TO THE EDITOR:
While at UNC, I became well acquainted with the names attached to the deluge of Teach for America recruitment e-mails and Facebook event pages. Given the fact that Ms. Keziah (“Teach for America gives hope to the less fortunate, Jan. 28) has yet to even begin teacher training, I found it strange that her letter to the editor sounded like a marketing pitch straight off the TFA website. I soon remembered that I had seen her name on the recruitment efforts I alluded to earlier. According to a TFA e-mail I received, Keziah’s position as campus campaign coordinator is paid an hourly wage. She should have disclosed this compensation in her letter.
This raises a larger issue of the effect of TFA’s highly aggressive recruiting. It is notorious for sending a torrent of personally addressed recruitment e-mails to students who are not interested (e.g. me).
The organization has done a good job of increasing its application numbers. However, I fear that its recruiting practices are crowding out students who are truly enthusiastic about teaching. It markets itself as an “option” (their word, not mine) to attract many applicants, and consequently they receive applications from students who consider the organization little more than an option. Often, these “option” students are highly accomplished and accepted over qualified applicants whose only goal is TFA. This strategy also drives down its admittance rate. Teach for America should recruit students who are wholly committed to the cause rather than seek prestige by recruiting many and accepting few.
Jahan Mohiuddin
Class of 2010
