Teach for America Founder Speaks

By the next spring, her students performed the highest on math tests compared to all other surrounding districts.

A Dartmouth College graduate found himself teaching third graders in a Louisiana school district where 80 percent of the students suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. At the beginning of the school year, most of his students could not read. But by the end of the year, his students made reading gains of two grade levels.

"When kids have the opportunities they deserve, they can absolutely excel on an absolute scale," said Wendy Kopp, the founder and president of Teach for America, an organization that works to place college graduates into lower socioeconomic public schools.

Speaking Wednesday night at a Campus Y event in the Student Union Auditorium, Kopp urged students to participate in programs like hers where they make can make a difference.

"We see the fact that kids grow up in our nation and they don't have the opportunity they deserve," she said to the audience of about 75 people. "They are facing the disadvantages of poverty."

The idea for Teach for America began Kopp's freshman year at Princeton University when she saw how unprepared students from underfunded public schools were in comparison to their prep-school counterparts.

"I wondered whether it was fair if where you are born determines your life," she said.

As Kopp approached her senior year she found herself searching for a job. "I wanted to find a way to assume a significant responsibility that would make a difference."

Teach for America is that significant responsibility.

She developed an idea for her senior thesis of a national teacher corps that recruits talented, committed and thoughtful college graduates to give two years of their life to teaching children in low-income rural and urban school districts.

"Young people are in a uniquely powerful position to address the nation's social issues," Kopp said.

Kopp raised the $2.5 million needed to start Teach for America by obtaining grants from businesses and foundations.

She publicized Teach for America by posting fliers around 100 college campuses.

In 1989, 2,500 graduates applied and 500 were selected to become the first class of Teach for America corps members.

"When an idea is meant to happen, the laws of the universe are expanded," Kopp said.

Since then, 9,000 Teach for America corps members have taught in 16 lower socioeconomic communities from South Central Los Angeles to Durham.

Kopp said Teach for America looks to recruit people with personal responsibility, critical thinking skills, motivational ability, organizational skills and high expectations for children from low-income communities. She said the organization looks for people who set big goals for themselves and meet them.

Teach for America members do what effective leaders do everywhere, Kopp said. Many go on to become successful doctors, businessmen, politicians and journalists.

"We need more people in every level of policy who are taking on the more fundamental issues of public education," Kopp said.

"Teach for America was one of the most challenging yet most rewarding, experiences that I've had," said Justin Cooper, a Teach for America alumni and graduate student at UNC studying physical therapy.

Sophomore Denny Wilkerson of Durham plans on applying for the program.

"I've always enjoyed working with kids," she said. "I want a taste of Teach for America."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.