Issue - Teach for America

Transcription

ALUMNI MAGAZINE / FALL 2014 / EDITION XXII
REAL LIFE IN
NATIVE SCHOOLS
Can educators like Kayla Begay empower students
to succeed by embracing indigenous culture?
1 ONE DAY | FALL 2014
LETTER TO
THE ALUMNI
COMMUNITY
ARE YOU
READY TO
LEAD?
Dear fellow alumni,
Take the next step toward becoming a superintendent, principal or supervisor.
Teach For America Alumni . . . Seton Hall University provides a fast-track to an M.A. or
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Stafford Loans are available.
Our programs are NCATE certified and
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“There’s a lot of potential in a
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preparation of urban school leaders.”
Lars Clemensen ’05 and Teach For America Alumnus
Superintendent of the Hampton Bays Public School, NY
For more information or to attend
an upcoming Webinar, visit:
www.shu.edu/go/edleadertfa
Contact:
Al Galloway, Assistant Program Director,
(973) 275-2417 • [email protected]
400 South Orange Avenue • South Orange, NJ 07079
Eight years ago, the magazine you’re holding in
your hands was just an idea. Then Ting Yu, who
had left a career in journalism to teach in the
Bronx as a member of the New York City corps
in 2003, agreed to take on the task of launching
One Day. As Editor, Ting has brought to our
mailboxes perspectives and stories related to the
most complex education and social justice issues
of the day, and One Day has found a place in so
many of our hearts.
When Ting told me she needed to step down
as Editor to dedicate more time to family, it was
hard to imagine a One Day without her. Thankfully, we don’t have to as she’ll be staying on part
time as Senior Editor. So while this isn’t goodbye, it seems an important moment to thank
Ting for eight incredible years.
Please join me in welcoming our new Editor of One Day, Susan Brenna. Susan brings
deep experience in education journalism and
a longstanding commitment to social justice.
She started her career reporting on the Trenton,
New Jersey, school system that educated her
as a child. She went on to cover schools across
the country before leading communications
for The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit
organization focused on expanding the school
day. Susan and Ting co-conceived this issue on
Native education, which brings you historical
analysis and current reports from within Teach
For America’s regions and alumni community.
This past April, I had the opportunity to attend the Native Alliance Initiative’s first annual
corps member and alumni summit hosted in
Rapid City, just east of the sacred Black Hills
of South Dakota. A journey that began atop
the Crazy Horse Memorial led into impassioned discussions about the future of Native
education and the role of Teach For America
in supporting that future.
I spent time with leaders of national and local organizations who have been fighting for the
betterment of Native students and communities
for decades, as well as members of the Native
Alliance Initiative (corps members, alumni, and
staff members who identify as American Indian,
Alaska Natives, or Native Hawaiian) who are
leading Teach For America to strengthen and
deepen partnerships across Native communities.
I left those conversations holding two equally
strong convictions: first, that the vision for the
future of Native education must be built, held,
and led by Native communities; and second,
that all of us in every region have an important
role to play in supporting that vision and doing the work together. One important way that
all of us can support this is to become knowledgeable and increase the visibility of the issues
Native students and families face, and that’s
what this issue is all about.
Warm Regards,
Andrea Stouder Pursley
(Phoenix ’02)
Executive Vice President, Alumni Affairs
At the Native American Community Academy in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
@TeachForAmerica | @OneDayAllKids
ONE DAY | FALL 2014 3
YOU HELPED
HER EXCEL.
NOW IT’S
YOUR TURN.
CONTENTS / FEATURES
40
You tried everything to make the lightbulb turn
on for her...and it finally did. She beat the odds,
passed the test and is off to a new world
of possibility. You have proven you can engage
students and empower them to reach their
potential. Take your teaching to the next level.
Apply today and join our mission-aligned staff.
With Project LIFT you’ll have access to high-quality
professional development and extra support to
help children achieve great things. After all, that’s
why you enlisted with Teach For America in the
first place.
30
52
Visit www.applytolift.org today.
30 / A GENERATION RISING
48 / Q&A WITH ROBERT COOK
To honor her family and her people, Kayla Begay says her task
is clear: build a school in Navajo country.
He’s the head of Teach For America’s Native Alliance
Initiative. And he’s not a mascot.
38 / WHY ARE NATIVE STUDENTS BEING LEFT BEHIND?
52 / THE HAWAIIAN WAY
A new federal blueprint would shift control of schools from the
federal government to tribal nations. Will it work?
Success in school and life is all about the good of
the collective.
40 / ON THE ROSEBUD RESERVATION
To meet the enormity of community aspirations, a region broadens
its vision and evolves its work.
ON THE COVER
Alumna Kayla Begay in her home community of
Red Lake, New Mexico. Photograph by Brian Leddy.
LEADERSHIP & INVESTMENT FOR TRANSFORMATION
Project L.I.F.T. is a public/private partnership in Charlotte, NC. We are
committed to recruiting, rewarding, and developing top educators.
This is the perfect time for you to further your career and, more
importantly,
create successful students…all in a public school setting.
#APPLYTOLIFT
CONTENTS /
DEPARTMENTS
One Day
TEACH FOR AMERICA ALUMNI MAGAZINE
12 / TAKE FIVE Paymon Rouhanifard discusses the challenges
of leading a school system that’s been taken over by the state.
14 / BY THE NUMBERS How many school days can a student miss
for Indiana’s state fair? And more from state legislatures.
16 / SPOTLIGHT ON… Baltimore, where alumni teachers are
working together to build incentives to stay in the classroom.
18 / DISPATCH FROM... Argentina, where Agustina Faustin’s
antidote to high school disillusionment is service.
20 / CORPS 360 The route to better schools and more livable
neighborhoods may run through your local transit system.
55 / PATHFINDER Do former teachers make sharper education
writers? Alumni journalists reveal their edge.
24 / MEDIA Because this is the book
she would have wanted to have in her
dorm room, Jennifer DeLeon compiled
an anthology of college stories from
“Wise Latinas.”
28 / LETTER FROM... FERGUSON, where
Brittany N. Packnett says don’t look
to young people to lead tomorrow.
Help them lead today.
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Susan Brenna
SENIOR EDITOR
Ting Yu (N.Y. ’03)
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Leah Fabel (Chicago ’01)
EDITORIAL MANAGER
Tim Kennedy (Delta ’11)
ART DIRECTOR
Maria Burke
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
ALUMNI AFFAIRS
Andrea Stouder Pursley
(Phoenix ’02)
ADVERTISE IN ONE DAY
For information on schedule and rates,
please email tim.kennedy@
teachforamerica.org
ONE DAY
is published by
Teach For America Alumni Affairs
315 W. 36th Street, 6th Floor
New York, New York 10018
onedayletters@
teachforamerica.org
▼
59 / In Memoriam JAMES W. FOLEY
“A good education is no longer
just a pathway to opportunity.
It is a prerequisite.”
Barack Obama
INBOX
DO NOW
ALUMNI MAGAZINE / SUMMER 2014 / EDITION XXI
1
ONE DAY • SUMMER 2014
WHAT’S BEST FOR KIDS
Thank you for these articles. As
a New Orleans resident of seven
years, I’ve seen firsthand how asking, “What’s best for kids?” can
turn conversations from collaborative and solutions-oriented to oversimplifying and blaming. Reading
this, I felt a sense of relief. We all
have different answers that are
valid, vary widely, and are nuanced
and complex, and that’s a good
thing! My hope is that we see these
differences as assets and not as “the
problem.” There will never be one
silver bullet for reaching our mission of One Day. Approaching
this question from different vantage points and finding common
ground is a must. Every second we
spend on the negative is one taken
away from the positive.
Create opportunities. Join Classical.
Outperformed 90% of New York schools
Winner of 2014 National Blue Ribbon Award
www.ClassicalCharterSchools.org
SORAYA VERJEE
(G.N.O. — LAD ’09)
New Orleans
COLLEGE REFLECTIONS
Thank you for printing the story
by Miguel Aguilar (Summer 2014,
p.42). I would be very curious to
know how Kalamazoo College
thought about his experiences. I
have no doubt that such a thing
could happen here at Wheaton
College, but I also know that we
have built in some parts to our
program to prevent students from
falling through the cracks. As
high school students, particularly
those from first-generation college-bound homes, are looking at
colleges, they should consider
carefully the quality of first-year
advising, the nature of residence
life, and the ways the curriculum
is structured to help students. Particularly for those in liberal arts
programs, understanding the philosophy and purpose of their studies typically requires some help for
all students.
In addition, high-achieving
high schools serving low-income
and minority communities should
be building links with the collegepreparatory programs many schools
support or offer. Here at Wheaton College, we created a program
five years ago called B.R.I.D.G.E.
(Building Roads to Intellectual Diversity and Great Education) that
brings low-income, first-generation
college-bound, and minority high
school students in the Chicagoland
area to campus for four weeks. They
take classes, live in a dorm, and
have activities for two consecutive
summers as a way to develop an
understanding of college life. The
program was founded by a former
Wheaton student, Veronica PonceNavarette, who was herself a participant in a Questbridge college
preparation program at Stanford.
I hope that counselors at IDEA
and other strong college prep
schools continue to encourage
students to pursue liberal arts
colleges as a good choice. I am
convinced that, on the whole,
students will encounter a more
nurturing, personal, and attentive environment there than most
large universities can match. Research suggests that the liberal arts
curriculum is particularly effective
for low-income students. However colleges are distinct, and offer
a wide variety of curricula, programs, and support for students,
so the process of selecting the
right school is not simple.
Miguel will be a success despite
(or perhaps because of ) his struggles, and he has given us a gift with
his story. May we honor him by
learning from what he has shared.
BRIAN HOWELL
(L.A. ’91)
Professor of Anthropology
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Ill.
Miguel Aguilar’s story highlights
how both high schools and colleges can do a better job of ensuring
that low-income/first-generation
college students of color graduate.
Miguel really struggled with how
much independence he had at college. Though his high school has a
college completion rate that’s significantly higher than the national
average for low-income students,
his struggle does raise questions
around how well high-performing
charter schools—which are often
extremely structured and regimented environments—prepare
students to succeed in higher education, which requires the ability
to handle autonomy.
My college had a mentorship
program for students of color
that matched alumni with first-
year students. It helped me, and
a program like that could have
helped Miguel.
LIZ OLSSON
(N.Y. ’05)
Brooklyn, N.Y.
READING IN COLOR
Starting as a Teach For America
corps member in 1993, I worked as
a bilingual teacher and literacy coach
for over 20 years. Simultaneously, I
launched my career as a children’s
book author and founded a nonprofit called ConnectingAuthors
(www.connectingauthors.org). We
bring multicultural authors into
schools as role models of literacy
and the arts. (We even brought
an author to my TFA placement
school.) So I was excited to read
in your Summer 2014 issue about
alumna Ashley Foxx (Memphis
’10), who founded a business, Kifani Press, dedicated to publishing
more children’s books that feature
multicultural characters. It’s great
to see a fellow alum working to
diversify children’s literature.
SUSAN B. KATZ
(Bay Area ’93)
Oakland, Calif.
W
e want to hear from
you. T ell us what’ s new
or what you think ab out
what you read here.
S end a note or a digital
photo to onedayletters@
teachforamerica. org.
N otes may b e edited for
length and clarity.
SMALL LEARNERS,
BIG WORDS
THROUGH ITS EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Teach For America trains corps
members to go beyond “dog” and “house”
in developing the literacy skills of pre-K and
kindergarten students. Teachers like Sergio
Arroyos—pictured in his Tulsa classroom—
expose young learners to nuanced “Tier 2”
words (such as “coincidence”) that often
occur in conversation.
INITIATIVE,
One Day asked Sergio and a fellow
Oklahoma early childhood teacher:
What’s a favorite book for introducing
these words?
SERGIO ARROYOS
Oklahoma ’13/ Pre-K teacher at CAP Tulsa’s Early Childhood
Education Center at Eastgate
“One of the best book investments I ever made is What Do You
Do with an Idea by Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom. ‘Realize’ and
‘imagine’ are great words for a healthy language discussion.
I’ve heard kids say, ‘I realize what to do with an idea. I’m going
to go change the world.’”
RENZO MEZA
Oklahoma ’13/Kindergarten teacher at the Dual Language
Immersion Program in North Tulsa
“I do a lot of lessons in English and Spanish with the Franklin
the turtle series, including Franklin Is Bossy. They’re so lively and
funny, and they introduce words like ‘furious’ and ‘overwhelmed.’
After his brother took his basketball away from him, I heard a
student in the cafeteria, Darien, tell another student, Tyron, that
he was ‘furioso.’”
Photograph by Christopher Smith
TAKE FIVE
BY THE NUMBERS
NO EASY PATH
You’re making some major changes
to how Camden schools have been
run for generations. What kind of approach
toward community does that require?
1
The onus is on us to go into the community
and understand the historical and local context, and to learn how we can work together
to implement the changes that will lead us to
better schools. We’ve hosted town halls and we
regularly attend local athletic events and block
parties, and in a little over a year we’ve been
able to win some community support. That’s
not to say every last person is copacetic—far
from it. Change is really hard and complex in
our environment, but it’s critical that you’re
constantly listening.
How did your time in the classroom
influence your approach to being
a superintendent?
2
and his
family fled Iran due to political persecution. They landed in
a refugee camp in Pakistan before finally settling in a small
town in Tennessee. “What I can recall is my parents saying
if it wasn’t for their education, they wouldn’t have been able
to persevere through those hardships,” he says.
AS A YOUNG BOY, PAYMON ROUHANIFARD (N.Y. ’03)
Today, Rouhanifard is the superintendent of Camden City School District, which was taken
over by the state of New Jersey in June 2013 for chronic underperformance. (New Jersey
education runs in the family: His brother, Nima [Phoenix ’04], is an eighth grade math teacher
and grade-level chair at RISE Academy in Newark.) In just over a year, Rouhanifard has overhauled Camden’s central office, introduced a new “Renaissance” school model, and laid out
a short-term strategic plan based on community demands for immediate improvements to
school safety, performance, and community engagement. The work remains highly challenging, requiring nearly 255 layoffs last spring and drawing the vitriol of critics who oppose his
strategies and tactics. But Rouhanifard has persevered. He’s motivated, he says, to provide
Camden students with an education that will see them through their own challenges. “For decades, the system failed too many families,” he says. “There was a moral imperative to step
in and try something different, and that’s what we’re doing here.” BY LEAH FABEL (CHICAGO ’01)
Photograph by Lori M. Nichols/South Jersey Times
of pieces of state education
legislation signed into law every year, only a
fraction are related to heavyweight issues such
as learning standards and teacher evaluations.
Here are some under-the-radar bills that might
have escaped your notice.
OF THE THOUSANDS
I taught at I.S. 195 in West Harlem, one of the
lowest-performing middle schools in New York.
We had three principals in the two years I was
there, and the first two were arrested—literally
arrested. On top of that, I was spending well over
$1,000 per year on basic instructional materials,
only to discover—after getting a key from our
custodian—a supply closet with boxes of brand
new laptops. That’s the type of incident that
makes you feel no one really trusts you or wants
to empower you to do your job. Experiences like
those completely affect the way I think about
decisions here in Camden, where our focus has
been to better support and empower those who
are closest to our students.
The state takeover of the district has
paved the way for “Renaissance”
schools—district-charter hybrids operated
by organizations like KIPP and Uncommon
3
Schools. Is there an ideal balance between
different public school models?
The ideal balance is a great school in every neighborhood for every family. I don’t think about a
defined mix of governance types. A great school
is a great school.
Is there a piece of advice you’ve
received on the job that has been
most important to you?
4
I often ask former superintendents about their
lessons learned, and one that I’ve heard has been
the importance of an ethos of service to families. When I ask them about their concerns, it’s
typically not, “Why is this charter school opening?” or “Why is this school phasing out?” It’s,
“My student’s special education placement is
wrong and it needs to be fixed.” Or, “Three of
the last five days the school bus has been late
and my child is losing valuable learning time.
Help me.” So we’ve created systems like a new
parent center and help desks at every school to
troubleshoot for families. If we in our role as
district leaders can’t address them, where else
can they turn?
5
What’s the biggest challenge as
you move forward?
Our biggest challenge is a dramatic lack of
rigor in our schools. We’re fortunate to have
a foundation where most educators have created a warm, nurturing learning environment
for kids; but going forward, we need to better
support our staff to raise the bar and not to underestimate our kids intellectually. The statistics
are there: Barely half of our kids graduate and
only a fraction enroll at two- or four-year colleges or join the workforce. So we’ve got our
work cut out for us. OD
14 ½ AGE AT WHICH Iowans
can receive a special
“minor school license”
to drive back and forth to school and extra-
curricular activities without adult supervision
8
NUMBER OF STATES that have
enacted legislation in 2014
related to awareness and
prevention of concussions in
student athletes: California, Connecticut,
(subject to restrictions), according to the terms
Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, New
of an act signed into law in March.
Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
according to the terms of a law
13
passed in March.
such as football, softball, basketball, track, or band.”
5
NUMBER OF DAYS
a student is allowed to
miss school in Indiana
if participating in the state fair
(or has family participating),
3
NUMBER OF SUPPORTING reasons
listed in a Kentucky resolution
passed in April encouraging
school districts to promote student
participation in trapshooting “in the
same manner as other youth extracurricular activities,
NUMBER OF YEARS in Maryland’s
Summer Career Academy pilot
program, established by law in May,
which matches students struggling to
meet graduation requirements with a career
counselor and an employment opportunity.
90
MINUTES
PER WEEK
of student
physical activity required by
law in Tennessee—a figure that now
Participating students receive a stipend of up
excludes “walking to and from class,”
to $4,500.
thanks to a bill passed in May.
7,000
NUMBER OF EMERGENCY ROOM VISITS PER YEAR
“by children for backpack-related injuries,” according to
the text of a California resolution passed in May urging school
districts to take precautions to avoid such injuries.
Businessman,
Veteran, Parent
The Veteran: Barb Protacio
Barb Protacio served in the Navy for 28 years,
but her first grade classroom at Thomas Jones
Elementary in Mount Rainier, Maryland, is no
boot camp. “I try not to extend the discipline
and rigors of the military to the children at this
point,” she says with a laugh, “except that they
can learn to self-regulate. They can do a lot more
than they think they can at this young age.”
Barbara joined Teach For America through
the “You Served For America, Now Teach For
America” veterans recruiting initiative after 6
and a half years of active duty and 20-plus years
in the reserves as an information dominance
corps officer, or the person who “provides information to operational forces so that they can
carry out their missions effectively and make
decisions quickly.” When her youngest child left
for college, she decided to return to full-time
work and teach because she wanted to influence
Meet members of the 2014 corps, the most
diverse in Teach For America history
by TIM KENNEDY (DELTA ’11)
a new generation of students from their earliest
years to embrace nonviolent problem-solving
“before they are adults who think that [warfare]
is one of the only ways.” This veteran says, “Another way to raise our defense and to keep our
country strong is by educating everybody.”
The Professional: Earl Turner
When Earl Turner graduated from high school
in New Orleans in 1999, he didn’t consider
college an option. “I never believed I could do
it,” says Turner, who now teaches seventh and
eighth grade math at ICEF Inglewood Middle
Academy in Inglewood, California. “That just
wasn’t something we did in our community,” he
says, considering he had lost perhaps a dozen
friends to drugs or violence by the end of high
school. Instead, he opened a successful barber
shop, relying on the entrepreneurial skills he’d
acquired while washing cars, cutting grass, and
delivering newspapers to help his family make
ends meet. Years later, after earning a business
degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University,
Turner felt compelled to return home to New
Orleans to use those same skills to aid in the
recovery from Hurricane Katrina. He founded
Moving Forward Construction, worked on contracts from FEMA, and led the company until
2013, when he followed his wife to Los Angeles
for her work as a professor.
