Teach for America: From classroom to corporate setting

My first day of teaching in 2007, Jerome showed up 15 minutes late and disrupted my entire class, ensuring that everyone knew that he had finally arrived. Other teachers had warned me about his disruptive behavior. They said, "Put him in the back and ignore him, or he'll ruin your class." But Jerome wasn't acting out just to give his teachers a hard time. Jerome, as a 10th grader, was reading at a fifth-grade level and lacked the foundational content knowledge necessary to be successful in my U.S. government class. In fact, he was the lowest scoring student in the class on my preliminary exam.

Jerome's story is all too common among students growing up in low-income communities. When kids growing up in poverty enter kindergarten, they are already academically behind their wealthier peers. This gap in educational opportunity only widens over time. By the fourth grade, they are three grade levels behind, and half won't graduate from high school. Only one in 13 will attend college, and for those lacking a college degree, many doors are firmly shut.

As a student at the University of Richmond, this injustice gnawed at me. I had access to a first-class college education, while just a few miles away, outside of the Richmond "bubble," students were falling further and further behind. As a political science major planning on entering law school, I understood the philosophical issues surrounding poverty and education. I knew I wanted to find a way to help expand educational opportunity for 16 million children growing up in poverty, though I wasn't quite sure how to do that. I knew that students in low-income communities only got one shot at a quality education. That's why I joined Teach For America and became a high school social studies teacher at Southwestern High School in Baltimore City.

My time at the University of Richmond proved invaluable in shaping who I am as a professional and a person. It provided a launching pad to fulfilling and meaningful work. As a corps member, I had the chance to partner with others across classrooms and my community to help a new generation of students obtain the same opportunities I had as a public school student in suburban New Jersey, an undergraduate student at the University of Richmond and graduate student at The Johns Hopkins University.

My students in Baltimore face many additional challenges of poverty, but they've shown me that with dedication and hard work, they can overcome almost anything. Jerome, though not immediately, became one of my favorite students. I worked with him, his mother and his grandmother daily (even convincing him to do extra homework!), to get him back on track. I appointed him "class leader," which kept him on task. His new-found attention in class, coupled with the pace with which we were working on the curriculum, propelled him ahead of most of his peers.

Jerome, who started five years below grade level in reading and who began the year mastering only 10 percent of the necessary prerequisite material, ended the year with a 90 percent average of the U.S. government content standards and nearly caught up with his reading. Jerome, being the stubborn 10th grader that he was, then refused to head off to summer vacation until I was convinced that he had finally grasped that last 10 percent of the material. He did just that.

For too long, a zip code has defined educational destiny. But we know that with an all-hands-on-deck approach, educational inequity is a solvable problem. My students are defying the statistics that predict their fates every day. With the commitment of educators and leaders across sectors, we can give all of our children an excellent education.

While Teach For America corps members start by making a two-year commitment, the experience has a lasting impact. For me, I am inextricably linked to my students, their families and the community at large. While I now work in a corporate setting, I am involved in community service efforts that serve low-income communities in New York City, and plan to return to the education setting in a leadership capacity, armed with the added skill set and knowledge that comes from my corporate experience.

I saw the difference that I made in the lives of my students, know the transformational impact that they had on me (and continue to have on me, as I learn of their continued success), and know that I will continue doing whatever is necessary to ensure that the education achievement gap is an issue that we're not discussing with future generations.

Knowing that we can close the achievement gap, I simply can't walk away from this work. It is more urgent than ever that we give our children, regardless of their family income, the kind of education that will allow them to reach their full potential. As you think about the role you will play in the broader world upon graduation, I hope you will consider joining me in these efforts.