Photo by Sarah Thomas
Teach For America, a national organization that accepts all majors, was on campus seeking new teachers to go to low-income communities and bolster education.
According to their mission statement, Teach For America is “growing the movement of leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education.”
The program is a two-year commitment, in which corps members teach grades pre-K through 12th in 49 urban and rural regions across the country.
Just eight percent of kids growing up in low-income communities graduate from college by age 24, according to research conducted by Postsecondary Education Opportunity.
Detroit, Las Vegas Valley, Memphis, Mississippi and Oklahoma are some of the regions in which the need for teachers is particularly high this year.
Senior Samantha Rammaha, a music and English double major, will be joining the program in Memphis after graduation. Currently, she is assigned to be teaching English as a second language and will receive a full teacher’s salary.
Rammaha said she might stay for a third year, but also wants to do “non-profit work supporting immigrants.”
An applicant must have above a 2.5 GPA and receive a Bachelor’s degree. Members also will have to pass the tests to get certified to teach for 2 years.
Application Process
There are three major parts to applying for the Corps: an online application, phone interview and a day-long final interview. The process lasts about a month and a half. Today (Feb. 20) is the last deadline to apply for the upcoming school year.
Qiana McNary, the manager of recruitment for Teach For America at Ohio Wesleyan, said to spend time on the essays in the online application.
“Think long-term and show them that you are committed to this work,” she said.
Rammaha said she “reached out to an alumna from (her) sorority for any advice about the program and application.”
McNary graduated from OWU in 2007 and taught early childhood in Chicago with the Corps for three years after graduation.