With two school-aged children, Turner says he
was drawn to a career change through Teach For
America because he wanted to put his life experience to work through direct contact with kids
and their parents. “My businesses started from
nothing,” he says. He learned that to be successful, he needed to earn his customers’ confidence
and trust. “And that’s what parents are looking
for,” he says. “Where can I send my students so
they will get a teacher they deserve?” OD
HOW DIVERSE?
5,350
2014 corps member Ada Garcia walks home from school with her daughter, Rachel.
The Community Builder: Ada Garcia
Since she was young, Ada Garcia knew she wanted to teach—possibly
high school health—because she felt that in her Bronx neighborhood of
Soundview, teens needed more guidance “at an earlier age.” Then a few
months before high school graduation, she learned she was pregnant. It
would be seven years of working and raising her daughter, Rachel, before
she enrolled in college, years Garcia says prepared her for the demands of
being the teacher her community needs.
As a first-year corps member, Garcia teaches seventh and eighth grade
English at Hyde Leadership Charter School in Hunts Point, next door to
her old Soundview neighborhood. Garcia says she illustrates her teaching
with examples that are relevant to Bronx students. “I remember when I
was growing up, in stories and math problems, there were names I’d never
heard, or characters [who lived] in the suburbs… Those were different
worlds.” But Garcia says she also is thinking of her own daughter when
she seeks materials that expose her students to people and places beyond
the neighborhood. “Diversity does not just mean people of color; it means
all kinds of people.”
49%
50 REGIONS 35 STATES
CORPS
MEMBERS
People
of color
47%
Received federal Pell
Grants in college
30+
Student body
presidents
21%
13%
PLUS WASHINGTON, DC
African
American
Latino
33%
Were first-generation
college students
30+
Posse Foundation
Scholars
6%
6%
Asian American/
Pacific Islander
Multiethnic or
Multiracial
1%
American Indian/
Native Alaskan/Hawaiian
35%
17%
10
9
Were graduate students
or professionals
Hispanic Scholarship Fund
recipients or finalists
Have backgrounds in
STEM fields
Gates Millennium
Scholars
Photograph by Tamara Porras
SPOTLIGHT ON
BALTIMORE
A region pilots a new approach to
retaining effective teachers
What does it take to keep a strong, early career
teacher like Austin Wiese (Baltimore ’10, left) not
only in the classroom, but in a striving school
with many needs?
HOW ABOUT A $25,000 RAISE AND A MODEL TEACHER DESIGNATION?
In its contract with teachers, Baltimore City Public Schools created a career ladder intended to reward demonstrably successful teachers with higher pay and greater schoolwide
influence. But to advance through the four “career pathways”—from Standard to Professional to Model to Lead Teacher, with its $101,814 starting salary—teachers must reach
seniority benchmarks, then apply to a review committee of teachers and administrators.
The application is elaborate, exacting, and arduous to compile. To cite just one example,
Model Teacher applicants must submit a 45-minute video of a classroom lesson in which
they demonstrate mastery of 17 domains, such as showing their students “take risks and
receive constructive feedback from their (teacher) and/or peers.”
Last year, Baltimore became one of 12 Teach For America regions to pilot new programs
of professional support for alumni teachers. Regional Alumni Affairs Director Amy Wilson
(Baltimore ’92) set about helping the team
meet its larger goals of achieving equity and
expanding student success by devising strategies to keep strong teachers in Baltimore,
and creating opportunities for teachers to
help one another. One of her first moves was
to invite any alumni teachers who were considering applying for Model Teacher status—
through which, she said, “they could make a
salary to support a family”—to join a working
group. She then organized meetings where
aspiring model teachers critiqued each
other’s portfolios-in-process and got tips
from alumni who had already been awarded
the designation.
Seven alumni from the working groups applied last spring. Six achieved Model Teacher
status. (By comparison, the success rate of all
teachers city-wide in the previous application
round was 29%.) Wilson hopes to see at least
35 more alumni apply this school year and, in
addition to other pilot initiatives, is organizing
working groups for fall and spring deadlines.
“Teachers are each other’s best resources,
but they’re often all alone out there,” Wilson
said. “We bring them together.”
For Austin Wiese, that knowledge-sharing
was critical. In what he called “more soughtafter schools” (where Model Teachers cluster), applicants hear about “what you need
to show on domain 14.1 A.” But his turnaround
school had no one on its staff of 32 who had
attained Model Teacher status, and, he said,
“No one was applying.”
Though the process was grueling, Wiese
believes it made him a better teacher. “I started collecting data on everything I was doing
with students. I did more professional development with other teachers, which made me
a better teacher.” He helped his school triple
the number of paperless classrooms like his.
He had already organized students
through a service-learning trip to Ecuador.
But to show that he’d identified and met a
community need, he helped social workers
and students coordinate with the local food
bank to fill backpacks with food every week.
Students then slipped the backpacks to
others who would have been embarrassed
to be seen carrying a box of food home to
their families.
With his Model Teacher designation, Wiese’s annual salary increased from around
$62,000 to $87,000. That’s not the biggest
factor in whether he will continue to teach
at Benjamin Franklin High School or in Baltimore, he said. A trusting principal, a unified staff, and classroom autonomy mean
more to him. “But does it make it an easier
decision to stay year after year? Definitely.”
BY SUSAN BRENNA
Photograph by Shan Gordon
STATS
1992
Year placements started
296
Corps members teaching
in Baltimore City Public
Schools this school year
PETER KANNAM
(Baltimore ’93) and
TINA HIKE-HUBBARD
(Baltimore ’94) serv e on the
B altimore C ity S chools B oard
of S chool C ommissioners
700
Teach For America
alumni live in Baltimore
284
Alumni are teachers—including
31 Model and 8 Lead Teachers
ROB GLOTFELTY
(Baltimore ’10) was named
the city’ s 2013 E arly C areer
T eacher of the Y ear
FAST
FACTS
NEARLY
FEWER THAN
Students attend Baltimore City
English language learners
85,000 4%
schools
84.5%
From low-income families
FOUR AGENCIES ARE WORKING ON
A 10-YEAR, $1 BILLION PLAN TO REBUILD
AND REPLACE SCHOOL FACILITIES.
DISPATCH FROM
ARGENTINA
Enseñá por Argentina is part of the
Teach For All network operating in 35
countries around the world and growing
Agustina Faustin worked as a corporate recruiter for seven years before joining Enseñá por Argentina. “I realized I couldn’t change the system from there,”
Faustin says. “Education is where you have the possibility to give people opportunity and make a difference.”
with an uneven
recovery since its economic collapse in 2001. Near
the edges of Buenos Aires, gated communities
and golf courses abut “villas miserias” (“misery
villages”)—shanty towns similar to Brazil’s favelas.
ARGENTINA HAS STRUGGLED
In Boulogne and San Fernando, where Enseñá por Argentina alumna Agustina
Faustin teaches high school business, many women travel to nearby towns to
clean elegant homes; many men compete for low-paid security or construction
work. This inequality, Faustin says, has disillusioned many young Argentines; her
schools have dropout rates upward of 50 percent. To combat their resignation,
Faustin cofounded LIDER.AR (“to lead”) in 2013, teaching students to develop and
take on school- and community-improvement projects. Today, 150 students in
eight schools participate in the program, guided by about 20 instructors (mostly
from Enseñá por Argentina). “I saw my students being passive, waiting for the government or rich people—someone from outside—to solve their problems,” Faustin
says. “But when youth are part of the solution, they feel that they are part of society. That’s what Argentina needs.” BY TIM KENNEDY (DELTA ’11)
What are some of the greatest challenges you see in the schools where you
teach? A Teachers in Argentina work per
hour. It’s not “one teacher, one classroom”;
most teachers work in two or three schools.
It’s very difficult because you can’t build relationships or trust when you’re at a school
only four hours per week. Another problem
is that secondary education has only been
obligatory for the past three years. We have
generations who never finished secondary
school because you don’t need that to work
in a shop or to work construction. On the
first day of school, I always ask my students, “Who has passed their father’s academic level?” And almost all of them raise
their hands.
Q
Q College tuition has been free in Argentina for almost a century. What’s kept your
students and their parents from attending?
A First of all, when I talk about university
with my students, it’s new for them—it’s not
culturally expected to go to college. But
even if they show interest in going to university, they might not have the resources to
commute every day or move away for school.
And many students just aren’t prepared to
go to university—not because they can’t afford it, but because their academic level is
too low to keep up. Many schools aren’t preparing students for university-level work.
Q How have these challenges affected
your students? A I’ll tell you a story I always tell: When I was finishing my second
year of teaching, I had one student come up
to me after a failed exam and tell me, “Teacher, you have to pass me because I’m poor.” I
suddenly felt that I had done everything
wrong during those two years—I hadn’t
taught my students responsibility. They were
passive and felt like solutions were in other
people’s hands.
Q What do you think is causing this de
detachment in your students? A I think that
we don’t teach students to be active be-
cause it’s easier for us to have control of the
class and the system if the mind-set is, “Do
what I tell you.” When Argentina was ruled
by dictators, it was common to shut out the
young voices. We learn from parents and
grandparents that you don’t have to say
what you think; it’s better to say what the
other person is expecting. Taking action re-quires you to assume responsibility. Now,
we are two or three generations removed
from the time of dictators, so it’s time to lis-ten to the youth again and make them part
of society.
Q In LIDER.AR, students participate in
leadership workshops and then develop
their own social-impact projects. How do
they decide what kinds of projects to lead?
A We connect students from different
schools in our workshops, so they get to
know other young people who have dealt
with the same problems and want to change
them. Some projects are personal. For ex-ample, some LIDER.AR students organized a
festival for kids from the neighborhood,
some of whom live on the street or come
from houses that don’t have a lot of money.
The kids found such joy to be able to play
and be a child and not have to live in the
adult world for a day. That was so powerful
because some of our students had the same
childhood that these kids have, but they
were able to do something different for them.
Q What makes LIDER.AR’s approach special compared to other youth empowerment
programs? A I believe in LIDER.AR because
it makes young people feel like they’re part
of a group where you are helping others and
feel good while doing it. I work with some
very good, very responsible students, but I
also have students who are not good in many
subjects, or at least feel they’re not good. But
in LIDER.AR, even if they’re not first in their
class, they feel like an important part of a
group. I have students tell me, “Teacher, I feel
useful here.” And that’s a very strong thing to
say: “I’m useful.” OD
Photographs by Patricio Murphy
FINDINGS
One planner’s vision: safer, healthier
communities where students and their
families can grow and thrive.
CORPS 360
On Track
by LEAH FABEL (CHICAGO ’01)
corner office
overlooks downtown Washington, D.C.—
a postcard picture from above, but home
to some of the worst traffic congestion in
the country down on the streets. His job as
the managing director of planning for the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority—the second largest subway system and
the sixth largest bus system in the country—
is to alleviate that and create a more navigable
metropolitan environment.
If he does the job well, Kannan’s work can
deliver on a vision he developed when he was
a teacher: safer, healthier communities where
students and their families can stay and thrive.
Kannan grew up outside of Philadelphia,
where his father owned a handful of small enterprises on the city’s west side. On weekends,
SHYAM KANNAN’S (L.A. ’97)
Photograph by Jared Soares
the family would drive from their leafy suburb way traffic on a good day. But with the regular
regularinto Philly to tend to the businesses. With each ity of a Red Line train, he returns to his hope to
passing block, Kannan saw fewer trees, more simply create more livable communities.
graffiti, more abandoned buildings. “I still recall
He has a team redrawing the region’s bus
this intense feeling of sadness at how dilapidated routes to smooth travel across state lines (D.C.’s
these buildings had become,” he says.
suburbs are in Maryland and Virginia). AnAn
He joined Teach For America out of college other team is analyzing data (using sources
and taught for the next four years—two years from satellite imagery to Bluetooth signals) to
teaching science at El Sereno Middle School in determine the paths people take between public
Los Angeles and two years of social studies and transit and within it, and then to make those
music at a Learning Project charter school in paths safe and simple.
New York City. In both places, he was struck
He dreams of less traditional solutions,
by the contrast between his students’ homes, too—some suited to working parents like
en- himself—like having retailers such as grocers
mostly tidy and inviting, and the outside en
vironment: litter and shards of glass on the and pharmacies partner with Metro to of
ofground, burned-out streetlights, broken or fer evening pickups at train stations, giving
nonexistent sidewalks.
commuters more time at home and less at
It began to bother him that the kind of suc- the store.
cess he promised his students would almost
Over time, he believes, “Livable communities
certainly lead them to seek out communities are, from a social perspective, what breed stabil
stabilsomewhere else—somewhere nearer jobs and ity in schools and greater student performance
amenities like parks and easy transportation. overall. So that’s what I want to create.” OD
“I wanted to do more
to make the community
in which they lived the
type of place where they
would want to stay.”
In 2003, Kannan
graduated with degrees
in urban planning from
deHarvard University’s de
sign school and its John
F. Kennedy School of
Government, then spent
nine years in the private
sector before joining
Metro in 2012.
He sings the praises
staof the system—the sta
“cations designed as “ca
thedrals underground,”
and the fact that Metro’s
public transit on a bad
A mass transit enthusiast, Shyam Kannan calls Metro stations
“cathedrals underground.”
day is preferable to BeltBelt
One Day is inviting guest alumni
to share fellow scholars’ important
findings on their topics of expertise.
Daphne Penn (Metro Atlanta ’08),
who studies education policy, race,
and social inequality, cited findings
below from recent research. Penn
is one of the first 24 scholars in
the Harvard Graduate School of
Education Doctor of Philosophy in Education program.
She occasionally writes for The Ebony Tower, an online
collective for young scholars of color.
Join Us and
Make It Happen
Rigorous Academics
Social Development
Arts Infusion
College Acceptance
REDUCING SCHOOLS’ SOCIOECONOMIC
SEGREGATION LEADS TO HIGHER
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT.
PARENTS’ INTERNAL CONFLICTS
AFFECT DISTRICTS’ EFFORTS TO
DIVERSIFY SCHOOLS.
Using data from 16 western nations,
researchers simulated what would
happen to students’ reading proficiency
if schools became less segregated.
They found that the gap in reading
proficiency between higher- and lowerincome students would narrow, but
that schools’ overall performance
would not necessarily improve
Researchers who explored demographic
changes in two countywide school
districts found that parents’ desires for
more diverse schools conflicted with
their preference to enroll kids close to
home, complicating districts’ ability to
implement diversity policies and highlighting the need to address residential
as well as school segregation.
g Comparative Education Review,
February 2014
g American Journal of Education, May 2014
Now hiring teachers
and leaders in:
Central AR • Chicago
Detroit • Indianapolis
Milwaukee • New York
NW Indiana • Tulsa
NEIGHBORHOOD SEGREGATION INCREASED WHEN BUSING
FOR SCHOOL DESEGREGATION ENDED.
Harvard and University of Pittsburgh researchers investigated
what happened in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., when the end
of race-conscious school assignment gave parents greater
school choice through neighborhood choice. Their findings—
that white families who moved were more likely to choose a
whiter school zone—are supported by previous studies.
g American Educational Research Journal, April 2014
Learn more and apply online at
www.lighthouse-academies.org
Trips to civil rights
monuments like Little
Rock Central High
School motivated
un o er freedom
fellow Jadea Gibson
(center, in white shirt)
“to be disciplined
and strive for
something better.”
found
EXCELLENCE
Freedom
Flowers
buildingexcellentschools.org/start-a-school
by TING YU (N.Y. ’03)
IN JULY, 30 STUDENTS FROM MERID-IAN, MISSISSIPPI, listened intently as a
park ranger at Little Rock Central High in
Arkansas brought to life the dramatic story of
the Little Rock Nine. Then he cracked open
the U.S. history textbook students currently
used at Central and showed his audience the
single paragraph on school integration devoted
to the events he had just described. “There was
this look of shock and disappointment on my
kids’ faces,” says Anna Stephenson (Mississippi
’09), executive director of the Meridian Free-dom Project (MFP) which organized the trip.
“I could see the wheels turning in their heads.”
The MFP, launched in June, is an expan-sion of the Sunflower County Freedom Proj-ect founded in Mississippi in 1998 by alumni
Chris Myers Asch, Shawn Raymond, and
Gregg Costa (all Mississippi ’94). Like its par-ent program in Sunflower, MFP provides com-prehensive academic support and leadership
training for low-income students. And stoking
a fire for social justice has been a powerful mo--
One participant, Jadea Gibson, a ninthtivator. “We honor the legacy of the civil rights
movement and what it means to take action,” grader at Meritt Middle School in Sunflower,
says Stephenson, whose father grew up in Me-- says he has acquired a new focus and drive.
ridian and who still has family in the area. “We “It turned my life around,” says Gibson, who
want them to think about it and consider their admits school was never a priority before. “I
learned a lot about myself that I didn’t know
place in it today.”
was
in me. I found out there were kids who
Stephenson hopes MFP will have the same
looked
up to me. Going through this program,
life-changing impact on students as its parent
you
feel
like you can change the world. You
program has had. Working in close collabora-tion, the two projects offer “freedom fellows” a don’t get that a lot. I’m inspired.”
So was Jeremiah Smith (Mississippi ’12), a
five-week summer program of intensive courses
in core subjects, as well as electives such as sto-- Sunflower staffer who worked closely with
rytelling, gardening, art, drama, chess, and fit-- Gibson over the summer and plans to open
ness. The last two weeks are capped off with a chapter in Mississippi’s Rosedale, his corps
camping trips, tours of civil rights monuments placement city, in the next two years.
“We read 12 Years a Slave, and every day
throughout the South, and a weeklong simula-Jadea
had a thousand things to say. He just
tion of college life at the University of Missis-sippi, where students stay in dorms, meet with got more and more excited and expressive,
first-generation college students, and take en-- and he’s become so passionate about bringrichment classes taught by college interns. Be-- ing change to Sunf lower County. That’s
yond the summer, academic support continues why I came into this work. It’s not just
about changing their own lives but about
after school and on Saturdays throughout the
the
community.” OD
school year.
MEDIA
Some of your essayists grapple with the
idea of leaving a piece of oneself behind in
order to move forward. Do you think that’s a
necessar trade off
Q
STRENGTH IN
NUMBERS
A In terms of leaving for college, I don’t think
it has to be that way. I couldn’t bring my parents
with me to class, but they were absolutely there
in that I wasn’t ashamed of them or where I
came from. There are always fears that your
friends will think you’re weird because your
mom is a housekeeper or your grandma is from
the projects. But at the end of the day, I truly
believe that we’re all people wanting to connect
in different ways, and that starts with being
proud of where you came from.
WHEN IT CAME TIME FOR COLLEGE, JENNIFER DE
seemed well-suited for the
challenge: She had been a top student at a
good public high school in suburban Boston;
she had scholarships; she had family and
friends supporting her ambitions. But once
she arrived, De Leon felt lost. As a firstgeneration Latina student, her role models
were few and the odds were against her. “I
felt like I was between worlds all the time—
that I never quite fit in,” she says. With time,
she found her friends and her voice, as
well as inspiration for the book she wishes
someone had written for her. Wise Latinas,
published in March 2014, is a collection of
essays and stories about the college
experience by renowned Latina writers—from
Julia Alvarez to Sandra Cisneros to Norma
Cantu. “My goal is to help young Latinas—or
anyone—to not give up,” says De Leon, who
teaches both seventh grade English at the
Boston Teachers Union School and adult
creative writing courses, and speaks about
her book at colleges. “I don’t ever want them
to doubt that they can make it through
college, because others have shown that
it’s possible.” BY LEAH FABEL (CHICAGO ’01)
LEON (BAY AREA ’02)
What’s the responsibility colleges have
to atina students re there fundamental
changes that need to be made in higher
education
Q
Retention is huge. There’s a lot of emphasis
on recruiting low-income students and students
of color, and rightly so. But are they graduating?
