite stack up. At other Ivy League universities - including Yale, Princeton and Brown universities - over 14 percent of the student body applies to join the Teach for America corps. At Penn, that percentage is just half.

In comparison, 45 percent of last year's graduates with full-time jobs received their offers through On-Campus-Recruiting.

In response, the TFA recruitment team is working to "focus and invest in harnessing the untapped potential at Penn," explained College senior and TFA campus coordinator Natalie Vernon.

She voiced that the disparity comes in part from Penn's catering to the business-oriented on campus.

"When we push our students out to the working world, we lose something," she said. "At Penn, people get the idea that they can work at a New York law firm or they can work with an investment bank."

To encourage more recruits, the program at Penn has added information sessions and aims to target both financial concerns and the doors the program opens for applicants.

As a result, Career Services senior associate director Kelly Cleary said an increasing number of students are considering TFA as a viable alternative to jobs typically found through OCR.

"Since TFA has developed partnerships with several top financial, consulting, IT and legal employers and built relationships with top graduate, medical and law schools, TFA has also become a gateway to many of the same opportunities," she explained.

Matt Reamy, a past TFA teacher and current recruitment liaison for the program, explained that Penn's growth has mirrored other prestigious schools - with one exception.

"At Penn, there is this lag," he said, noting Penn's sub-par application rate compared with other Ivy schools

With the first major application deadline today, the recruiters' efforts may be already paying off: this is the first year TFA offered an early summer deadline and already the number of applicants is half of those who applied all last year

It's unclear whether the surge in interest stemmed from the new recruiting efforts, more attractive TFA prospects, or just a fear of the dismal economy that awaits this year's grads.

However, program applications did spike during the last application round - typically a point after OCR offers have all been made - and Reamy expects a similar pattern this spring.

While TFA recruiters admitted they are in direct competition with OCR, in an information session last Monday, most students present rejected this notion.

When asked how many were going through OCR, few individuals raised their hand.

College senior Andrew Biros, who has already applied to the program, predicted that the types of people who opt for TFA and those who go through OCR are two different breeds.

"I think if someone was looking for a finance job, but instead did Teach for America as a back-up plan, they would be shocked and surprised," said Biros.

And others present echoed his sentiments.

College senior Annie Magnuson explained that an eye-opening experience - not the state of the job market or issues of money - prompted her interest in TFA.

After spending the summer pursuing research alongside an Annenberg School of Communication graduate student, Magnuson was able to witness firsthand her academic interest: the impact of media on children.

"Just seeing that disorganization within the school systems broke my heart," she said. "Children, especially lower-class kids, deserve access to education."

For Magnuson, TFA offers the opportunity to make a difference - while also providing a segue into later interests.

Fortunately, for Magnuson and others, many graduate schools and companies allow students to defer offers until finishing their two-year tour in the classroom.

Today, 40 percent of alumni are still teaching or overseeing schools, while a total of 66 percent are involved in education at a more general level, such as working at the government level or with nonprofits.

Still, that leaves another third who leave TFA to pursue other careers. It runs the gamut: post-graduation, students pursue everything from enrolling in medical or law school to more traditional finance jobs.

And even with TFA's new positioning as a viable route to non-educational fields, Reamy admitted that "sometimes it's a leap of faith for a Penn student to do this."

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