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NewsvineAs seniors contemplate their post-graduation plans, some will consider participating in Teach for America (TFA) — an increasingly popular program, which offers college graduates full-time, two-year teaching positions in poor or rural public schools, with the goal of providing underprivileged students a quality education.
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While TFA’s fourth and final admissions deadline passed on Feb. 18, students who applied by the third deadline learned their placements last week and have until Mar. 19 to accept or decline the position.
Deepa Alagesan ‘07 has been offered a position teaching science in a New York City secondary school. She has yet to decide if she will accept the position and is also considering jobs at non-profit organizations and in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
“I have always had an interest in education and working with kids, not necessarily in a formal school setting, but through summer internships and extracurricular activities at Stanford,” she said. “I’m planning to go to law school in a year or two but want to do something meaningful, something that I would be passionate about in my time off.”
Bayley Jo Lopez ‘07 will be teaching on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico starting in August.
“I want to be a teacher so [I] was looking for an avenue that would facilitate that,” she said, adding that she was drawn to the TFA because it offered the opportunity to work on a Native American reservation — important to Lopez because of her Native American heritage.
Taurean Brown ‘05 is in her second year with TFA, teaching seventh grade social studies and English in Philadelphia. She also assists with recruitment for the program, telling potential applicants what her experience is like.
“Teaching is not an easy job,” she said. “It’s been like a roller coaster: the challenges are constant.”
Brown said that underprivileged students often face a number of issues — including poor reading skills, anger management difficulties or unstable home environments — all of which make teaching a greater challenge.
TFA has seen a rise in popularity and increasing numbers of applications since its first year in 1990 — last year, the program received more than 19,000 applications, according to the TFA Web site. Nonetheless, some professors at the School of Education have openly criticized the program for producing poorly experienced teachers.
“I can definitely see that there are problems with Teach for America,” Lopez said. “I think it’s problematic that people get thrown in for two years, especially considering that they have demonstrated that more experience makes you a better teacher.”
Alagesan also said she has some reservations about the program.
“I think most people who do the program are somewhat wary,” she said. “It seems like a good way for students who might otherwise not be exposed to teaching to get that experience and to engage with a community.”
To fully appreciate the experience, Brown said that prospective TFA teachers should start out with a clear vision of what they hope to learn and get out of the program.
“Some people use it as a filler before graduate school, but I don’t think that is a compelling enough reason,” she said. “You have to be interested in the mission of the program: it is a demanding job and requires passion. You don’t have to stay in teaching long term but you have to be mindful that it is a job that requires your attention and dedication.”