It’s hard when the only people on campus who
look like you are the ones cleaning bathrooms
and serving meals, and colleges need to address
those challenges if they’re going to improve student retention. They also need to hire professors
who represent the students they serve. There
was one Latina professor at my college—just
one—and that was a huge thing for me. Colleges need to focus on bringing many more
people to campus expressing a wide range of
identities—not just Latinas, but leaders, writers,
artists, and academics of many backgrounds.
A
Q You write in your intro that anthologies are activism—an idea
you credit to renowned Latina poet and cultural theorist Gloria
n aldua. hat do ou mean b that
By putting together an anthology, we’re creating a history—and if we
don’t write our own, there will be no mark of it or someone else will tell
it. Many of the stories we hear now are that Latinas are too lazy for
higher education or too family-oriented or don’t have high enough expectations. With a book like this, you have not one but a chorus of voices
with a lot of common denominators bringing so much complexity to
those stereotypes, and combating them. That is an act of activism.
A
Q
What’s the origin of the title, Wise Latinas
Before becoming a Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor used
that phrase in several speeches, saying that a wise Latina woman has a
richness of experience that can help her reach more fair conclusions than
judges without those experiences. She got such a backlash against it during her confirmation hearings—but instead of it becoming something
for Latinas to be ashamed of, it became a source of strength. I think of
wise Latina women like my mom, who cleaned houses for a living and
clipped coupons even while finding any way to help us feel completely
empowered to do whatever we wanted. And I think of formally educated
Latina women with a sense of social justice—a consciousness about
what’s going on in the world—who bring the elevator down to others
before going back up.
A
Great Habits, Great Readers:
A Practical Guide for K-4 Reading
in the Light of Common Core (Jossey-Bass)
There’s nothing magical about high-achieving
literacy classrooms, writes Paul BambrickSantoyo in the introduction to this guide. “The
keys to great reading instruction…can work
for any teacher in any school,” he says. Great
Habits, which Bambrick-Santoyo coauthored
with Aja Settles and Juliana Worrell (both New
Jersey ’04), compiles these instructional strategies into one book and DVD,
detailing the best practices refined over 15 years by the Uncommon Schools
charter network (where Bambrick-Santoyo is a managing director and Settles
and Worrell are founding principals). The book includes more than 450 pages
of concrete guidance (for example, “Don’t double-model a skill. Your students’
time is better spent practicing it” and “Chart ‘classmate-free’ paths to and from
the library”), while the DVD provides lesson plans and footage from exemplary
classrooms. The central idea is that strong reading should become a habit for
students, not so they can ace tests, but so that skills like analyzing text become
as second-nature as tying shoes.
Count on the Subway (Alfred A. Knopf)
New Yorkers have used many words to describe
their city’s subway system, including some we
can’t print. But the trains in the children’s book
Count on the Subway can be summarized with
one: whimsical. (If only the reality were so.)
Coauthored by wife-and-husband team Jennifer
Swender (Houston ’92) and Paul DuBois Jacobs,
Did you think about your own students
as ou ere ritin this boo
Subway follows a mother and daughter on a short, colorful trip through the
In many ways, they’re whom this book is
for. I tried to think about what I needed at
their age, and this is what I needed much more
than books like Oh, The Places You’ll Go! [by
Dr. Seuss]. Then again in college, I realized I
had no role models for what to do afterward.
For me, college was the end of the road—I’d
made it. And in the meantime, my friends
were applying for the GRE or the Peace Corps
or looking at grad schools—for them, college
was part of a longer track. For kids like my students, I hope this book can provide those role
models I was missing. OD
stairs. / Find the 7 at Times Square.” The images, by illustrator Dan Yaccarino,
Q
A
tunnels underneath the Big Apple, counting all the way: “9 bright signs, down 8
are cheerful and bold, combining silhouettes with bright, stylish designs. The
numbers within the text are designed to resemble New York’s iconic train logos.
Swender and Jacobs, who also write freelance educational content for multiple
organizations, have introduced young readers to the joys of public transit before:
My Subway Ride, intended for slightly older kids, was published in 2004.
THE FACE OF CHANGE
Progress by Degrees
Tennessee tries a community
college promise
TRANSFORMING EDUCATION THROUGH LEADERSHIP
by TIM KENNEDY (DELTA ’11)
TENNESSEE MADE HISTORY IN APRIL
when lawmakers passed the Tennessee Promise,
which makes community or technical college free
for the state’s high school graduates by guaranteeing “last dollar” financial aid to students who’ve
already exhausted other sources of financing
(such as federal Pell Grants). It’s the first statewide program of its kind in the nation, and it
includes more than simple tuition. It also pairs
students with college mentors and requires them
to complete at least eight hours of community
service per semester.
That combination has drawn praise from educators across the state, including Emily Blatter
(N.Y. ’07), the director of KIPP Through College
Nashville. “You don’t just get the money,” Blatter
says. By having students take on the responsibilities of meeting with a mentor, attending meetings, and doing service work, the plan’s architects
“are setting up high expectations and setting out
a path for success.”
Jayme Place (Charlotte ’06), an education policy analyst for Governor Bill Haslam who helped
rally early support for Tennessee Promise, calls
the program a culture shift. “It’s very much about
drawing in a whole new group of students to the
post-secondary pipeline,” Place says. “[We’re] focusing in on students who otherwise may think,
‘I can’t do this because I don’t have the financial
means,’ or, ‘I don’t know how to do this.’”
Within the colleges, however, educators like
Kim Becker (Mississippi ’99) have some concerns. Becker, an associate professor and coordinator of ESL programs at Nashville State
Community College (NSCC), appreciates the
well-intentioned spirit behind Tennessee Promise
but worries it may lack ample administrative support from the state—a familiar narrative in education reform. Becker worries, for example, that
the quality of a mentor—instead of the potential
of the student—could make or break the experience for less-prepared students.
Photograph by Joe Buglewicz
Becker says that most community colleges
don’t employ full-time advisers, a job that falls
instead to time-pressed instructional faculty
and staff. “We often don’t have the resources to
help [students] the way that they need,” she says.
“They often don’t [get] the resources unless they
have a really good mentor with a lot of time.”
Other programs have tried to mitigate those
concerns by imposing stricter eligibility requirements. The recently announced Chicago
Star Scholarship, for example, provides supports similar to the Tennessee Promise but is
limited to students who graduate high school
with a 3.0 GPA and can place into college-level
math and English.
Place agrees that the state will have to support community colleges in reshuffling their
resources. But even under current conditions,
she’s confident Tennessee Promise will work. She
cites data from tnAchieves—the six-year-old private initiative that in many ways served as a pilot
program for Tennessee Promise—showing that
year-to-year retention rates for enrolled students
exceeded those of general community college students: 75 percent compared with 56 percent for
the class of 2012.
“I think students struggle because they don’t
know people who have gone to college who can
help them and tell them that it’ll get better,”
says Tiffani Hunt, a freshman at NSCC and a
participant in tnAchieves being mentored by
Place. “But Ms. Place says, ‘Call me if you need
anything—if you’re doing good, if you’re doing
bad...’ It takes off a lot of stress.” OD
Teach For America and REEP MBA Alumni: Brian Jaffe-Dean of Students-Middle School, YES Prep Gulfton; Dan Caesar-Head of Schools, KIPP Houston Public Schools; Mark DiBella-Superintendent, YES Prep Public Schools
Rice University Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP) is the nation’s foremost leadership development program
for highly motivated educators committed to leading public schools. REEP’s innovative curriculum enables educators to
create effective learning environments for students, teachers and staff, and communities.
REEP MBA for School Leaders | Summer Institute | Business Fellowship for School Leaders
a me lace harlotte
mentors iffani unt a freshman at Nashville tate ommunit olle e and
a participant in the tnAchieves scholarship program, which pays for two years of community college.
Application Deadlines Approaching.
Apply Now! reep.rice.edu
One Day asked Brittany N. Packnett (D.C. Region
’07), the executive director of Teach For America
St. Louis, to share her reflections on the course
her personal activism has taken since the death
in August of Michael Brown.
Alumnus DeRay McKesson (N.Y. ’07) and Brittany N. Packnett meet with college students at
Ferguson Burger Bar.
Friends,
I am a daughter of St. Louis. I am the child of
well-respected community and faith leaders.
I had the best education money and scholarships could buy. And I was raised 12 minutes
from Ferguson, in one of those 90 St. Louis
County municipalities with similar demographics and challenges.
My loving parents and my pedigree allowed me to be seen as a person of some
value. Even as an African American young
woman, I had enough memberships in the
right formal and informal places. I knew and
understood enough of the language of power
and how to switch codes, living fully in my
double-consciousness. It all earned me respect, encouragement, and development as
a leader early in life.
But that is not a privilege most children of
color enjoy here. Ensuring that people do
not escape the undeniable fact that all of
our children have value has always been our
work at Teach For America St. Louis, including our work in Ferguson since Michael Brown
was shot and killed on his walk home.
Being on the ground every day straight for
the first three weeks of unrest was exhausting and dangerous. Being caught in tear gas,
and watching children, their parents, and
our elders run from other weapons of war—
those thoughts still keep me up at night. But
my principles and our core value of leadership required that I bear witness and maintain
proximity to the young people we stand up
for inside of classrooms and outside of those
school walls. I became responsible, in many
settings, to authentically represent their frustrations, fears, hopes, value, and power at
tables to which I am often invited, but our students are not. Awakening all of St. Louis to
the nightmare in Ferguson was critical for our
children’s protection, now and in the future.
Many others became aware of our work
through Teach For Ferguson. When schools
closed for an entire week as the school year
was beginning, and volunteer parents and
educators started to gather students at the
Ferguson Library, we were uniquely privileged to be of great service. We used our
financial privilege to bring supplies and
lunches to the library. We leveraged the
privilege of our platform online and our relationships with local media to get the word
out to parents, using materials created by
our national marketing team.
Unlike any other organization in the region,
Teach For America has the privilege of access to a cadre of 500 local alumni who are
certified educators. Thanks to the coordination of our local and national teams, our staff
and alumni (including a Kansas City group)
joined volunteers from all over to come to the
library and do more than occupy students.
They provided academic instruction while
Ferguson-Florissant teachers reported to mandatory crisis-counseling training. For me, our
necessary activism led to local, national, and
international interviews with everyone from
the local PBS affiliate to Al Jazeera America
and the BBC. But that moment was not about
me. It was about communicating the authentic voice of young people in peril and a
community in grief. I had to speak not only
from my experience, but to faithfully represent
their collective trauma.
The message from our young people, their
parents, and we—the neighbors, teachers
and friends who love them—is unequivocal:
Our lives matter. Our kids matter.
I spoke again recently with many of our
alumni who are active in the work, and with
some of the college students I got to know
during the protests. Two of those students,
Netta and Jonathan, are, by every account,
living the life we want for all of our students.
They are learners and leaders, writers and
critical thinkers, clever and witty, critically
conscious and committed. As Netta, a student of journalism, looked to her future, she
spoke of the worry she has for her own brothers, who, like Mike, satisfy the mythical black
savage imagery of big, intimidating men who
must only mean threat. She spoke of her hope
to have children one day “whose blood will
never scream from the pavement like Mike’s.”
Jonathan, an ardent student of history, invoked images of American democracy. Like
sailors who turn their American flags upside
down in troubled waters, he said, “We are in
distress.” He described his fears for his own
safety, wondering if his life, his education,
his effort, would all be for naught, because
of his blackness.
Our students have learned that they can
do what we tell them—that they can meet
our high expectations, graduate from high
school, enroll in college just like Mike—and
still die unarmed at the hands of someone
who is supposed to protect and serve them.
They learned that they could be next.
Right or wrong, they have learned to fear
law enforcement. Mike’s death was another
Photograph by Eric Thayer/The New York Times/Redux
LETTER FROM
FERGUSON
Protest in Ferguson
in a long line of lessons on this. Even as they
assembled peacefully to demonstrate those
same democratic rights and civil liberties
that the founding fathers proclaimed, they
were met with tear gas and rubber bullets,
pepper spray and M-16s—only reinforcing
those teachings
We often profess our organizational intentions to empower our students to be informed,
liberated leaders for tomorrow. I posit that
this approach, while laudable, is not urgent
enough. This time in Ferguson, this moment
in our nation, this stop in our history calls for
our young people to be informed, liberated
leaders for today. In Ferguson, they have
answered the call with pride and resilience,
refusing to let us forget that their lives matter.
We must remember not to judge or chastise
the ways they choose to lead, but to embrace,
mentor, and empower them to speak for themselves. We must help them transform their
energy into effective leadership. Netta expressed a desire for affirmation. She asked
that we not tell her what to do, but support
her to do what she does best, affirming her
value and standing by her as a critical leader
in this work.
Like Jonathan, I am a student of history.
From those Greensboro lunch counters to
those brave Freedom Riders, the civil rights
movement was possible because so many
people under the age of 40, under the age
of 25, under the age of 18, put their reputations, their professional security, their very
bodies on the line to secure justice for future
generations. As we finished speaking, I asked
Netta and Jonathan what their headline for
the movement would be. Netta—a child of
the MTV age—used a familiar but poignant
reference. “True Life: My Blackness is Not a
Threat.” For Jonathan, the assignment was
simple: “Ferguson matters for all of us.”
Photograph, opposite page by Whitney Curtis
To honor her family and her people,
Kayla Begay is building a school in the
Navajo Nation where students won’t
have to choose—as she did—between
their education and their culture.
By TING YU (N.Y. ’03) Photographs by BRIAN LEDDY
In 1957 the Navajo Nation asked Sam Cleveland for a gift. Cleveland
was a medicine man who owned more than 2,000 acres of land in what
is now Navajo, N.M., a small community within the Red Lake chapter
of the Navajo Nation. The tribe had entered into a venture with outside
lumber company executives eager to gain access to the rich forest lands
in the Chuska Mountains. The lumber companies promised profits, jobs,
and community resources would flow into the reservation. In deference
to the tribal council, Cleveland signed over 986 acres to the tribal-owned
Navajo Forest Products Industry.
When crews came to build the mill, they blasted away a large sandstone
tower called Lady Frog Rock that was sacred to the Navajo. “That’s when
he cried,” says Kayla Begay (New Mexico ’12), Cleveland’s great-greatgranddaughter. “He gave up his land, and they desecrated it.”
Many Navajo elders were horrified by what they saw as the physical
and spiritual destruction of the forest. But others welcomed the work
and benefits that came with the mill and the town’s new white residents.
Navajo became the first Navajo Nation community to have a swimming
pool and recreation center. There was also a park, grocery store, library,
and dental clinic. Local schools were built and attracted good teachers.
But in 1994, a protracted campaign by environmentalists and Navajo
elders to close the mill succeeded, and 650 jobs evaporated.
“It was a town that had taken shape for the white mill workers, not for
the Natives,” says Kayla. “When the mill disappeared, things changed.”
Kayla’s grandmother, Yvonne Begay—Cleveland’s granddaughter—
puts it more simply: “They forgot about us.”
“WE CAN’T GET STUCK IN THIS
NOSTALGIC PAST—WE HAVE TO
RECOGNIZE THE REALITIES OF THE
PRESENT AND EMBRACE IT.”
Today, Kayla lives with her grandmother Yvonne
in a small ranch house a stone’s throw from the
site of the old mill. The main edifice of the mill
was razed in March, but vestiges of the recreation
center and playground still stand encircled by a
chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Burntout shacks pepper the dirt roads around it.
Especially to the young people who make up 45
percent of its population, Navajo is “a town that
once was,” Kayla says. “Elderly people remember
the mill and when Navajo was a vibrant place,
but the youth have never seen this place grow.”
Unemployment in the Navajo Nation
hovers around 50 percent; the median income
is $24,000, well below poverty line. Gangs,
alcoholism, and diabetes are rampant. Although
the Navajo Agriculture Products Industry
cultivates potatoes, corn, alfalfa, beans, and
grains, nearly all of it is sold off the reservation.
Kayla and her grandmother drive 50 miles to
Gallup each week to buy groceries.
Kayla sees the mill’s closing as representative
of the ongoing clash between economic interests
and traditional indigenous values—a conflict she
believes can and must be reconciled for the next
generation of Navajo youth to succeed.
In late September, Kayla won approval from
the state to open a new community-focused
charter school in her hometown of Navajo. The
Dził Dit Ł’ooí School of Empowerment, Action
and Perseverance (DEAP) is slated to open in
the fall of 2015. The grade 6-12 school will
focus on college and career readiness through
an indigenous core of Navajo empowerment,
experiential learning through agriculture,
wellness, community leadership, and service
learning. “Ideally I’m creating a school that
doesn’t ask children to choose between a
Western education and their culture,” Kayla
says. “We can’t get stuck in this nostalgic past—
we have to recognize the realities of the present
and embrace it.”
Wingate, one of New Mexico’s oppressive “kill
the Indian, save the man” boarding schools and
often told stories of the abuse they suffered there.
Yet the forced assimilation had a lasting impact.
“My parents spoke fluent Navajo, but they
never taught us,” says Yvonne, now 74. “My
grandpa was a medicine man, and he would
perform ceremonies, but my parents never
explained anything to us. My dad was a real
strong Christian, so he didn’t believe in the
traditional way. We didn’t do any Navajo stuff.”
Kayla was in eighth grade when she took a
Navajo language class, her first real exposure
to her native tongue since learning a Diné folk
song as a child in Head Start. Growing up, she,
too, was cut off from her Navajo heritage by
her father, a devout Christian. Her mother,
Leanne, was raised in a traditional Navajo
home—learning Navajo and sheepherding
from her grandparents—but she ceded to her
husband’s will.
When Kayla was 12, Leanne wanted her
to take part in a puberty ceremony called the
kinaaldá. A four-day ritual that involves hairbraiding, cooking, and singing, kinaaldá is an
empowering rite of passage for a Navajo woman,
marking her ascendance into the Navajo’s
matriarchal society.
“My dad told me [the ceremony] wasn’t the
Christian thing to do, so I didn’t do it,” Kayla
says. “And I’ve always regretted that.”
Still, Kayla believes the future of her
tribe lies not in the rigid preservation of
tradition, but in the evolution of culture.
She draws inspiration from what she sees as
the resilience and transcendence of Navajo
tradition through adversity.
“Our ancestors went through the Navajo
Long Walk and still came back and planted
corn,” she says. “Yvonne’s grandpa, even
after he lost his land, he still planted corn.
My dad didn’t finish school, and he still
plants corn. And me—I still plant corn in
our field. We recognize there’s power beyond
us, whether it’s in the land or in each other.”
ASSIMILATION’S LONG REACH
REAWAKENING
Kayla’s vision for her school seems to reflect her
yearning to mend the cracks in her own Navajo
identity. Her great-grandparents attended Fort
Counterintuitively, Kayla’s own cultural
awakening came after she left the reservation.
She went to school in Navajo and nearby
BUILDING BACK
Window Rock through middle school and excelled academically. At the
end of eighth grade, her teachers encouraged her to apply for a scholarship
to attend Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite prep school in Connecticut.
“I was a rez-cat—I didn’t know where Connecticut was,” she recalls,
laughing. “I’d never been on an airplane before.”
Leanne was sick with worry about her daughter going so far away but
had resolved never to limit her daughter’s choices. Leanne was 17 when
she got pregnant with Kayla and dropped out of high school. She later
earned her G.E.D. and now works as a Head Start teacher. “I’ve always
pushed my children and encouraged them because I didn’t have high
expectations for myself.”
Predictably, Choate was an intense culture shock. Surrounded by
affluent, mostly white classmates, Kayla was one of five Native students
on campus. She struggled with the rigorous coursework, and “because I
had never had relationships with white people, I didn’t know how to talk
to my advisors or express what I needed or how I felt,” she says.
The hardest part was coming to terms with the gaps in her Navajo
identity. “My peers would ask me, ‘What’s the Native perspective?’ I
couldn’t answer because I didn’t know my people’s history. I didn’t know
what class was or what race was. But these things were being pushed in
my face, so I had to deal with it. I went through an identity crisis. It was
really extreme.”
