I Am Serving As A 2013 Corps Member For Teach For America

For the last 17 years my father has worked with nonprofits to bring education to refugee camps in the most forgotten places on earth. He goes where the most basic services that we take for granted are lacking. All his efforts are made under the premise that education is the most liberating assistance of all. This early awareness of the abysmal inequalities that exist in the world has profoundly influenced my character and worldview. I carried out a variety of service activities in high school, all focused on helping leverage educational opportunities. My volunteer work allowed me to put my

I seek to join Teach for America to give back to low income communities I have always had a passion to serve my community, rather if it was by volunteering at the local Boys and Girls Club, visiting the elderly, or lending a helping hand at Habitat for Humanity. If given the opportunity to join Teach for America I would be able to not only serve a local community but also teach the future leaders of America. I believe that a quality education should not be upon the basis of race or family income, but from the quality of the educator that comes in contact with each child. It is as if the quality of the teacher can somehow have an everlasting effect on the students that he or she comes in contact with. It is an endless cycle of an unmotivated and uncaring teacher’s coming into school districts and helping to further hinder the students. The

Since coming to America, I have moved to an ample amount of places because my father’s job concerns. I changed school frequently and in each new school I was never greeted with a warm welcome. With one glance my classmates saw I was different from them. I was often bullied and teased because of my racial difference from my classmates, from these experiences I became a quiet and docile girl. This way I thought I would not get in anyone’s way. I had closed up in the world in front of me; I never expressed my own opinions and always agreed with the majority. However secretly inside of me, I was frustrated not being able to express myself and yet I was unable to change. I craved to be what I was in the inside to be on the outside. Still by

Teach for America has benefited the field of education. Teach for America provides an education for children in low-income communities by recruiting a diverse group of members who desire to expand their educational opportunities. The program provides an intense training, support and career development to assist members in increasing their impact and deepen their understanding of what it takes to provide an excellent education for students. Teach for America has also produced members that now work at various levels of education, policy, and other professions, to ensure all children receive an excellent education (Teach for America, 2012).

I spent most of my time at underprivileged schools. Being from a school district where every student received the same education without considering the student’s race, gender, and/or ethnicity. The one experience that has stood out to me was when I was helping a fifth grade student with his math homework. This student was really struggling with multiplication. I recalled working on more advanced math when I was in the fifth grade. This opened my eyes to see that these children were more than likely not receiving the same education I received when I was their age. After spending all afternoon with this student, he thanked me for taking the time to help him, saying that no one, not even his parents have ever invested that much time into his education. This was one more thing I did not experience; I had two parents who were constantly helping me with homework even to this

My interest in education was sparked after reading an article "America's broken bootstraps" by George F. Will. The article and my classes led me to learn more about justice and inequality in the United States and discovering the role education plays in perpetuating the system.

I would like to further explain my interest in becoming a participant in the Teach for America program. It stems from my own personal experience of obtaining my degree and my pursuit of higher education. It is already known that one’s financial status can greatly affect how far you can go, the resources that become readily accessible are far and few, even with such advancements in technology and programs available to assist, it takes a person of fierce, stead-fast determination to navigate the systemic hurdles that were placed in my way. The many obstacles I have faced as a young African-American woman in New York are on par for the norm these days and it is because of them that I feel I would be not only a great candidate but an asset to this program.

Since the percent of children who live in poverty has increased, the misconception that they cannot be successful has grown. However, these children are also capable of doing great things. Nevertheless, it an effective teacher’s job to create a welcoming and motivating environment for these students. Reading the article “Leading Learning for Children from Poverty” by Cynthia Johnson, helped me understand different practices and strategies that teacher should use to help children who live in poverty succeed.

