A recent U of M graduate who majored in architecture is now drafting lesson plans in a low-income school in southwest Philadelphia.
Tracy Sanderson, a 2004 corps member of Teach for America, started her local recruitment efforts Thursday at The University of Memphis.Sanderson, originally from Oakland, Tenn., graduated in 1999 and started her career in architecture before deciding to devote two years to teaching in low-income schools.
Teach for America, a non-profit program that places recent college graduates in struggling schools, aims to close the academic achievement gap that plagues many inner city and rural students.
The program seeks applicants who are "relentless, driven critical thinkers who won't stop working until they achieve their mission," Sanderson said.
Of the 9,000 alumni from the program, Sanderson is the only one from Memphis.
"We're dead set on recruiting students from Memphis to join Teach for America," said Molly Buckley, the group's national recruitment director. "In our first year (1990), we had 500 members teaching across the country. This past year, Teach for America placed 1,750 college graduates in 22 different sites."
Despite the need to recruit in the Memphis area, the non-profit program has already set up shop in the Mississippi Delta.
"We're here to serve a number of under resourced schools in the Delta," said Ron Nurnberg, executive director of Teach for America's Mississippi region.
College graduates from all disciplines apply to the program and selected applicants begin a two-year paying job teaching mathematics, reading and other subjects in schools serving students from low-income families.
"Our assumption is that people who've had the privilege of going to college understand how valuable that experience is," Nurnberg said. "There's a sense of moral outrage that not everybody has that opportunity and this is a chance to put that theory into action."
The group's efforts are producing results.
"Students in our teachers' classrooms are experiencing one to two years of academic growth," Nurnberg said. "In one kindergarten class, children came in not knowing colors, shapes or numbers and they left that year doing math and reading on a second or third grade level."
As she prepared for day two of recruitment at The U of M, Sanderson said she stumbled onto Teach for America after seven years of working in architecture.
"I'd had thoughts about doing something that would effect dramatic social change," she said. "I was immediately struck by how dire this situation is."
Sanderson recalled the first day walking into her classroom at Communication High School, a public institution in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of southwest Philadelphia.
"A lot of my students didn't even bring paper or pencils to class the first week," she said. "Roughly eighty percent of them were doing math on a sixth grade level."
So many of her students had failed math courses that they didn't even want to try, Sanderson said.
"You wear a lot of hats as a teacher," she said. "You're a motivator, a counselor and always an advocate for your students. You even learn to be a grant writer if you need additional money for your classroom."
The greatest challenge is inspiring your students to want to learn, she said.
"This program gives you the ability to jump into every level of academic administration," Sanderson said. "At day one you're given a huge amount of responsibility."
Of the 9,000 Teach for America alumni, sixty percent of them remain in education in some capacity, Buckley said.
Some alumni go into public policy, law and other fields that are instrumental in addressing education problems.
"We're looking to build a group of people who can address this issue after they've gone on to other careers," Buckley said.
Educators are showing support for the program and its participants.
"All of the country's top ten law schools will defer enrollment for two years for students accepted by Teach for America," Buckley said.Many other graduate schools also honor a student's decision to spend two years in the program before earning a professional degree.
Tracy Sanderson, a ninth grade mathematics teacher and 2004 Teach for America corps member, will be in the University Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday. Additional information about the program is available at teachforamerica.org.
"I know that people in Memphis are extremely hard workers," Sanderson said. "I worked my way through college when I was here and I know a lot of U of M students are putting themselves through school. We need people to step up and help lead this movement."
Educational inequity should be our generation's issue, she said.