After Choate, Kayla enrolled at Occidental College, a liberal arts
school in Los Angeles, where she took courses in critical race theory
and sociology. “It wasn’t until I gained this critical consciousness that I
realized how much I had lost,” she says.
She began learning more about her Navajo heritage, participating
in a Native American Church ceremony to strengthen her relationship
with her mother’s family. “Once I embraced those traditions,” she
says, “things clicked for me. I felt really connected to my family and myself.”
Three generations:
Kayla with her
grandmother,
Yvonne, and her
mother, Leanne,
who was raised in
a traditional Navajo
home
IDENTITY,
CULTURE,
ACADEMICS
A Native school breaks
new ground
By Ting Yu (N.Y. ’03)
From colonization until recent American history, schools were denied the flexibility and freedom to do
what the Native American Community Academy has done: offer an education that’s truly indigenous.
When Tirzah Toya’s son joined the Native
American Community Academy’s first class of
sixth graders, he was elated that he could talk
with classmates about participating in a Pueblo
deer dance. “He was so proud,” says Toya, now
president of NACA’s parent association. “It
meant the world because that’s such a big part
of our lives.”
Founded in 2006 by Lakota/Navajo educator
Kara Bobroff, NACA is breaking new ground
as a grade 6-12 school tailored specifically
for Native American students, families, and
communities. Ninety-six percent of NACA’S
390 students are Native American, representing
60 tribes from Albuquerque and surrounding
reservations. The school is deeply rooted in its
local community, partnering with tribal leaders,
nonprofits, universities, health organizations,
and cultural institutions to provide additional
services and enrichment to students. More than
half of NACA’s teachers are Native, and four
are Teach For America alumni: Sarah Caldwell
(New Mexico ’02), Robert Salazar (New Mexico
’05), Michelle Sprouse (New Mexico ’04), and
Missy Wauneka (New Mexico ’05).
As part of its college and career preparation,
NACA follows an indigenous core that integrates
Native language, culture, holistic wellness,
and leadership into a demanding academic
curriculum. All students take at least two years
of one of the four indigenous languages offered:
Lakota, Navajo, Tiwa, and Keres. They also take
courses in indigenous community building,
speaking, and global indigenous studies.
So far NACA’s academic results show
promise. Close to half of NACA’s sixth graders
come in scoring at the lowest proficiency level
for math—that’s almost double the number
in either Albuquerque Public Schools or New
Mexico schools. 90 percent of those students
test out of that level by 11th grade, significantly
more than their APS and statewide counterparts.
Using an average of four years of data, NACA’s
middle schoolers have increased their proficiency
scores by almost 12 percent, compared to 1.4
percent for Native American students across the
state. Last year, 100 percent of NACA’s senior
class was accepted into college.
Two years ago, NACA started a fellowship
to help train leaders on the indigenous charter
model. The NACA-inspired Schools Network
aims to have 10 schools open in New Mexico
in the next three years. Four Teach For America
alumni are fellows: Kayla Begay (New Mexico
’12), Mike Dabrieo (New Mexico ’09), Gavin
Sosa (New Mexico ’02), and Lane Towery (New
Mexico ’10).
According to Head of School Anpao Duta
Flying Earth, NACA’s central challenge is
figuring out how to help urban students connect
to tribal culture in their daily lives. “How do
we evolve knowledge that has existed in our
communities for thousands of years but is often
viewed in an antiquated way?”
One approach is immersing students in
literature that reflects their experiences, such
as Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary
of a Part-Time Indian. “We use those texts
the way another school might use Huckleberry
Finn,” Flying Earth says. “You’re expected to
dive deep into themes and concepts, but you’re
also expected to grapple with it as it pertains to
your identity.”
Still Flying Earth says NACA doesn’t gauge its
success in Ivy League acceptance letters. “Success,
in its rawest nature, is the empowerment of
students,” Flying Earth says. “For some students
that’s becoming the next medicine man in their
community. For others it could be becoming a
doctor or a lawyer and being motivated to give
back. Every student has a unique gift that will
serve their community in some fashion. It’s our
charge to help them realize it.”
“I’M CONSTANTLY
TRYING TO
DECOLONIZE MY
THINKING AND
INDIGENIZE IT.”
Back at Occidental, “I met other people of color
and saw our common struggles. I understood
what oppression meant. It was an empowering
moment. What does it mean to be indigenous?
To be Diné? That’s when my perspective shifted
from focusing on my individual goals to thinking
about community goals.”
CHOOSING TO TEACH
After eight years away, Kayla felt a longing
to return home. Her grandmother Yvonne
had suffered a heart attack, so Kayla moved in
to help care for her. Like many of her friends who
had returned from college, she struggled to find
employment on the reservation. Most left for
jobs elsewhere, but after six months, Kayla found
work as a special education paraprofessional and
began to think about teaching.
She had heard criticism about Teach For America’s presence on the
reservation—mainly that the organization was bringing in white teachers
who didn’t understand the Native community. “I thought, well, I’m from
this community, so I applied.”
She was placed at the Navajo elementary school she attended as a child.
Many of her colleagues were her former teachers. “It was amazing to come
full circle,” she says. She drew on her own experiences—as a student both
on and off the reservation—to inspire her teaching.
Kayla says many Navajo youth want to embrace their culture but
sometimes feel discouraged by elders who often scold or deride those who
make mistakes while trying to learn the language or traditions. She started
a community garden on her family’s private land to help students make
a connection to the land. “Sometimes we view culture as this religious
experience, when in reality it could be a simple as growing a garden.”
In 2012, she began a fellowship at the Native American Community
Academy in Albuquerque (see article, opposite page). A charter school
designed specifically for Native students, NACA was breaking new ground
with its culturally integrated approach and getting promising results.
The fellowship was designed to groom leaders to incubate similar schools
for low-income Native youth. (Another NACA fellow, New Mexico ’02
alumnus Gavin Sosa, helped found Dream Diné, a new charter school in
Shiprock that opened in September.)
With DEAP’s charter now approved, Kayla is intent on bringing NACA’s
community-centered model to Navajo. She plans to invite tribal elders and
community members to share their knowledge, language, skills, and stories
with her students.
“One measure of success will be how much is collaborated and shared. Is
it really a community?” she says. “That’s where it becomes transformative.
Then your learning isn’t focused on an individual and a score—it’s focused
on a family, on a community, on building a nation.”
Kayla’s brother,
Dondi, is 16. She
wants to change
how his peers see
the reservation—
that there’s nothing
for them here: no
opportunity, no
future.
PLANTING SEEDS
Through the success of
community efforts like
the Fuzzy Mountain
Mural Project, Kayla
perceives a wellspring
of cultural pride and
potential that’s barely
been tapped.
DEAP’s success may hinge on whether Kayla
can find a way to make Navajo culture matter
to students like her younger brother, Dondi,
16, who is a junior at Gallup High School. A
serious young man with black-rimmed glasses,
Dondi says his friends see Navajo culture as
irrelevant and out of date. The few who know
some Navajo are embarrassed to speak it for fear
of being mocked or teased by their peers.
That negative pressure is reinforced by his
school, Dondi says. He believes Navajo language
and government classes are treated less seriously
than other courses.
Most of Dondi’s friends go to school in
Navajo and Window Rock, and the majority
plan to leave the reservation for good. “They
would rather be anywhere else in the world,” he
says. “They talk about leaving and never coming
back, how there’s no opportunity here, there’s
nothing here for them. It’s sad, but that’s very
true in a lot of aspects.”
Only 13.9 percent of Navajo Elementary
School students scored proficient in reading
on standardized assessments last year, and 17.4
percent were proficient in math, earning the
school an F on the state’s School Report Card
grading system. Reading and math scores for
high school students in Navajo were slightly
better at 31 percent and 29 percent, respectively,
but the school received D grades in both “college
and career readiness” and on-time graduation.
“Broken roads, broken homes, poverty,
tagging, alcoholism,” Kayla says. “If you’ve lived
on the reservation your entire life, this is the
only thing you know, so it’s really hard to dream
what’s possible.”
But that didn’t stop her from asking parents
and community members what they wanted
from a new school. Culturally, many said they
wanted their children to learn Navajo and to
interact with the land. Parents also want their
kids to have access to real opportunities and
careers, Kayla says, to be healthy and have
the ability “to choose a path that will make
them happy.”
The school will focus on rigorous academics
and college readiness, and Navajo values and
culture will be central to the curriculum. “I’m
constantly trying to decolonize my thinking
and indigenize it,” she says. “We need to follow the Common Core, but I
don’t want Navajo language and culture to be just an elective.”
Modeled on NACA, DEAP will have an indigenous core focused on
Navajo language, history, and beliefs, with an emphasis on leadership and
service learning. After decades of oppression, apathy has taken hold in
the Navajo community, Kayla says. “Young people don’t feel a part of the
Navajo Nation. Their voice isn’t valued. We want our students to know they
have the power to transform and solve our own problems.”
WALKING IN BEAUTY
Last August, as part of a local community action group, Kayla organized the
Fuzzy Mountain Mural Project to beautify the old recreation center. “The
youth were really excited to show off their skills,” says Kayla of the 80 students
and family members who participated. The resulting mural glows with vibrant
colors, animals, and abstract designs. One panel displays the majestic profiles of
a Navajo man and woman; another shouts the word “decolonize.”
In the year since the mural was completed, it hasn’t been tagged once, Kayla
notes proudly. However, a new kind of graffiti did begin appearing in the town.
“We’d see tags that said ‘Fix the roads!’ or ‘Don’t text while driving!’” she says.
Socially-conscious tagging may be a small shift, but she hopes it’s a harbinger
of greater changes to come.
“There’s this new generation that’s rising and becoming empowered,” Kayla
says. “In Navajo we have this saying, ‘Walk in beauty.’ For me, that means
leading by example, doing things that are honoring of your people. What
empowers me is knowing my history and knowing that it’s not something to
save. It’s there. All you have to do is embrace it. When I did, that’s when I
started to dream.” OD
WHY ARE
NATIVE
STUDENTS
BEING LEFT
BEHIND?
While so many American students have made educational
progress in the last decade, “one group stands apart,” as the
Education Trust reported last year in summarizing the status
of Native students’ education. “Unlike achievement results for
every other major ethnic group in the United States, those
for Native students have remained nearly flat in recent years,
and the gaps separating those students from their white peers
have actually widened.”
By Susan Brenna
APART FROM DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE SCHOOLS,
schools for American Indian students are the
only ones in the country operated and totally
funded by the federal government under treaty
agreements that promise federally-supported
schooling in perpetuity in exchange for tribes
giving up lands (which are not subject to property taxes and generate no tax revenue to support
schools). And no group of students in America
fails to graduate or achieve proficiency at such
disproportionate rates.
The failure of the U.S. to deliver on its treaty
obligations to educate American Indian students
first came to light in 1928, when the 847-page
Merriam Report documented the disastrous effects of federal policies that forced American
Indian children into boarding schools. These
schools imposed manual labor and worked to
eradicate students’ “Indianness” by teaching that
their cultures and languages were inferior.
In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act, or
“Indian New Deal,” granted self-determination
rights to tribes that extended to education and
later created new funding streams for schools on
and off reservations. But 35 years later, a Senate
report declared a near-total lack of high-quality
education on reservations, calling Indian education “a national tragedy.”
This was followed by the National Academy
of Public Administration report in 1999 that
condemned the management of schools in tribal
areas by the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the
U.S. Department of the Interior; then by the
Bronner Report in 2012, citing poor coordination among all the offices in the Interior Department responsible for Native education; and then
by a Government Accountability Office report
in 2013. The GAO found the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) had
so mismanaged schools that it had given them
permission to use assessments that failed to meet
federal requirements because the BIE “does not
have procedures that specify who should be
involved in key decisions.”
From the standpoint of scale, improving Native
students’ education would seem manageable. Of
the nearly 50 million students in American public schools, just more than one percent, or around
700,000, identify as American Indian, Alaska
Native, or Native Hawaiian (though only American Indian tribes and Alaska Native Villages are
federally recognized, with tribes maintaining a
historical treaty trust relationship as sovereign
nations within the United States).
But the smallness of Native students’ numbers
(divided among 566 federally recognized tribes
with 170 indigenous languages) is directly tied
to the lack of drive to reform systems. To most
Americans, the educational and social issues that
challenge Native students in rural villages, homelands, and reservations are invisible. And when it
comes to creating the conditions for reform—by
reorganizing federal agencies or redistributing
power in tribal communities where control of
government jobs sometimes equals control of the
economy—the political reward is minimal, while
the potential fallout is immense.
The vast majority—93 percent—of Native
students don’t go to the schools cited in those reports. They attend other public schools on or near
reservations or in cities away from their home reservations. Contributing to low achievement and
lack of opportunity in these schools is that many
fail to collect all the federal Impact Aid, Title VII,
or supplemental federal Johnson-O’Malley funds
to which they’re entitled. This stems not just from
Congressionally-imposed funding cutbacks, but
also from federal agencies undercounting Native kids, or from Native families failing to selfidentify because they’re unwilling to face bias,
uninformed of their rights, or not enrolled in any
federally recognized tribe.
The BIE supports 183 schools on 64 reservations in 23 states. Some 59 are operated directly
by the BIE (teachers and leaders are employees of
the federal government) and 124 are operated by
local tribal school boards and superintendents under the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988.
The approximately 48,000 students who attend
the BIE-operated or tribal grant schools underperform Native students in other public schools.
In one study of fourth graders, BIE students on
average scored 22 percentile points lower for reading and 14 points lower for math than American
Indian students attending public schools.
Like almost all isolated rural schools in America,
BIE schools struggle to attract and keep qualified
teachers and principals. But the problems that
make it hard for these schools to attract talent go
deeper, to their structure and finances.
To begin with, the principals of these federally-supported schools must navigate Byzantine,
overlapping BIE regulations to execute the most
basic functions, such as purchasing textbooks
and school lunches. This gets in the way of “focusing on their primary mission of instructional
leadership,” a federal study group reported to the
Department of Interior. The same study group
noted that tribally-controlled schools are funded
by the federal government at just 67% of their
administrative costs, leaving principals to dip into
instructional budgets to cover those.
Many of these schools are in such extreme states
of disrepair—with leaking roofs and walls, asbestos, mold, and aging bus fleets traveling roads that
become impassable in bad weather —that the
backlog repair bill for the 68 highest-risk facilities is $1.3 billion. Some 60 percent of schools
also lack the bandwidth or computers to support
online learning and assessments, with most dependent on outdated T1 connectivity.
Since the 1970s, tribes have advocated passionately for their rights as sovereign nations to
control and operate their own schools and teach
their languages and culture—to be as accountable to their tribal nations as to states and the
federal government.
al control. Many local tribal councils have been
criticized for how they spend school funds and
practice patronage hiring in communities where
schools are among the few stable employers.
“Anyone who knows Indian country would
say that certainly happens, but at the same time,
corruption and unethical things happen everywhere, and that’s part of the story that’s not told,”
says Angelina Castagno, who does research on
indigenous education and teacher preparation
in the College of Education at Northern Arizona
University. “That contributes to the standard narrative and deficit perspective that says indigenous
people and communities are somehow inherently
inferior or have more problems than other communities, instead of focusing on the structural
problems in many communities.”
Scholarship by Castagno, as well as colleagues
who coauthored a report on promising practices
The U.S. once used schools to try to exterminate language
and culture. A new approach would build on indigenous
VALUES, LANGUAGES,
AND STRENGTHS.
That change may be imminent. This past summer, the Obama administration released a blueprint for reform that lays out a vision for the BIE
to turn over control of schools to tribal nations.
Under the blueprint, the Department of the Interior and the BIE would eventually stop operating
schools, as would local tribal councils.
Instead, the BIE would become essentially a
school support organization that would fund and
support tribal nations to run their own schools.
As an example, the Navajo Nation would take
over the operation of all 66 schools now run by
either the BIE or local tribal school boards.
Whether this can potentially break the cycle
of dysfunction depends partly on whether Congress appropriates the funds to bring schools up to
21st-century standards and creates the conditions
to attract and develop talent, particularly from
within Native communities.
It also depends on local and national tribal
leaders navigating the balance of local and nation-
in Native education for the BIE, indicates that
tribal leaders are correct to assert that better
outcomes for students rest on culturally responsive teaching and Native language immersion.
In a study of the K-5 Puente de Hózhó (PdH)
Public Magnet School in Flagstaff, Arizona, for
example, Teresa McCarty and Tiffany Lee found
that PdH students equaled or surpassed their
Native peers in English mainstream schools.
And in recent years, PdH has ranked among the
district’s top-performing schools.
“If we had systems of schooling in Indian
country that were primarily locally and tribally controlled, would that mean different
outcomes for kids? We have lots of research
that says yes,” says Castagno, who conducted
a research review with her colleague Brian
McKinley Jones Brayboy for the American
Educational Research Association. “But until
it happens on a large-scale basis, it’s hard to
say with any certainty.” OD
BY LEAH FABEL (CHICAGO ’01) | PHOTOGRAPHS BY KRISTINA BARKER
Changing Course on
ROSEBUD
RESERVATION
Where determination is fueled by
struggle, educators face aspirations
that could not be higher.
M
MISSION, SOUTH DAKOTA—Matilda Anderson is a tall, bespectacled eighth grader at St. Francis Indian
School with the build of an athlete, the thoughtfulness of a
scholar, and an adolescent’s propensity to see nothing but
possibility. “I want to be a pediatrician and come back to
work for the Indian Health Service here,” she says. “And also
to play in the WNBA.”
Matilda is Navajo on her father’s side and Lakota on her
mother’s. She lives on South Dakota’s Rosebud Indian Reservation, which occupies 2,000 square miles of rolling grassland
under sky as vast as the ocean. Since 1889, this tiny fraction
of the land they once called home has been set aside by the
U.S government for the Sicangu band of Lakota.
Matilda has other dreams that are even less typical of most
American teens. “Less suicides, because we have a lot of suicide around the reservation,” she says. And, “to get the Black
Hills back.” The land was promised to the Lakota under the
Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, then reclaimed by the U.S.
government after gold was discovered.
For Matilda and her generation, the bar for success is
higher than a college degree and economic betterment. She
feels the weight of her community’s deepest hopes that her
generation will revive tribal health and sovereignty and save
a language heading toward extinction. Scholars estimate the
Lakota language is spoken by fewer than 6,000 mostly elderly Lakota people, of 70,000 tribal members registered in
the U.S. and Canada.
In recent years, Teach For America South Dakota has
broadened its vision to match the enormity of those
aspirations. In South Dakota and on the Rosebud reservation in particular, Teach For America leaders have hired
more American Indian staff members, recruited more Native corps members, and trained all corps members in the
complex practice of culturally responsive instruction. The
regional team is supporting corps members to engage more
directly than in the past with community members so that
when students succeed, the outcome is in line with what
families demand.
“Student self-determination is critical. We’re shooting for
kids to have the options to do what they want with their
lives,” says Jim Curran (Phoenix ’05), the region’s executive
director since 2011. In that way, Teach For America South
Dakota has much in common with Teach For America everywhere. But on the reservation, “the ideal outcome is having
the language and the traditional culture in a place where it’s
thriving,” Curran says. “We’re pretty far from that point right
now. But if you walk that back, it begins with this generation
of kids in our classrooms.”
The challenges students and teachers face are enormous.
Year after year, Rosebud ranks as one of the five poorest
counties in the nation with unemployment hovering around
83 percent, according to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Compared to all counties in the U.S., life expectancy here is
in the bottom 25 percent among women and the bottom 10
percent among men.
Academic results, too, are among the nation’s lowest. In
Todd County Public Schools, which enroll about three in
four Rosebud students, the graduation rate is 49 percent. Ten
Matilda Anderson
(here, playing volleyball,
one of her favorite sports)
has a special bond with her
mentoring teacher (page
left), Nicole Collins.
T
of eleven district schools are labeled “priority” or “focus,” the
lowest of the state’s achievement designations. At Matilda’s
school, funded by the federal Bureau of Indian Education
but operated by the tribe, 17 percent of students scored proficient on the mandated reading exam in 2012. In math, nine
percent scored proficient.