I graduated from a high school of about 150 kids where about 80% where minorities and about 75% were qualified for free or reduced lunch. Coming in as a business major I want the chance to go back and try and fix how the school was ran. While my school tried it’s best to provide what was necessary to advance to a higher education beyond high school, they fell short. My junior and senior year I was lucky enough to have nearly all online classes, so I had a ton of free time. However, during this time I spent most of it helping seniors and juniors applying for college, editing their resumes, revising their essays, and just making them aware of all the programs and scholarships out there for them. I remember it was in these moments I felt like I really made an impact. I feel as if these are the same morals and beliefs that are held within Teach for American and I want to be part of that. While you review my application, I hope I exemplified all that you all are looking for, and If I didn’t I hope that I can later in the future.

My parents taught me to always remember the less fortunate, encourage them, embrace them and share wisdom with them. The teachings of both parents are quite vivid in my mind even today. This is why I am such an ardent advocate in assisting underachievers that are below grade level, and propel them to greater educational opportunities. It is my desire to serve, teach and engage with the underserved children of Low Income Urban communities. The reason why I am motivated to become an effective teacher in a public school, is based upon my years of volunteering my time as a tutor-mentor to students who lived in the Chicago Housing Authority buildings.

I desire to join the Teach for America organization in order to help me establish my teaching abilities. I have a passion for teaching children. I have always wanted to teach others rather children or adults alike. I first found my love of teaching at Wednesday night bible study class with the two and three year old class. I enjoyed seeing how much they loved learning the lessons and how they interacted with me and the other teacher. I know your organization will help me to achieve becoming a teacher through your training and hands on experience that you offer to your applicants that are chosen for this task. Teach for America will help me to grow and develop the necessary skills that I will need in order to be successful within the classroom

After living in three different foster care homes in the middle of South Dallas, I was adopted into a low income household. My adopted parents drilled in me the importance of having a college degree, father a middle school drop-out and mother just a high school graduate. I became the first-generation college graduate in 2014, just to show my siblings that your background does not predict the level of education you can receive. My mother taught me that repetitive style of learning in a simplified form was best in my early ages of school. Growing up with a learning disability, I was behind other students that was five years old; since I did not start talking until I was five. My parents were patience with me when it came to my education, making

I am extremely interesting in Teach For America because I live by the motto, "Be who you needed when you were younger". I am a first generation Mexican-American student from the inner city of Toledo, Ohio and attended a public school district where 80 percent of students receive free/reduced lunch and the graduation rate is 49 percent. The lack of academic preparation left me adrift at a university with rigorous academics, such as Ohio State. As a young girl growing up on the east side of Toledo, there were many mentors who encouraged me to do better and ensured where I was born was not where I must remain. I'd like to do the same with other children living in poverty and assist them in overcoming obstacles that present themselves in their

When I looked in the mirror, I saw a scrawny skyscraper who towered over her friends and peers. My hips were straight as a ruler, and my arms were so long that they practically touched the ground. The image I created for myself was something you would see in a funhouse mirror. My confidence was about a 2 out of 10, and I was panicking. Losing all of your friends, having trouble getting along with your parents, all while trying to focus on doing well in school, left me no room to worry about or deal with my emotions. Feeling like I did not belong in a particular group was the least of my worries because I did not belong in any group at all. I made myself an outcast because I could not accept who I was. How was I supposed to get out of this hole I dug for myself? Believe it or not, I thought about how six year old me survived the taunting and teasing of first grade and what got me through it: a Spongebob Squarepants episode. The meaning was more than just making people believe you are something you are not. It is about proving to yourself that you can do more than you give yourself credit for. There was more to me than just being able to reach the top shelf and have to sit in the middle seat because that was the most comfortable.

In the first week of the second semester starts on my long road of potentially becoming a teacher. My Educational Psychology class had me thinking and analyzing the issues in the world specifically education. I have always known that there are issues in the world of education but I didn’t know some of the issues are close to home such as our community of De Pere. The issues, conversations we talked about included the high rates of poverty in children, America’s drum major instinct, and the opportunity gap. All these issues pose a significant issue in our educational system and lives of children.