But as Teach For America adapts its tactics, leaders hope to
help teachers like Nicole Collins (South Dakota ’11) encourage more Matildas. “I pegged her from the beginning as an
incredible student, super hardworking, with a super-supportive family,” says Collins, who teaches science. In August, with
Collins’ guidance, Matilda won a scholarship that provides
her with a private educational consultant through high school
and full funding for anything related to academics, from a
computer to an Ivy League summer camp.
The scholarship lends possibility to her most ambitious
dreams, Matilda says. “It just makes me feel like…” she
pauses. “There’s nothing stopping me.”
TEACH FOR AMERICA’S South Dakota office
is on the reservation in the town of Mission, half a block
from its only stoplight. Pick-ups and semitrucks rumble past
along the main drag, Highway 18. Stray dogs and the occasional snake curl up on quiet, sun-warmed stoops along
side streets.
In response to longstanding poor student outcomes,
Teach For America has placed corps members in South Dakota since 2004, but it wasn’t until 2012 that the region
placed such a high priority on hiring Native staff members,
particularly those with local roots.
Curran characterizes Teach For America’s early years in
South Dakota as foundation-building, but says it became
clear that the organization would have to evolve in order
to maintain local support. A growing ensemble of critics
balked at the two-year teaching commitment, recalling a
history of missionaries and reformers who came and went
with the goal of dismantling rather than embracing tribal
nationhood. Others felt some corps members acted arrogantly. “The fact is that our successful corps members
have always connected with the community and to some
extent engaged in culturally responsive teaching,” Curran
says. “The fact is also that we haven’t done those things at
anywhere near scale or optimal consistency.”
In late 2012, Rosebud native Dave Espinoza was hired
as the region’s first manager of community investment,
tasked with building support on the reservation for educational equity and the organization itself. He grew up
in the town of Rosebud, where, at age 15, he was kicked
out of his home to make room for his mother’s boyfriend.
“I was that kid who thought nobody cared about me,
nobody loved me.”
He overcame his turbulent past in part by learning
about the historical trauma endured by his family and
tribe, from their forced assimilation in boarding schools
to the all-too-frequent legacy of abuse. “Our parents lost
the ability to be parents because they were put into these
institutions that didn’t have parents,” he says. As a young
adult, he found a sense of identity in traditional Lakota
spirituality. Today, Espinoza and his wife have six children,
ranging in age from seventeen to one.
He draws on his life experiences to connect with Rosebud
families in a way few outsiders could. On a given evening, he
might accompany a corps member on a home visit, talk with
parents at a local basketball game, or attend a school board
meeting. He leads classes to empower parents to become active
in their kids’ schools and to demand teachers hold students
to high standards. He supports corps members in developing lessons and community projects designed to respect their
students’ history and honor their families’ hopes.
Espinoza has had experience with the conditions of abuse
and addiction that haunt many of the parents with whom he
works. “How do you get people to see that outside of their
box is a circle, and we’re all a part of it?” he asks. “We share
Dave Espinoza, who lives
on Rosebud with his wife
and six children, is the
region’s first manager of
community investment.
“Student self-determination is
critical. We’re shooting for kids to
have the options to do what they
want with their lives.”
this pride in being Lakota, we share this shame of being
Lakota. Let’s bring it together, and let’s start moving.”
Soon after hiring Espinoza, Curran brought in Beau LeBeaux, an Oglala Lakota who leads community investment
for the neighboring Pine Ridge reservation. Stacee Valandra,
a Rosebud native and veteran kindergarten teacher, now
manages teacher leadership development, coaching corps
members in the same classrooms where her own daughter and Espinoza’s four oldest children attend school. Pine
Ridge native Kiva Sam (South Dakota ’12) was hired to
recruit more Native teachers and work with local colleges
to build strong teacher education pipelines.
The team leads corps members, about 20 percent of whom
identify as Native, through “identity work,” thinking and
talking about privilege and race. “We’re having conversations
about what it means to be a white educator on a reservation,
but also what it means to be a black educator on a reservation, or a Native educator on a reservation that’s not your
own,” says Tara Harrington, the region’s managing director
of teacher leadership development.
Corps members must earn “credits” for attending sessions
on Lakota history or philosophy or leading service projects.
And in a push that began last year, they are coached intensively in culturally responsive teaching, an evidence-based
practice designed to help students hit high academic marks
while developing pride in their identity and a critical consciousness about the world around them.
“Culturally responsive” is a term most corps members
wouldn’t have been able to define even a few years ago. But
teachers like Abby Menter (South Dakota ’13) are steeped
in its practice.
Menter teaches at Rosebud Elementary School, a 70s-era
blond brick building surrounded by clusters of cottonwood
and ash trees. On a Wednesday morning, her fifth graders
sat on a rug reading from The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons
for Living, written by Rosebud native Joseph Marshall III.
“We’re going to be reading a story about courage,” Menter said. “But we’re also going to be learning about something called point of view.” When it comes time for state
tests, The Lakota Way likely won’t show up, but “point of
view” will.
For Menter, cultural relevance is key. She has seen that
when students are personally invested in the subject matter, rigorous effort comes naturally. She describes a unit on
boarding schools she developed with her students. Not only
did they analyze historical texts above their assessed reading
levels, they applied critical thinking to what happens when
good intentions turn into harmful policies.
“A lot of my students have grandparents or great-grandparents who attended boarding schools,” Menter says. “It’s
important for students to have ownership over that and see
themselves as creators of a tribal nation, while also beginning to understand the anger and frustration that come
from a history of oppression and pain.”
M
MENTER HAS NO PLANS to leave Rosebud.
But as a non-Native from Ohio, the odds of her staying for
the long term are slim. The reservation’s teacher retention
problems didn’t start with Teach For America’s arrival, but
neither has the organization improved them.
Kiva Sam, a manager of recruitment for Teach For America, was hired to change that, in part by recruiting local
corps members from tribal colleges like Rosebud’s Sinte
Gleska University.
Sam attended Little Wound School on Pine Ridge, the
same school where she taught as a corps member. “Right
now, our [Native] communities are really hesitant about
Teach For America,” Sam says. “Partnerships are built, relationships are developed, but still there are so many teachers
leaving after two years, and local leaders are left wondering
if Teach For America is living up to what it says it can do.”
Cognizant of those criticisms, Sam is working with tribal
colleges’ teacher training programs to strengthen their classes not just for potential corps members, but for all aspiring
Native teachers.
In all, Teach For America has 100 Native corps members—up from 24 in 2009—due to a concerted effort by
the organization’s Native Alliance Initiative, founded in
2010. Mia Francis (South Dakota ’14) came through the
initiative to teach kindergarten at He Dog Elementary in
the Rosebud town of Parmelee. She’s a member of the St.
Regis Mohawk Tribe of the Iroquois Nation who grew up
in a suburb of Philadelphia. She plans to make teaching
Native students her lifelong profession.
“Growing up off the reservation, I struggled with my
identity,” she says. “But you can grow up on the reservation
and still not know who you are, depending on how you’re
raised and what you’re exposed to.”
Throughout her childhood and into college, Francis was
called upon to be “the token Indian” without knowing how
to respond, she says. Now she feels she’s in a position to
prepare her students for their first trips off the reservation,
for college classes away from home. “If I can affirm them in
who they are, they’ll be strong enough to face the dilemmas
we face. Because they will face them.”
T
“Growing up off the
reservation, I struggled
with my identity,” teacher Mia Francis says.
TEACH FOR AMERICA South Dakota’s reform
efforts are recent enough that many critics haven’t taken
notice, and families and teachers are divided on welcoming
corps members into schools. (Valandra, the Rosebud native
who manages teacher leadership development, says she’s not
sure she would have noticed the changes either if she was still
a classroom teacher rather than a staff member.) But among
tribal leadership, support is growing: In July 2013, the
Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council, the reservation’s 24-member
governing body, passed a resolution supporting Teach For
America’s work, a move Curran says would’ve been tough to
imagine in the organization’s first years on Rosebud.
Wayne Frederick is a first-year member of the tribal council and a former guidance counselor at Todd County High
During their school day
at Rosebud Elementary,
Abby Menter’s students
read a story about courage,
and they also learned
about point of view.
School. For years, he had a bad impression of Teach For
America. He recalls an interaction with a corps member
who dismissed the idea of teaching tribal governance. “It’s
like they didn’t understand what was going on here,” he
says. But watching the evolution has turned Frederick
into a backer. “They’ve gotten progressively, shockingly
better,” he says. “Now is when the dividend will finally
start coming.”
Curran says the team didn’t create a vision so much
as tie itself to one that’s been in place for more than
a century.
In 1923, John Neihardt published Black Elk Speaks, a
book based on interviews with the revered Lakota medicine man. The text—a perennial inclusion on college
syllabi—bears witness to the destruction of the Lakota way
of life at the turn of the 20th century. But it’s part proph-
ecy, too, recounting Black Elk’s vision for the redemption of his people at the hands of what many now call the
Seventh Generation.
Prophecies suffer no shortage of interpretations, but
many Lakota believe that the Seventh Generation—those
born with the gifts to revive what has been neglected
and find what has been lost—is the generation of young
people alive today. Kiva Sam grew up hearing about her
generation’s role, and she believes in it. But having earned
a degree in government, she has seen that nations don’t
revive just because a prophet said they would. “I consider
myself a realist,” she says. “I like the idea of striving toward a hope and seeing the positive, but I know there are
a lot of things we need to get in place.
“We have the potential,” Sam says. “We’re on the path.
But we’re not there yet.” OD
ROBERT
COOK
&
In 2010, Teach For America
launched the Native Alliance Initiative
to build partnerships with American
Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian
communities and, as Senior Managing Director
Robert Cook says, “to call on non-Native allies to stand
with us, but not speak for us.” Cook, a former teacher and
principal in South Dakota tribal schools, has set a goal of growing
culturally responsive corps members’ presence in Native community
schools to 1,000 in 2015. What follows are reflections in his own words.
WHY HE CAME TO WORK AT
TEACH FOR AMERICA:
My parents were both enrolled members
of the Oglala Lakota tribe who attended
Indian boarding schools. My Dad joined
the Army during World War II. During the
war, the federal government took a large
portion of land within the Pine Ridge
Reservation and turned it into a bombing
range to train military pilots. They forced
Native families to relocate, so when the
war ended, my parents had no home
and no land. They moved to a small town
outside Rapid City, and at that time we
were the only American Indian family living
in town. I had hard times growing up in the
’70s, being bullied and called racist names
by other students and some teachers.
From that, I became really passionate
about the experience of students of color,
and I decided to become a teacher.
My first teaching job was at Red Cloud
Indian School, where my mother had
gone when it was a boarding school
many years ago. I taught Lakota studies,
tribal government, history, and I coached
basketball. After I attended the Oglala
Lakota College’s master’s program to
transition teachers to school leaders, I
was hired to be the principal at Pine Ridge
High School.
I taught for 20 years in rural, tribal schools and never had a job interview for any teaching
position because there were no other candidates to compete against. I understand
firsthand the critical need for teachers in rural tribal communities. Months into the school
year, schools on the reservation still have vacant teaching positions. I had never worked
in a school with corps members, but I was interested because Teach For America seemed
like a credible, passionate organization that was willing to take on that battle of bringing
effective teachers to live and serve in Native communities.
I TAUGHT FOR 20 YEARS IN
RURAL, TRIBAL SCHOOLS AND
NEVER HAD A JOB INTERVIEW
FOR ANY TEACHING
POSITION BECAUSE THERE
WERE NO OTHER CANDIDATES
TO COMPETE AGAINST.
ON BECOMING TEACH FOR AMERICA’S
FIRST AMERICAN INDIAN NATIONAL
STAFF MEMBER:
That was a little difficult at first. I had never worked for
a non-Native organization. It took a lot of awarenessbuilding to educate people about American Indian
education—the history, the need, and especially the
unique treaty trust relationship our tribes have with
the federal government. I think many people still
don’t understand the sovereign status of tribes or
treaty rights. We have a relationship with the federal
government that is unique from other people in this
country. Our land and resources were taken from
our people, and in return, promises were made in
perpetuity to provide education, health care, and
other opportunities for our people. We hold those
treaties sacred and relevant today.
Our strongest push within TFA is getting everyone
to understand how important culturally responsive
education is. When you look at the vision and mission
statements of tribal schools, every one of them clearly
states affirming students in their language, history,
and culture, but also preparing Native students with a
world-class education and options for success in life.
I don’t think those missions interfere or conflict with
each other. They support and uplift each other.
I think the organization has really changed its mindset about our approach to that and to relationshipbuilding. That’s one of the outcomes we’re really
proud of in the Native Alliance, that we were able to
show in our regions why it’s so important to support
staff, alumni, and corps members living in diverse
tribal communities.
WHAT IT’S LIKE FOR NON-NATIVE CORPS
MEMBERS TO TEACH ON RESERVATIONS:
ntil the see it firsthand the don t understand the
vastness and isolation of places where 100 percent of
students identify as American Indian, or the housing
shortages, the lack of infrastructure, or lack of medical
services for teachers. Teachers may have to drive
t o hours off the reservation to bu fresh fruits and
vegetables. But when they witness the extreme poverty
in our communities for the first time the re shoc ed.
We’re talking about inter-generational poverty where
the median income is less than $10,000 a year, and
20 people may be living in one house or trailer due
to the lack of housing on reservations. Of course we
know about the challenges, but we also need to show
teachers that our students are the most inspiring
kids in the world and that we have many examples of
Natives who have aspired to be incredible leaders and
role models.
Our TFA teachers live right in the community in
school housing. When school is out, they don’t drive
home to their homes or apartments like teachers do
in other places. Now, if they immerse themselves
and really connect with the kids and community,
they are accepted into the community. But they have
to walk their talk. They have to be transparent and
communicate that they are there for the students.
Historically speaking, education hasn’t been the
greatest ally for American Indian communities, so
there’s still a lot of mistrust. It’s our moral responsibility
to build back that trust.
WHY HALF THE CORPS MEMBERS
WHO SELF-IDENTIFY AS NATIVE
AMERICANS ASK TO TEACH OUTSIDE
OF NATIVE COMMUNITIES:
e re still tr in to fi ure that out. e or
ith the
selection and admissions teams to ensure that if
ou re an merican ndian and ou re offered the
chance to join Teach for America, we’ll guarantee you
can have your preference of teaching in a tribal school
or community. But we also respect decisions to teach
in other regions. Some 93% of Native students attend
public schools, not one of the tribal schools in 23
states. Every part of America is a Native region where
students identify as American Indian.
We still have a long way to go to provide a support
system for those teachers outside of the Native
Alliance regions, but ensuring they have a voice in the
organization through the alliance is critical.
ON AMERICAN HISTORY:
each or merica has more than
first
and second-year teachers impacting hundreds of
thousands of students across the country. The Native
Alliance has an opportunity to educate teachers and
strengthen their awareness about Native historical
and contemporary issues. For example, teaching
the correct history leading up to “Thanksgiving” and
its genocidal aftermath. As American Indians, we
know the true history of the illegal seizure of lands,
biological warfare waged on our people by infecting
them with smallpox, and assimilation and termination
policies. But through it all we stand proud as sovereign
nations and dual citi ens. e fi ht to ensure e are
respected as people, not mascots. That’s the true
history that must be told in our schoolrooms and
textbooks. Columbus did not discover our indigenous
nations. We were already here.
HOW ALUMNI CAN HELP:
Our alumni can learn more about the tribal or urban
communities that are closest to them and become
advocates for Native students to get the resources and
support they need to get to educational equity. With nearly
50,000 alumni and corps members across the country,
this is the time to raise awareness, to implement culturally
responsive teaching, and understand tribal nations’
relationships within this continent. lf alumni know people
who they can recommend to teach in Native communities,
they should encourage them and connect them with the
Native Alliance to broaden their understanding of the
issues in communities that serve Native students. OD
IN HAWAI’I,
COMMUNITY
FIRST
BY SUSAN BRENNA PHOTO BY KRISTIN SZCZEPANIEC
Students connect
with Hawaiian culture
by dropping their lines
into the 400-year-old
Waikalua Loko Fishpond.
In 2006, its regional launch year, Hawai’i’s
Teach For America corps included four
residents of the state. The 2014 corps,
by contrast, is 10% Native Hawaiian, and
more than a third were already residents
of the state.
H
AWAI’I IS ONE OF SIX REGIONS
in Teach For America’s Native
Alliance Initiative (the others
are Oklahoma, South Dakota, New Mexico, Washington
State, and the Twin Cities), where staff and
corps members deepen their understanding and incorporation of indigenous culture
and partnership-building each year. Hawai’i
Teacher Standards require teachers to study
Hawaiian culture and history in order to earn
their certification.
The regional team has worked to diversify its corps to better reflect the state’s
uniquely multicultural student body, including Asian American and Pacific Islander
students. In tandem with its recruitment
efforts, the region partners with Teach
For America’s admissions team to ensure that potential corps members can
express their strengths in a culturally
respectful manner. For example, strong
leaders might credit their achievements
to their families and communities. In contrast to focusing on individuals, “Native
Hawaiian culture values the good of the
collective and the group,” says the region’s
executive director, Jill Baldemor (N.Y. ’95).
“So leaders might not be the first in the
group to talk. They might listen and lead
from behind.”
Second-year corps member Kameleonalani
Cleveland walks that walk. She teaches
eighth grade English and history in the coastal area of Wai‘anae on Oahu, home to many
indigenous families. In a long conversation
about how her blended Cantonese and Native Hawaiian family upbringing influenced
her teaching, she kept changing the subject to her students. “Whenever I introduce
a concept,” she says, “my scholars come up
with such wonderful inquiries that I learn
from them. They are the ones who have
molded my teaching. I’m merely a guide to
what they wish to learn and become.”
In teaching, Cleveland says, she’s acting
on the responsibility passed down by her
parents to “perpetuate our living culture” by
helping her students translate learning into
actions that better their community. That
includes a recent effort her class organized
to clean up the beach at Poka‘i Bay. “It’s a
life skill,” she says. “We don’t just learn in
the four walls of the classroom, we learn
together by doing.”
Having studied the Hawaiian language in
college, Cleveland weaves it into lessons
and into the mission statement for her class:
Hui ka wa’a, E po’okela kākou na mea a pau.
It means the group commits to striving for excellence in all they do so they can reach this
goal: “We move as one.” OD
Congratulations!
The next generation of school leaders:
Summer Principals
Academy, New Orleans
CLASS OF 2014
Transforming education,
one school at a time.
Alexandria Neason has written for The Hechinger Report on topics including education technology, Common Core learning standards, and teacher training.
PATHFINDER
Teachers College’s Summer Principals Academy offers a Masters Degree in school leadership, from
Columbia University in New Orleans, LA, over two five-week intensive summers.
Now accepting applications for the 2015 Cohort :
facebook.com/spanola
www.tc.edu/spanola
Contact Assistant Director
Andrea Elnems
[email protected]
From Classroom
to Newsroom
Do former teachers see things
on the beat that other education
writers miss?
by PATRICK WALL (CHICAGO ’07)
Photographs by Prisca Edwards
I found myself walking between rows
of desks in a sixth grade classroom in the Bronx, watching students underline phrases
in a poem about Hurricane Katrina.
As a reporter who covers the New York City school system for Chalkbeat New York, I
had heard policymakers and critics endlessly debate the Common Core standards, so I
traveled to the Bronx to see them in action. I listened to students try to make sense of
the poem by citing science articles they’d read. I watched them find stanzas that supported their arguments. Though the standards were fresh, the scene felt familiar. Before
I started writing about students, I taught fourth grade as a Chicago corps member.
From Oakland to Boston to Birmingham, I’m one of many Teach For America
alumni who now report on education for newspapers, nonprofit news outlets, radio
stations, and magazines. Each of us made the switch for different reasons. Lillian Mongeau (R.G.V. ’05) missed writing. Alexandria Neason (Hawai’i ’11), who now writes
for The Hechinger Report, always planned to end up as a journalist. Sara Mosle (N.Y.
ONE SUNNY AFTERNOON LAST SPRING,
’90) couldn’t choose. Mosle teaches writing at
a Newark charter school while contributing to
The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Slate.
Many of us teachers-turned-reporters have
made it our mission to find time to get into
schools and write about learning, even as we
cover the latest budget dust-ups, union-district
skirmishes and policy debates. When we visit
classrooms as former educators, we pick up on
teachers’ subtle strategies and notice whether
students are grappling with big ideas or copying
notes from the board.
Liana Heitin (Phoenix ’06), a contributing
editor at Education Week,, was reporting on an
arts program for students with disabilities when
she observed that autistic students in one class
were locking eyes and holding hands. A former
special education teacher, she knew such social
interactions can prove tough, and that she was
witnessing great teaching. She included that de-tail in her story because in her view, teachers’
classroom victories are woefully underreported.
“There is so much good stuff going on that peo-ple don’t hear about,” she says.
Dan Carsen (North Carolina ’96), a reporter
for public radio station WBHM in Birming-ham, Alabama, taught at a school where the
principal screamed into the intercom at the first
sight of a wandering student. So when he visited
a successful school in Mobile, he knew it was
significant that, as he said on air, “you practi-cally need a letter from the Pope to get on the
intercom.” Carsen likes to show how those small
decisions by a school leader “can shape a school
in profound ways.”
Reporting on good intentions gone awry
has left us questioning the effects of program
or policy changes. Having taught, we know
how hard it is for schools to get it right, even
when educators know what works. I recently
wrote about New York City’s push to reform
its special education system by better inte-grating special-needs students with their non-disabled peers. While the drive is backed by
research and endorsed by educators and fami-lies, I saw many schools stymied by limited
budgets, staff, and space, sometimes leaving
kids in limbo.
Still, we’re no less convinced than we were
as corps members that all students deserve the
best. “I still believe very strongly that all chil-dren deserve an excellent public education,” says
Mongeau, a California-based freelancer who has
written for EdSource and blogs about early child-56 ONE DAY | FALL 2014
“Jackie and Alex came to [The Hechinger
Report] fired up by the inequities they’d
seen in education, with a burning desire
to inform the public about what they’d
seen and heard.”
Master of Science in
Public Policy and
Management
Our school of Public Policy and Management is
a top 10 ranked Public Policy graduate school.
Patrick Wall, here with Alexandria Neason, covers the nation’s largest school district in New York.
hood for Education Week.. “But I think the ways
of getting there are far more varied than I did
when I first joined Teach For America.”
The editor of The Hechinger Report,, Elizabeth
Willen, says she knows that when she hires
Teach For America alumni like Neason or Jack-ie Mader (Charlotte ’09), “I’m hiring someone
with the mental toughness to handle new situations—which is critical for reporters—but also
someone who sees their role as being part of
a solution. Both Jackie and Alex came to us
fired up by the inequities they’d seen in educa-tion, with a burning desire to inform the public
about what they’d seen and heard.’’
Mader decided to channel her passion for
education into journalism after two things
happened back-to-back. She learned that the
school where she was teaching would be closed
for poor performance. Then she read a gripping
article about the turbulent lives of two local
teenagers that inspired her to go to graduate
school for journalism.
Serendipity struck again when she applied
to Hechinger just as the national nonprofit
education news outlet was searching for its
first Mississippi bureau chief. Mader had
spent two summers in Mississippi, training
new corps members.
She moved to Jackson in October 2013 and
started filing stories, including a series on special education that contributed to new legislation. “Sometimes I really miss teaching,” she
says. “But I honestly feel like as a journalist, I
can have a bigger voice.” OD
(U.S. News & World Report)
• Generalist and skills-based curriculum that integrates information technology, quantitative analysis, and management skills
which prepares students to solve complex policy problems.
Graduates appeal to a wide array of employers from the public,
nonprofit, and private sectors.
• Real-world application of skills through group projects and
internship opportunities. Instead of writing a thesis, students
work on teams to tackle a real-world problem with a real client.
• $10,000 per semester
scholarship for Teach
For America alumni.
• Over $1.5 million in
scholarships awarded to
TFA alumni in last 10 years.
• Over 100 AmeriCorps
Alums (including TFA)
have graduated from
Heinz since 2004.
• Washington, DC track: Jump start your career in public
service by completing the second year of study fully immersed
in a Washington DC based apprenticeship.
heinz.cmu.edu • [email protected] • 412.268.2164
• SPRING
20142014
57 57
ONE DAY
ONE
DAY | FALL
DO NOW
In Memoriam
NAATE Teacher Fellows and
the NAATE Team are Proud To Welcome
James W. Foley
TE AC H FO R A M E R I CA
2014 Alumni Award for Excellence
in Teaching Recipients
To learn how these award recipients and other top-performing
teachers from across the country are deepening their practice and
better supporting their peers within their schools, visit:
naate.org
leading learning
NAATE is a rigorous program of study that cultivates an elite corps of
extraordinary teacher leaders committed to the classroom and dedicated
to closing the achievement gap in our nation’s high-needs schools
NO ONE WAS DEA RER TO THE HEA RTS OF TEACH FOR
Jim inspired
love and admiration among the Phoenix corps members who counted
him as a close friend and fellow teacher, and later among the much larger
Teach For America family who admired him as a conflict text and video
reporter of extraordinary bravery and dedication.
Jim was reporting for the GlobalPost and Agence France-Press when he
was taken hostage in Syria in November of 2012. On August 19, 2014, he
was murdered by ISIS in Syria.
His parents, Diane and John Foley, have established The James W.
Foley Legacy Fund to honor Jim’s life by building a resource center
for families of American hostages and fostering a global dialogue on
governmental policies in hostage crises; supporting American journalists reporting from conflict zones; and promoting quality educational
opportunities for urban youth.
Beginning as a corps member in 1996, Jim spent four years teaching at a
Phoenix elementary school, making an indelible impression on students. In
a tribute published by Jim’s GlobalPost editors, one student, Carlos Garcia,
credited him with “pointing a lot of us in the right direction.”
In 2011, while reporting in Libya, Jim was imprisoned by Gaddafi’s
forces. After he was released, he wrote a letter to the Teach For America
family to thank all of those who had mobilized to secure his freedom. He
described how he was held in a series of cells with no information from
outside, and wrote, “…Little did I know what was being done by my
A MERICA’S A LUMNI FA MILY THAN JA MES FOLEY.
friends and colleagues—especially Teach For America alums. Libya in
2011 was a long way from teaching in Phoenix in 1996, but the intensity of teaching those first years cemented the bonds of my most lasting
friendships. I would rely on these friends to mobilize the Teach For
America network without even knowing it.”
Jim went on to say that he couldn’t have anticipated how many close
TFA friends would spring into action on his behalf, “but in hindsight, it
was no surprise. These are folks used to taking on challenges, not sitting
on the sidelines…
“When I was released and realized all that had been done, I tried
to thank as many as I could, but it was impossible. Many individuals had used every tool in their power anonymously. Isn’t that what
teachers do? Teach For America’s sense of urgency was instilled
in us since the beginning of our training. It was humbling and
awe-inspiring to be a recipient.”
In the outpouring of love and support that followed Jim’s death, many
have asked his close friends and family how they can honor his life and
work. You may do so by contributing to:
THE JAMES W. FOLEY LEGACY FUND
www.jamesfoleyfund.org
ALUMNI NOTES
Nicole Turner (Metro Atlanta ’11) married Marrenda Young (right) in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 4, 2014. “We view our marriage as an act of love, commitment, and LGBTQ activism/advocacy,” writes Turner, who works for Teach For America supporting the new national LGBTQ Initiative. It was the first samesex marriage in both Turner’s and Young’s respective families.
1990
Jeff Christie (Georgia) I began my
role as deputy director of leadership
development with ACCG, Georgia’s
County Association, after 15 years
with the University of Georgia in
cooperative extension.
Ian Friedman (L.A.) I recently earned
my college counseling certification
from UCLA and opened my own
practice, Ariav College Admissions
Consulting: www.ariavfuture.com.
I live just outside Chicago with my
wife and three children.
Emilio Gonzalez (L.A.) I am a partner
at the law firm of Davis Wright
Tremaine and work in downtown
Los Angeles. I am also a member of
the board of directors of Endeavor
College Prep charter school in Los
Angeles. Endeavor was named a
California Distinguished School
in 2012.
Priscila Leon (L.A.) This is my fourth
year working in a dual-language
program. This year I have my first
group of students for a second time!
Their bi-literate growth is amazing.
Andrew Mayo (Bay Area) I am in
my third year as a music department supervisor, and my wife is in
her second year as a middle school
principal.
Danny Morris (L.A.) After eight years
serving as the director of Children’s
Aid Society’s community center for
teenagers (Hope Leadership Academy), I was promoted to the position
of assistant director for the adolescence division. In this role, I develop
and oversee teen programming at
CAS community centers and manage
the implementation of AmeriCorps at
our various sites.
Lukman Ramsey (L.A.) Started a
new job as chief technology officer
of Acrobatiq, a spinoff of the Open
Learning Initiative at Carnegie
Mellon University.
Victoria Smith (L.A.) I am the proud
mother of two sons, ages 12 and
16. I am advancing at work as a
leader of primary care in Kenner,
La., and as a clinical integration
network leader.
Tom Super (L.A.) I am working at
Pearson (17th year) to create K-2
math books that challenge kids to
learn. My best lesson as a teacher
for TFA was when I got across the
concept of multiplication to my
second-grader, Nancy, a “C” student
in math. She later aced the test.
1991
Amy Averett (E.N.C.) I am continuing in my role leading community
partnerships and private events
at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema,
an Austin-based chain of movie
theaters. As the company expands,
I have the opportunity to reach out
to schools and community organizations to form partnerships for
fundraising events, cause-related
named one of the 36 most inspirational rabbis in North America.
MATCH.CORPS
They saw
the sign.
IT STA RT ED A S MOR E STOR I E S SHOU L D W IT H A ’90 S COV ER BA N D.
In summer 2012, Brittany Toll (New Mexico ’09) was relatively new to
Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she’d relocated after the corps to become Teach
For America Oklahoma’s director of early childhood education instructional leadership. Pat Viklund (Oklahoma ’09) was finishing up his first
year at the Center for Employment Opportunities, a national nonprofit
that provides employment services for people with criminal records.
They both, it turned out, appreciated a good Ace of Base cover. And
so, at a series of downtown shows by the ’90s tribute group My So Called
Band, Pat and Brittany met, hit it off, and started running together—Brittany’s suggestion.
“I definitely had a crush on Pat at the time,” Brittany says. “I’m pretty
proud of the fact that I took the first step.”
By September, they were dating. A year later, they were engaged. On
August 30, they were married. My So Called Band played at the reception.
The Viklunds’ careers are concerned with opposite ends of the developmental spectrum—Pat with adults, Brittany with young children. But
both positions have their origins in teaching: Brittany was the only early
childhood teacher in her corps, while Pat taught some sixth graders who
had parents, including mothers, spending time in prison (Oklahoma leads
the nation in women incarcerated per capita).
Both say that learning about each other’s experiences has informed how
they approach their work. For Pat, learning about the social and emotional development that Brittany emphasizes in pre-K has helped him better
understand his program’s participants and their struggles with the law.
Many of the adults he works with “have a really hard time regulating
emotions, whether it’s dealing with change or setting schedules—basic
social and emotional skills that begin to be taught in early childhood,” he
says. He says that some of the same tools Brittany uses with her students,
like guiding them to reflect on what they’re personally capable of changing
in their lives, work with adults, too.
Brittany, meanwhile, has had Pat and one of his participants sit on a
panel for corps members who teach early childhood to help them understand how their actions as teachers have long-term effects. The participant recalled how different it felt to have “teachers who did or didn’t
believe in him” and how his school’s “different expectations for different
students affected his beliefs and the choices he made, leading to prison,”
Brittany says.
Pat and Brittany now live in Oklahoma City, where they still exercise
together and, presumably, sometimes listen to ’90s music, but sharing
their work lives has deepened the relationship further.
“Having these conversations with Pat about these issues has been a huge
opportunity,” Brittany says. “I have a deeper understanding of the systemic
issues that we’re both up against, in different ways.” BY TIM KENNEDY (DELTA ’11)
James O’Brien (L.A.) I am currently
in my ninth year as principal and
founder of Brooklyn Community Arts
& Media High School in Brooklyn,
N.Y., where they paint murals of
Biggie. My wife, Kersha, and I
just celebrated our 10th anniversary
this past summer, and we have a
beautiful three-year-old son, Julian.
Melissa Quirk Cairns (Houston) In
the classroom, I continue to revise
and refine the English curriculum for
our ninth grade program. Its service
learning component has been
consistently highlighted by the
school and district as a high-quality
program. Outside of the classroom,
the big news is that I was married
in June!
Anna Siefken (E.N.C.) I have
recently relocated from D.C. to
Pittsburgh, Pa., where my husband
is the vice president of content and
digital media at The Fred Rogers
Company. Very interested in
connecting with corps members
in the area.
1992
Billy Anders (G.N.O.-LAD) I completed my Ph.D. in educational theory
and practice from the University at
Albany last spring. I live outside of
Albany, N.Y., and continue to serve
as an elementary school principal.
Thank you, TFA, for giving me a
chance to be an educator all those
years ago. Thank you to all of those
G.N.O. ’92 friends who helped me
survive and thrive as an educator in
my first years!
Vicki Anderson-Ellis (S. Louisiana)
It’s been 21 years since I started
Teach For America. Since then life
has taken me to Seattle, a master’s
degree in higher education policy
from the University of Washington, a
husband to whom I’ve been married
for 15 wonderful years, and two
beautiful daughters, 8 and 5. TFA
provided the groundwork for a lot
of that and I feel fortunate to call
myself an alum!
After seven years in the classroom,
I became a missionary to children
overseas to impact children’s lives
spiritually. May we continue to impact
children wherever we are!
Evette Clarke (Baltimore) I work as
the program director of the Kinship
Care Program in Maryland and
absolutely love working with this
program. I am married with two
children, 11 and 13, and I am truly
enjoying life right now!
Susan Miller-Curley (Houston) My
husband and I are in Denver raising
two girls, Allison and Valerie. Since the
girls were born, I started my own company and developed a web-based
math-placement app for English learners (www.samplemathapp.com).
Simon Glaser (G.N.O.-LAD) My wife,
two children, and I have made the
move from Rochester, Minn., to Roanoke, Va. I welcome the challenge of
returning to an urban school district,
and am very excited to be in out of
the cold!
Desiree Pointer Mace (Bay Area)
In addition to my work as associate dean of the School of Education
at Alverno College, I continue my
leadership and development of
Inside Mathematics (www.insidemathematics.org), a rich archive of math
education materials and images of
accomplished practices.
Pam Hecht (Houston) I’m a freelance
writer/editor and write regularly for
a parenting magazine. I also work
and volunteer at a charter K-8 school.
My kids are now in middle and high
school.
John Rubio (L.A.) I have a new
daughter, Miya, and I am entering
into my second year as an assistant superintendent of educational
services.
Mei-Mei Lee (Bay Area) My TFA
experience has been invaluable
to me in my career with children.
$96,000 scholarship to
continue a commitment
to social justice
MIAMI SCHOLARS PUBLIC INTEREST PROGRAM:
screenings, and support for young
filmmakers. I love being a part of a
company whose mission is to make
people happy!
Kate Haviland (N.Y.) As an early
member of the TFA corps, I remain
proud to have joined such a vibrant
movement in its early stages. I am
currently the director of development and alumni affairs at a small
and independent progressive
school, but my work as a teacher in
the South Bronx, N.Y., through TFA
frames much of my outlook toward
education and opportunity to
this day.
Lenore Hoover (Bay Area) This year
I received the Career Art Educator Award for Montgomery County
Public Schools, one of the largest
and most diverse school systems in
the United States. I have taught full
time for 22 of the 23 years since I
entered TFA.
Darron Jackson (Houston) Celebrating three hallmark achievements:
I married my soul mate, Kimisha
Jackson; parented my 17-year-old
son, who is currently in his senior
year of high school; and was appointed new principal of the Ann
Arbor Trail pre-K-8th grade school.
Michele Jervis Schultz (G.N.O.-LAD)
I continue to work as a bilingual
Spanish speech pathologist outside
of Philadelphia. I am midway
through my first term as a school
board member and serve as chair
of the academic affairs committee
in the school district where my son
attends school. I have been mar-
ried 16 years and have an amazing
bilingual 10-year-old son named
Alexander.
Leslie Arnetta Jones (L.A.) I was
honored to be asked by my Virginia
State Education Association to film
an education commercial for a
Democratic candidate for governor,
Terry McAuliffe. It was released not
only locally, but nationally. The title
of the commercial is “Terry McAuliffe Ad: Bunch.”
• 3-year scholarship
and participation
in a community of
progressive students
• Mentoring from
top public interest
faculty and attorneys
worldwide
• Support with securing
& funding summer
public interest
internships
• Individual legal
advocacy training and
career planning
Joshua Lesser (G.N.O.-LAD) I was
APPLY NOW
www.law.miami.edu/miamischolars
Michael Stitts (Houston) I am currently
teaching at Ohio Business College. I still find
college students not prepared to enter into
college and I try to ensure that my students
and my teaching methods align in order to
help my students reach their potential.
1993
Amy Ahlfeld (L.A.) I’m entering my third year
of private practice as a clinical psychologist
and becoming more involved in statewide
advocacy efforts on behalf of all California
psychologists and the patients we serve. I’m
thrilled to be the Government Affairs Steering Committee chairperson for the California
Psychological Association as well as to
continue in my role as a PAC board member
for CPA.
Rod Bowen (N.Y.) I’m excited about my role
as a director in the Office of School Quality.
Working with superintendents and other
educational leaders to ensure that schools
are being fairly and accurately assessed
and pushed for the betterment of New York
City students is incredibly meaningful and
impactful work.
Christie Campbell (Baltimore) After 15 years
in technology marketing, I am enjoying a
return to education, working at a diverse and
growing university in Austin, Texas. I sponsor
the campus Teach For America student organization and advise future corps members.
Elizabeth Day (L.A.) I recently published my
inspirational novel, Living With Gusto. It’s
now available on Amazon in soft cover and
on Kindle.
Dianne Hackett (L.A.) After working as an
MTLD with many incredible early childhood
education corps members in Los Angeles, I
launched a national research study to learn
more about what makes them so resilient.
The fruits of this effort culminated in May as
I received my doctorate in education from
Loyola Marymount University. I am now
putting my research findings into practice
and simultaneously working as a part-time
professor at LMU.
Ann Herlin (R.G.V.) Our second child, Benjamin Staley, was born in September 2013.
Big sister Leah (20 months older) is trying to
make sense of this life change.
Katherine Kennedy (Baltimore) Still at Summer Search, helping low-income students
have the confidence, character, and skills
to graduate from college and be leaders
in their families and communities. Eighteen
years and counting!
Vanessa Power (Bay Area) I’m now a lawyer
in Seattle with a great husband and two
wonderful kids.
Phillip Stewart (Bay Area) After years run-
ning the on-campus garden, I am working
to expand into a mini-farm and start a
sustainable agriculture academy at
my school.
Sarah Carranza (Phoenix) I have
been nominated for Teacher of the
Year for the Cave Creek Unified
School District.
1994
Molly Davis (Phoenix) My husband,
Clay, and I are back in the Valley of
the Sun. I’m currently a stay-at-home
mom with two delightful children,
Cleo and Quincy. I’ve been working
at the Phoenix institute each summer. It is an inspiration to work with
new corps members and it keeps me
connected to trends in education. I
plan to return to the classroom when
Quincy goes to kindergarten.
Jerome Del Pino (N.Y.) In representing people on death row, I have come to appreciate
teachers from a different perspective: They
are the people who recognize what a child
critically needed but was not getting.
Philippe Ernewein (G.N.O.-LAD) Published a
few educational articles available at www.
rememberit.org. Was appointed to director of
education at Denver Academy.
Lynn Elias (L.A.) I am still working
within LAUSD, now as a school psychologist. Happily living in Northeast
Los Angeles with our two kids, my
husband, and our elderly dog.
Jason Martin (New Jersey) New ED for a
new nonprofit.
Richard Newman (L.A.) I am the director of
innovation, charged with changing the way
we do school. I am focused on developing
an adaptive learning platform to ensure all
education is personalized.
Kim Pasculli-Festa (New Jersey) My essay
“Age of Consent” was recently published
in the women’s anthology, Nothing But the
Truth So Help Me God: 73 Women on Life’s
Transitions, alongside those from New York
Times best-selling authors Kelly Corrigan
and Gabrielle Bernstein. The essay, which
tells how a teacher changed the trajectory
of my life, was also hand-selected by Maria
Shriver as a featured education article on
The Shriver Report.
Rebecca Schrader (S. Louisiana) I am
the new executive director of the Iowa
Able Foundation, which does micro-lending
and financial coaching for people with
disabilities and aging Iowans. We finance
assistive technologies and small business
startups.
Anthony Warn (L.A.) Still working toward the
dream, now in Northern Idaho, the site of
great work toward social justice.
1995
Jennifer Anastasoff (Houston) My two
startups (baby Maya and Fuse Corps) are
growing up! This year, Fuse Corps has shown
that bringing a businessperson or entrepreneur to spend one year as a senior advisor
to a mayor or governor can have amazing
impact. www.fusecorps.org
David Cadaret (R.G.V.) After a 10-year hiatus,
I have returned to teaching. I recently took
leave from practice to accept an appointment as visiting professor of legal research
and writing at the University of Oregon’s law
school. Alison Thompson Cadaret (R.G.V.
’96) and I have been married for 12-plus
years, and we live with our two daughters in
Eugene, Ore.
Philip Kent (N.Y.) I am married with
three sons, working hard as a litigator in New Haven, Conn., and deeply
involved in local public service,
often to aid children of low-income
families in the area.
As a Peace Corps volunteer in Mukono, Uganda, Meghan Miller (Greater
Philadelphia ’10) teaches health and life skills to secondary school
students. “I also teach all of my students ‘The Wobble’ [not pictured, alas]
just like my kids in Philly taught me!” she writes.
Marguerite Gaines (Mississippi)
Mark Gaines and I were married in
September 2012. And a year later in
late August, we welcomed our first
baby girl, Margot.
Johanna Hartwig (N.Y.) I found a
wonderful partner, Stefano DeZerega, and married him at the Lawrence
Hall of Science in Berkeley. I also
got two great stepsons out of the
deal, Nico and Asa. Blind dates
really can work!
Esther Klaus-Quinlan (L.A.) I
continue to enjoy my work with
the Public Education and Business
Coalition. We have provided professional learning for many TFA corps
members over the years. Check us
out at www.pebc.org.
Jim O’Connor (Mississippi) Hannah
O’Connor and I have two kids, Liam
and Fiona, and live in Oak Park, Ill.
I am the project director at Advance
Illinois and a school board member
in Oak Park.
Jonathan Staehr (L.A.) My wife,
Jennifer Hemming, and I have
started our own law firm (Hemming
& Staehr, P.C.) in Buffalo, N.Y., where
we represent children who have
been lead poisoned. We also have
two lovely children, Ella Jane and
Henry Thomas Staehr.
Esther Selk (Bay Area) I am mom to
3-year-old Ella, director of alumnae
relations at The Girls’ Middle School,
drama teacher, and teaching coach.
I am in a dance performance group,
and am a part-time dance teacher
and choreographer for community
theater. I recently contracted with
The Breakthrough Collaborative
regarding their math curriculum. I
am discovering that I can leave the
classroom and still have a rich and
exciting career.
Thomas Tichy (E.N.C.) After serving in my current district for eight
years as a science teacher and two
years as an instructional coach, I
was asked to take the position of
principal of the one middle school
in the district, which had just been
placed in its second year of priority
improvement status. In my first year,
we dramatically improved student
growth, shooting our state accreditation up two levels.
1997
Sabrina Wesley-Nero (Bay Area) I
was appointed to a three-year term
as the visiting assistant professor
of education, inquiry, and justice at
Georgetown University.
1996
Laoma Beck (Bay Area) I welcomed
my second child in June 2012. With
his older sister, I am outnumbered on
a daily basis. Life is good.
Caitlin Chapuis (R.G.V.) I produced
and directed an original play written
by John Stewart (R.G.V. ’92) at Gunston Middle School in Arlington, Va.,
winning an American Association of
University Women Excellence in the
Arts award.
Megan Demarkis (N.Y.) I am part of
a vibrant team at Harlem RBI that
focuses on recruiting, selecting, and
preparing staff to serve youth and
families at our charter school and
afterschool organization. We are
actively learning and gearing up
for national expansion as a model
learning organization that helps all
youth recognize their potential. I live
in Brooklyn, N.Y., with my partner
and two-year-old son.
Scot Fishman (D.C. Region) I relocated to Los Angeles after accepting
an offer to join Manatt, Phelps &
Phillips as its counsel and director of
pro bono activities.
Chung Khong (N.Y.) I am married
and a proud father of two. I also
teach the science methods course
to first-year corps members for the
LMU-Bay Area program.
Jodi Rosenbaum Tillinger (Houston)
My husband and I experienced a
new depth of intensity and joy in
life with the adoption of our two
kids, siblings ages 2 and 3½. More
Than Words has experienced much
success in the two years since
replicating our model in Boston. We
have doubled the number of young
people who are in foster care and
court-involved who are empowered
each day to take charge of their
business and their lives.
Sachi Smith Tripp (E.N.C.) My
husband and I welcomed our fourth
child into the world and we are
enjoying homeschooling them!
Quinton Vance (New Jersey) After
working for KIPP NYC for the last 13
years, I joined KIPP Dallas-Fort Worth,
working to build 10 new KIPP schools
to serve over 5,000 new KIPPsters.
1998
Erin Carstensen (N.Y.) I am in my
fourth year as principal of Essex
Street Academy, located on the
Lower East Side in New York City.
Our school is celebrating its 10th
year this year and I am proud to say
I have been teaching there since the
start! My husband and I welcomed
our first baby, Naue.
Catherine Gbedey (N.Y.) I’m in my
fourth year teaching Spanish at Lead
Charter Middle School (also its fourth
year of existence). We have made
strides every year, showing great
gains and getting an A rating last
year. After a long break, it feels good
to be making an impact again.
Michael Higgins (Mississippi) Our
second daughter was born last
It’s not too late to become a doctor
October, and I launched my own law firm,
specializing in providing affordable legal
services to charter schools.
Patrick Haugh (N.Y.) My wife, Emma
(Chicago ’02), and I moved from Chicago
to Dallas in early 2014 and welcomed our
first child, Collins Birdie, in April. Emma is
a senior finance manager focused on innovation at Frito Lay, and I recently became
CEO at Teaching Trust, an organization that
develops transformative leaders at all levels,
within and across schools.
Daniel Konecky (G.N.O.-LAD) I build online
and hybrid courses for Relay Graduate
School of Education. I am an expert at
producing classroom video for professional
development. I presented on both topics at
SXSW in Austin, Texas.
Amy Lisewski (G.N.O.-LAD) I opened Finest
City Improv, a 70-seat theater and training center in San Diego. Modeled on The
Second City and iO, we offer improv comedy
shows and classes for adults and youth.
Tamara Mason (G.N.O.-LAD) I am the proud
parent of a fun-loving and inquisitive son,
DuBois Alexander Mason.
Lasheaka Nock (Baltimore) I just embarked
on my 16th year of teaching. This year I
teach all lower-quartile students, and have
been tasked with helping them pass the
state assessment so they may receive their
diplomas. My husband and I welcomed a
new baby. His name is Antwain Jr. but
everyone calls him A.J.
Seema Pothini (Houston) I wrote a book that
is a great resource for educator professional
development. The book is available on Amazon and is called, Case Studies on Diversity
and Social Justice Education.
Laura Stahl (G.N.O.-LAD) Enjoying my
expanded role as managing director of
institute operations, while working for the
San Francisco 49ers and serving on two
nonprofit boards.
1999
Rachel Certner (N.Y.) I have begun my 15th
year as a classroom teacher! I teach fourth
grade at ICT in Brooklyn, N.Y., where I’ve
been for the last five years. Prior to that, I
was at my placement school in the Bronx,
N.Y., for nine years. I have been married for
five years and have a sweet little son
named Isaac.
Patrick Daniels (Baltimore) I am extremely
proud of the work of the speech and debate
team that I run at Baltimore City College. My
students worked incredibly hard and won the
championships of both the National Catholic
Forensic League and the National Urban
Debate League last year. I am also proud to
have been awarded the first annual Bernard
Manekin Award for Leadership in Education.
Molly Eigen (R.G.V.) My partner Sarah Elder
(Greater Philadelphia ’04) and I had a baby
in October 2012. Zoe Juniper Eigen-Elder’s
favorite magazine to chew on is One Day!
Liana Gefter (Bay Area) I am so excited to
partner with Teach For America through the
program I developed called the Stanford
Youth Diabetes Coaches Program, which
brings family medicine physicians into TFA
high schools to train students to coach family members with diabetes (and learn skills
for goal setting, problem solving, and a lot of
health information in the process).
Whitney Grese Hanna (N.Y.) In February
2013, my husband, Craig, and I welcomed
our first child, Vaughan Thorin Hanna, into
the world.
Jessica Jolliffe (R.G.V.) Tom and I welcomed
Timothy Richard in May 2013. Big sisters
Jean and Robin are delighted with their
new brother.
Olivia Marbutt (E.N.C.) Jason Marbutt (New
Jersey ’99) and I welcomed another baby
girl to our family. We are now a family of five!
Mark Meier (G.N.O.-LAD) My first novel,
Wisecrack, appeared in 2013.
Jessica Murphy (G.N.O.-LAD) I completed
my master’s from Indiana University-Bloomington in educational leadership and policy
studies, while also completing the Director
of Exceptional Needs licensure program. I’m
currently working as a magnet coordinator, bringing my pre-TFA arts background
together with my work in urban schools.
Alexander Quigley (E.N.C.) Ashley (Delta
’99) and I welcomed our fourth child, Evan
Arthur Quigley, in December 2012.
Samuel Rosaldo (L.A.) Naima and I met in
the ’99 Los Angeles corps, married in ’06,
and have two children, Gabriel and Micah.
Gabriel started kindergarten at a local public
school here in Harlem. We are grateful
for our family, neighborhood, and friends
(including those from ’99).
Wayne Stone (E.N.C.) Second child, Wayah
Nathaniel Stone, joined us in March 2012.
Mary Wegher (R.G.V.) I was selected to
represent my school at a school board meeting and was able to highlight the collaborative work I do with classroom teachers and
showcase students’ higher-order thinking
and technology-integrated projects. It was a
great success, and my principal now views
me as more of a leader than he did before.
Amy Yamner Jenkins (Bay Area) I welcomed
Olivia June Jenkins to the world ( joining big
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Samina Hadi-Tabassum (N.Y. ’93) is an associate professor at Dominican University in Chicago, one of Teach For America’s regional graduate school
partners. Every summer, she takes her corps members—who teach bilingual or ESL classes—to India as part of their coursework, where they have the
chance to coach and mentor a first-year Teach For India candidate. Hadi-Tabassum (front right) and her corps member “students” are pictured here in
Hyderabad, India, in July 2014.
sister Ella) and relocated to San
Carlos, Calif.
2000
Jennifer Brady (S. Louisiana) I am
living in Portland, Maine, and working
with educators from the school day,
afterschool, and summer programs to
broaden all kids’ learning experiences. Enjoying life as a mom, too.
Amanda Carroll (Bay Area) My baby.
Tima. was born last November. As a
single mom by choice, life is crazy,
and I get endless joy (and gray hairs)
watching her grow and learn about
the world.
Petra Claflin (Houston) I moved into
a new role as the manager of digital
media at YES Prep Public Schools
in Houston, where my husband
also works.
Matthew Cregor (N.Y.) Rebecca
Kiley and I are proud parents to
twins Helen and Lina Cregor (born
November 2011).
Christopher Donald (S. Louisiana)
I became the chaplain at Millsaps
College in Jackson, Miss. One of my
responsibilities is helping to engage
faculty and students in mutually
beneficial partnerships with surrounding low-income neighborhoods
and schools.
Sharon Foley (D.C. Region) My
husband, Jason, and I welcomed
our daughter, Nora Josephine,
in May 2013.
Catherine Georges (N.Y.) My second
son was born on Aug. 15, 2013.
Ryan Harrell (Chicago) I am an
eighth grade facilitator at Holland
New Tech and back in the classroom
after a stint as the school’s interim
director. Working hard to make
project-based learning the focus
of our school district.
Quincy Hudson (Houston) I
completed the Executive Project
Management Certification through
the Quinlan School of Business at
Loyola University Chicago. I have
begun implementing what I’ve
learned in my current role by restructuring our approach to launching
new initiatives.
Sarah Koch-Hernandez (L.A.) I am
now in my 14th year of teaching! I
teach in elementary at an IB World
School. My husband and I have
three wonderful boys: Luke, Benny,
and Andy. I coach the older two
in soccer and still play on a team
myself.
Joshua Kulp (N.Y.) I opened a
restaurant in Chicago called Honey
Butter Fried Chicken in addition to
my first—Sunday Dinner Club. I have
also become active in a chef-driven
educational organization called Pilot
Light that works to empower children
to make healthy choices through
standards-based lesson planning
and chef-led classroom activities.
Amit Mistry (G.N.O.-LAD) I’m working
in the U.S. Agency for International
Development on applying science
and technology toward international
development challenges.
Jesse Noonan (L.A.) I serve as
director of educational programs for
Options for Youth and Opportunities
for Learning Public Charter Schools.
Last year, the schools combined
served 50,000 students in California.
I am teaching corps members in the
Public Schools
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Shaunda Penny (New Jersey) We
welcomed baby no. 8 to our family,
Gianna Doreen Penny.
Jesse Roselin (Bay Area) It has
been exciting to work with current
TFA corps members in the San
Francisco Bay Area through my
nonprofit Tutor Corps Foundation,
which provides one-on-one tutoring
services as well as community
service grants and scholarships.
Erik Garza (R.G.V.) I had a baby
boy named Ryan Erik Garza in
December 2012.
Drew Sprague (S. Louisiana) I have
opened up my own law practice,
Sprague Law, PLLC, in Raleigh, N.C. I
practice in the areas of civil litigation
and criminal defense and am always
working to help the underdog.
Erin Grogan (S. Louisiana) In 2011,
I received my Ph.D. in education policy from Michigan State. I
currently work for TNTP, and am
pursuing certification to be a therapeutic horseback riding instructor for
children and adults with disabilities,
working closely with Miracles in
Motion Therapeutic Riding (www.
mimnh.org).
Thalia Theodore Washington (N.Y.)
My husband, Jason Washington, and
I are proud parents of a wonderful
girl named Rowan.
Alicia Meehan (Mississippi) My
husband and I welcomed our first
child, Bridget Keene Meehan, in
August 2013.
Marjorie Voutilainen (L.A.) Eleven
years after leaving my Long Beach,
Calif., classroom, I have a husband,
three beautiful children, and am
thoroughly involved in my kids’
education in Seattle.
Jennifer Mothes (Houston) I’m
settling into my second year back in
teaching. It’s crazy to be teaching in
my old elementary school alongside
my former third grade teacher.
Alexandra Zekas (E.N.C.) I just had
my second kid.
2001
Loreto P. Ansaldo (N.Y.) I cofounded
a nonprofit out of Greater Boston
with the mission to develop and
implement multimodal projects that
build sustainable community practices by critically engaging education,
social change, and the arts. Find out
more at PALESCA.org.
Lisa Bignall-Brice (N.Y.) I enjoy working from home with my 21-month-old
daughter and taking a break from
the principalship. Starting my own
business has been another bonus
reward for staying home with her.
Jai-sun Bolden (Metro Atlanta)
My wife and I had a baby boy in
August 2013.
Dionn Brown (E.N.C.) My work in curriculum and professional development for mathematics and science
with the Urban Teacher Center
allows me the opportunity to seed,
nurture, and cultivate passionate,
skilled, and deeply knowledgeable
mathematics and science educators
for children in urban settings.
WWW.DEMOCRACYPREP.ORG
Jennifer Flagg (Mississippi) Andy
Flagg and I announce the birth
and adoption of our second son,
Alexander, in March 2013. We’re
particularly thrilled that Alex came
to us through the assistance of
AdoptHelp, a firm cofounded by
alum Alanna Goldman (L.A. ’91)!
Lisa Newstrom (R.G.V.) In April 2013
I became managing attorney at Bay
Area Legal Aid, where I had worked
for over four years. I love using my
legal training to fight poverty and
secure equal justice for clients, and
my TFA experience has catalyzed
my advocacy for children, youth,
and immigrant families.
Ayana Oden (Metro Atlanta) It’s
been an awesome 12-year journey
in the realm of education. I still hold
fast to our mission and vision. I’m an
instructional coach in my placement
district, a GSU doctoral student, a
wife, and mother of two.
Alicia Pettus-Bilal (Metro Atlanta)
I reside in Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates, with my family, working
as an academic vice president. This
experience has exposed me to the
common global issues affecting
education.
Adam Rosen (N.Y.) I recently joined
the New York City entertainment law
firm of Grubman Indursky Shire &
Meiselas, P.C., focusing my practice
in live theater, film, and television.
Karen Wynne (N.Y.) I have continued
to work as an educator since completing TFA. I got married in June
2012 and had my first child,
Atticus. I completed my National
Board Certification last year.
2002
Heather Anichini (Chicago) Our family welcomed a girl, Delaney Debra,
who joins her brothers—Devan (’31)
and Garrett (’33)—as our newest
future corps member (’35).
Elizabeth Barlow (E.N.C.) I’m serving
as interim pastor of St. John’s United
Church of Christ in Larimer, Pa. My
son, Edmund, was born in January
2013, joining daughter Pippa. I was
delighted to host fellow corps
members Rachel Clark and Heang
Lim at my new house in Pittsburgh.
Bonnie Benson (New Mexico) I am
a manager at Accenture working
on a project for the state of North
Carolina where we are implementing an integrated eligibility system
to ensure that needy families across
the state can get their benefits in a
timely fashion.
Sara Birkhead (S. Louisiana) I am
happy to be back in middle school,
even if I miss good old East Feliciana.
Jesse Bornemann (Mississippi) I
moved with my husband, Eric, from
Boston to my home state of Tennessee. I continue to write grants
for Reach Out and Read, a national
early literacy nonprofit, and I was
proud to receive their 2013 Wyntress Smith Award for dedication
to the organization’s schoolreadiness mission.
Camille Bryant (Metro Atlanta) I gave
birth to a baby boy in March 2013.
Michael Caron (Houston) In addition
to teaching full time at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, I
have taken on roles as head varsity
baseball coach at the school and
assistant varsity basketball and
football positions at Reading Memorial High School. I have spearheaded
a fitness and inspirational movement
entitled “Get Burly.” The company
promotes individuals pursuing their
passions with great vigor: www.
getburly.com.
Meghan Condon (S. Louisiana)
Darren Easton (S. Louisiana ’01) and
I welcomed our third child, Charlie.
Tiffany Decker (New Jersey) After
obtaining a master of science in education from the University of Pennsylvania, I, along with my husband,
Daniel Dobrygowski (New Jersey
’02), and our son, Alek, ventured to
Massachusetts. I work at MIT as the
manager of operations and evaluation in the Office of Engineering
Outreach Programs, ensuring that
underserved students have access
to institutions like MIT, and that more
primary and secondary students
consider STEM majors and careers.
Vanessa Ford (D.C. Region) When
I arrived as part of the 2002 corps,
I would have never guessed that I
would be involved in DCPS 12 years
later as a teacher and a parent! I
live in the neighborhood where I
teach, my eldest attends my school,
and I teach ECE and elementary
STEM. I’m working to develop my
“Think Tank” program: maurythinktank.blogspot.com.
Ellyn Goldberg (Baltimore) I serve
as the senior mathematics specialist for a startup nonprofit, United
Providence!, an adjunct lecturer in
education at Brown University, and
I served as faculty director for mathematics education at Brown for a
group of undergraduates studying to
become math teachers. The cohort
taught the first-ever math courses at
Brown Summer High School for local
Providence high schoolers.
Robert Gunn (St. Louis) I serve
as principal of Foster Traditional
Academy in Louisville, Ky, continuing the work we began in St. Louis in
2002, serving students, families, and
communities in the areas with the
most need.
Adrienne Heim-Vener (N.Y.) I have
launched an educational nonprofit
in the South Bronx, N.Y. (the location
of my original placement), called
Green Generations. We empower
children, families, and educators with
transformative life skills, nutritional
know-how, and local and global
environmental awareness: www.
greengenerations.org.
Caroline Isaacs Latterman (S. Louisiana) I finished my Ph.D. in linguistics and I have a baby boy named
Parker. My business, Linguistic Consulting, is growing, and I now have
an office in Manhattan in addition to
teaching online internationally.
Michelle Kaplan Weber (L.A.) My
husband and I welcomed our baby
girl, Lucy Belle.
Dione King (S. Louisiana) I accepted
an assistant professor position in the
Department of Social Work at the
CHICAGO & ROCKFORD, IL
was recognized by The Washington
Post as a Distinguished Educational
Leader for the District of Columbia.
Chiquita Puckett (Metro Atlanta)
This is my 12th year teaching at
my original placement school. In
2008-09, I served as Teacher of the
Year for my school and was a district
semifinalist. In 2013, I graduated
from Lincoln Memorial University
as a specialist in curriculum and
instruction.
Sonja Ralston (Bay Area) I married
Daniel Winik on July 19 in Washington, D.C.
Sarah Ruttan (R.G.V.) Tim Ruttan
(R.G.V. ’02) and I welcomed Claire
Elise Ruttan on March 27, 2013, then
promptly moved the whole family
to Austin, Texas, where Tim is
completing a fellowship in pediatric
emergency medicine at Dell
Children’s Hospital.
Megan Shanks (S. Louisiana) I
earned my M.S. in policy analysis
and management in 2012 through
Cornell University.
Campbell and Sarah McLean (both Baltimore ’02) welcomed Watts Thayer
McLean into the world on September 11, 2014. Nine days later, Watts
enjoyed a nap while mom, dad, and sisters Molly and Amelia went apple
picking near their home in Cambridge, Mass.
University of West Florida. I am
married to Steven King and have
twins (Langston and Lauren). I
received my Ph.D. (social work) and
master’s of social work from the
University of Georgia.
Erica Lee (Houston) I married Dr. Roy
Carter Jr., in Houston in November
2012. Renata Ellis (Houston ’02),
Ayana Allen (Houston ’01) and Dana
Enriquez-Vontoure (Houston ’00)
joined the festivities.
Michael Madeo (D.C. Region)
Finishing up a three-year assignment
to Okinawa with the U.S. Marine
Corps and will return to the States.
Rachel Mazyck (Mississippi) I
became the president of Collegiate Directions, Inc., a nonprofit
organization that helps low-income,
first-generation-to-college students
get to and through college and
provides professional development
on college advising in the D.C.
metropolitan area.
Bethany Mills Jennings (New
Jersey) My wife and I welcomed a
baby girl, Thea, to our family, and
her older sister, Hazel, is loving her
new role as big sister.
Alicia Murphy (R.G.V.) I received
a grant from the Junior League of
Dallas to foster a love of reading
and learning in pre-kindergarten and
kindergarten students by expanding
their library experience to include
puppets, props, and other supplies.
Rachel Norman (D.C. Region) I am
working as K-12 program officer in
the national education program of
the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley
Charitable Trust in New York, where
I live with my husband, Joshua, and
our daughter, Florence.
Alexandra Pardo (D.C. Region) I
Maia Steward (E.N.C.) I am
working on my Ed.D. in educational
leadership at San Francisco State
University while also keeping my
full-time position at IHS.
Elyse Swallow (Houston) My first
child, Eleanor, was born!
Lena Van Haren (Bay Area) My
husband, Paul, and I welcomed our
daughter, Sabine Emma Cifka, into
the world in February 2013.
Holly Wherry (N.Y.) I am currently
living in Chennai, India, training
mental health professionals how to
use art in therapy in schools and
other facilities. It is a difficult but
rewarding experience.
Joe Wilkins (Mississippi) My family
and I relocated to McMinnville,
Ore., where I am teaching writing
at Linfield College.
William Yeiser (E.N.C.) I am the
proud father of Everleigh, Ayton, and
Jack. Kelly and I enjoy Asheville and
my school is in its fifth year with 60
students and growing.
2003
Marcus Anthony (New Jersey) I’m
currently a student in a joint Ph.D. program in urban systems at Rutgers and
New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Arthi Balu (Bay Area) I married
my love of six years and finished
medical school in San Diego. I am
now working as an internal medicine
resident at UCSD where I help care
for a large, underserved population
who make their homes on both sides
of the border.
Benjamin Bhatti (Metro Atlanta) I
am a producer on the documentary
film EDUCAUTION, which covers the
continuing rising costs of education
and the diminishing returns in the
marketplace. www.facebook.com/
Educaution101
Erika Brown (D.C. Region) I’ve relocated to Seattle where I’m launching
a writing career. I’m a contributing
writer for LatinoTimes.com regarding
topics on race and education and
am coauthoring a book on early
education with a fellow teacher.
Kim Case (N.Y.) I gave birth to my
first child, a son named Colin, in
May 2013.
Success starts with
challenging our kids —
and convention.
We believe all children can achieve at high levels – and this starts with exceptional
teachers. Thanks to their dedication, our scholars rank in the top 1% in math and
the top 3% in English in New York State. If you are passionate about improving
public education, we want you to join our team.
Apply today.
SuccessCareers.org
Amy Cornell (R.G.V.) My husband
and I welcomed our son, Luke
Alexander Cornell, in March 2013.
Amanda Delabar (R.G.V.) I was
appointed principal of Harriet
Tubman Elementary School in
Washington, D.C.
Craig Donovan (Miami-Dade) I am in
solo practice serving greater Seattle
as a doctor of chiropractic.
Anne Edison-Albright (Houston)
My husband, my son Walter, and I
welcomed Sally Joan into our family.
I’m in my third year as pastor of
Redeemer Lutheran Church in
Stevens Point, Wis.
Achankeng Fonge (Greater
Philadelphia) Started at Camden
City School District as a teacher
trainer/evaluator.
Lina Fritz (G.N.O.-LAD) I had my
second child, Joshua. His older
brother, Judah, is proud and excited.
I’m working part time as a grant
writer and serving on the local
council of my neighborhood school.
Benjamin Gross (Greater Philadelphia) After attending graduate
school in Princeton, I moved back to
Philadelphia and have been working
as a research fellow at the Chemical
Heritage Foundation. I am also curating an exhibition at The College of
New Jersey on RCA and the history
of electronics.
Exceptional public education.
© 2014 Success Academy. EOE.
JONATHAN
SANTOS SILVA
William Heckman (R.G.V.) I am in Atlanta
with wife Allen Clare, son Houston, and new
daughter Audie. Hiked in Maine with Rob
Roberts (R.G.V ’05).
Danielle Hervas (Houston) My husband and
I had our first son in May 2013.
Jeremy Hilinski (L.A.) I have a baby girl,
Anna, and am starting my fourth year as
principal at Fairmount Elementary School.
I am also starting my second year of the
Leadership for Educational Equity Ed.D.
program at the University of California,
Berkeley.
Claire Jellinek (New Mexico) Greetings from
Amman, Jordan! I’m a 2013 Fulbright Fellow
teaching at the University of Jordan. Looking
for U.S. middle and high school teachers
interested in engaging in photo essay/oral
history exchanges with refugee youth here
in Amman.
Daniel Kelly (N.Y.) I married Erica Westcott
Kelly in Fairfax, Va. In attendance were six
corps members from 2003-07.
Anne LaTarte (N.Y.) I had the honor of working with the Southwest Detroit community to
open Southwest Detroit Lighthouse Charter
Academy with many other TFA alums.
Nicholas Lewis (Bay Area) My wife, Leena
Im (Bay Area ’03), and I welcomed our first
baby, Oliver.
Preeya Mbekeani (S. Louisiana) I married
Nyemba Mbekeani. We are living in Boston,
and I began doctoral studies at Harvard
Graduate School of Education.
Theresa Noble (Miami-Dade) I am currently in formation to become a nun with
the Daughters of St. Paul. My life of service
began with my students in TFA. Now it
continues in a life of service to God and his
people. Look me up on Facebook if you
would like to connect.
Sonal Pandya (Houston) I started taking
master’s coursework through an in-service,
teacher-targeted program with Southern
Oregon University in Angers, France. I’m
excited to be working toward a master’s in
teaching French as a foreign language.
Wesley Pepper (N.Y.) I’ve become a master
teacher, a faculty member at Fortune School
of Education, and I’ve begun the process
of writing a charter proposal to work with
students who are in contact with the juvenile
justice system.
Emily Potts (S. Louisiana) Last year I got
married, bought a house, and quit my job.
It’s been an overachiever kind of year. Still,
nothing quite as challenging as TFA.
Krista Purnell (New Jersey) I transitioned
• Founding Head of School
• South Dakota ‘10 alum
• Former Manager of
Teacher Leadership
Development, Teach For
America Rhode Island
into the role of regional managing director at
Citizen Schools New Jersey.
Samuel Rotenberg (N.Y.) Had the opportunity
to work with Teach for Guatemala!
Rebecca Sather Durr (Houston) I am working parttime as a mental health therapist in
Sioux Falls, S.D. I am married and have two
daughters who have broadened my perspective and given me insight to a statement I
remember hearing in TFA about parents
sending the best that they have to school.
This makes sense to me on so many levels
now as a parent.
Colleen Scopano (Baltimore) In April 2012,
I married my husband, Stacy Scopano. We
bought our first home and are happily living
and working in Atlanta.
Jemar Tisby (Mississippi) I helped found the
Reformed African American Network and
the African American Leadership Initiative
to catalyze the religious community in the
challenge for educational equity: www.raanetwork.org and www.rts.edu/aali.
Paul Vassak (D.C. Region) After finishing my
10th year teaching in the classroom, I have
a job as an information communication technology specialist and work to train teachers
in 21st-century learning techniques in Pasco
County, Fla.
Akosua Williams-Joiner (Metro Atlanta)
I taught at my placement school for four
years, left to get my master’s degree, then
began work as a founding teacher at a public charter school, Georgia Cyber Academy,
where I’m now the HS assistant academic
administrator. Somewhere in between all of
that I got married and had a baby.
2004
Brett Barley (Bay Area) Since joining
StudentsFirst in 2012, I helped pass 130
policies in 18 states that will increase student
achievement and helped to elect more than
100 legislators that will put the interests of
kids ahead of adults.
Sean Boda (Phoenix) I am a foreign service
officer in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2011 I got
married and in 2012 we added baby Beatrice
to our family.
Mr. Santos Silva spent a year designing
his high school from scratch before it opened
this fall with a rockstar team of educators and
100 ninth grade scholars.
“The special thing about leading a founding
school is that you have the opportunity
to write your own story. Every day is a
new opportunity to create a new future
for your students. Rhode Island is small,
but our diversity at BVP is a microcosm of
America. If what you build works here, it
can work anywhere, and that’s a significant
leadership opportunity for our founding
team members.”
NOW HIRING
FOUNDING
TEACHERS AND
LEADERS
in tenth grade, fourth grade,
and in kindergarten at
our new elementary school
opening in fall 2015!
Being a founding teacher is both a privilege
and an excellent opportunity to make an
even deeper impact on education. Scholars
and teachers are embarking on the journey
of building their school
and doing something
for the first time
together as a team.”
MEGAN ABREU
• Founding Third Grade Teacher
at BVP Elementary School 2
Mrs. Abreu taught in
The Dominican Republic for six
years before moving back to her home
state of Rhode Island to join the BVP team.
Sam Clowney (Metro Atlanta) I celebrated
my fourth year on staff with TFA and am in a
new role as Charlotte’s director of diversity
and inclusion.
Rachel Cortese (Greater Philadelphia) I am a
licensed speech-language therapist, specializing in the evaluation and treatment of young
children and adolescents with communication
disorders. I am a strong advocate for familycentered care and strive to help children gain
increased access to required care.
Learn More/Apply:
www.blackstonevalleyprep.org
Click the “Careers” tab
College sweethearts Daniel and Ayanna Gore (Chicago ’08) were married on August 1—eight years after Daniel first convinced Ayanna to apply to
the corps. “He prepped me for the ‘I’m not going to med school talk’ I had with my parents,” Ayanna writes. Pictured here: (front row, left to right)
Kristie King (Chicago ’11), Melissa Connelly (Chicago ’05), Anajah Roberts (St. Louis ’11), the bride and groom, Aviva Jacobs (G.N.O. ’03), and
Naomi Aplet-Herman (Chicago ’09); (middle row, left to right) Tarshika Rosario (Chicago ’11), Mekka Smith (Miami ’07), Amethyst Philips (Chicago ’07),
Stephanie Crosier (Detroit ’10), Darnell Head (Chicago ’08), Erin Lausen (Chicago ’09), and Josh Anderson (N.Y. ’04); (back row, left to right)
Tierionna Morris-Pinkston (Chicago ’11), Cherise Jones (Delta ’08), John Betts (TFA Chicago staff), Priscyla Rios Heras (R.G.V. ’09), Mike Temblador
(Chicago ’07), Claire Miller (Phoenix ’10), and Dwetri Addy (L.A. ’05).
Angelica Cruz (Phoenix) I am cofounding a charter school in Phoenix
called SySTEM Phoenix to prepare
students through integrated learning
environments in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics.
Alexandra Danforth (Baltimore)
I graduated from the Wegmans
School of Pharmacy at St. John
Fisher College in May 2013 with my
Pharm.D. I am a pharmacy resident
at University of Rochester Medical
Center where I work with medical
residents to optimize drug therapy
for patients and educate patients on
their medications.
Jeremy Esposito (Greater Philadelphia) My wife, Rachel Ruggirello
(Greater Philadelphia ’04) and I
had our first child, Simon George
Esposito. I have spent the last five
years in St. Louis, founding KIPP
Inspire Academy. She works with
Washington University’s Institute
for School Partnerships, coaching
science teachers.
Dana Gottheim (St. Louis) In September 2013, I got married to Patrick
Childress in Washington, D.C. Many
St. Louis ’04 alumni and staff friends
were able to celebrate with us.
Melanie Jacobi (Houston) Taylor
Thomae (Metro Atlanta ’08) and I
have teamed up to redevelop the
volunteer services department at
Pensacola (Fla.) Habitat for Humanity. With our volunteers, we are working to build homes, community, and
hope for low-income residents and
help alleviate localized poverty.
Naomi Jozovich (N.Y.) In 2012,
James Cryan and I cofounded Rocky
Mountain Prep—a high-performing
charter school in Denver. Most of our
teachers and administrators are
TFA alumni.
Rakeda Leaks (Charlotte) I completed my doctorate in education
leadership administration and policy
at Fordham University in New York in
February 2013.
Greg LeSaint (N.Y.) I accepted a position as an associate at Paul, Weiss,
Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, as a
member of their mergers and acquisitions group. I live and work in New
York City, where I seek out
opportunities to work on education
and health issues.
Amy Long (R.G.V.) I bought a 1959
Spartan Imperial Mansion mobile
home and am livin’ the dream on
a South Texas ranch—complete
with a donkey named Porfirio,
assorted chickens, and a pack of
rescued dogs. It’s the perfect place
to unwind after long days teaching
amazing kids.
Christopher Mayes (G.N.O.-LAD)
Transitioning out of my role supporting new and veteran teachers at the
Office of Juvenile Justice was bittersweet. I felt a sense of pride and
accomplishment with the significant
gains students made. To expand
Tracy Westerman (Greater Philadelphia) My husband and I welcomed
our first child, Nathan, in July 2013.
Rachael Brown (D.C. Region) I
joined the D.C. Public Schools as
the manager of teacher retention
and recognition. My work focuses
on implementing and improving LIFT,
DCPS’s teacher career ladder.
2005
Eduardo Alleyne (Charlotte) I
have begun doctoral studies in
educational leadership at UPenn.
Sivani Babu (R.G.V.) I am an assistant federal public defender in
Corpus Christi, Texas, where my
colleagues and I work to ensure that
indigent federal defendants receive
quality representation. When I’m
not in court, you can find me driving
a cargo van to art festivals and
promoting my nature photography
business, Suntrail Images.
Alexander Blackstock (Mississippi) Last July I celebrated as my
second class of graduates at Comer
became college freshmen. One
hundred percent of the Class of
2013 are on campus now, and one
hundred percent of the class of 2012
have started their sophomore year.
The wedding of Brian Wallace (N.Y. ’05) and Dr. Rachna Kenia brought together alumni and staff from all over the country on August 2, 2014. Pictured here:
(front row, left to right) Jorge Santana (N.Y. ’08), Charissa Fernandez (Executive Director, TFA New York), Aimee Baez (N.Y. ’07), and Megan Bird (Bay Area
’06); (middle row, left to right) Amy Lin (N.Y. ’05), Wallace, Ruthie Chen, Jiun Kimm (both N.Y. ’10), Nisha Dass, Sasha Vazquez (both N.Y. ’07), Nick Acosta
(N.Y. ’08), Lisa Hackett (N.Y. ’01), Elena La Malfa (N.Y. ’07), and Priscilla Forsyth (L.A. ’98); (back row, left to right) Alfredo Rodriguez (Bay Area ’08), Travis
Ousley (N.Y. ’06), Kate Kotsko (Charlotte ’09), Gershwin Penn (Arkansas ’11), and Elie Bilmes (St. Louis ’10).
the impact, I needed to go beyond
the prison walls. As an instructional
coach with Firstline Schools, I impact
dozens of teachers and hundreds of
students on a daily basis.
Emily McElveen (S. Louisiana) I completed my pediatric residency and
am working internationally as a staff
pediatrician in South Korea.
Norledia Moody (Metro Atlanta) I
was chosen out of hundreds of applicants to be part of LEAD Atlanta’s
Class of 2014. LEAD Atlanta is
an intensive eight-month leadership development and community
education program targeted at
promising young professionals in
Metro Atlanta.
Janis Ortega (N.Y.) I just had a baby
boy and as I think about raising a La-
tino male, the meaning of equity and
excellence has never rung more true.
Elizabeth Parrott (Mississippi) I am
enjoying life in Bloomington with
Brian and our two sweet little girls,
Cora and Ruby.
within Austin ISD to help develop a
model for implementing social and
emotional learning in an urban district. We are already seeing results
in improved school climate and
student attendance, as well as fewer
discipline referrals.
Washington Park Elementary School,
a K-4 charter school on Chicago’s
South Side. Last year our third graders had the highest reading growth
on their ISAT and our school was
recognized by Mayor Emanuel for
their NWEA growth.
Ashley Perez (Houston) I won first
place in The Texas Observer’s fiction
contest and joined with three other
authors to highlight high-quality
Latino/a fiction at http://
latinosinkidlit.com.
Carla Redelings (New Jersey) My
husband and I are enjoying our
two-year-old son, Carlo. I continue to
work toward TFA’s mission. Secretary
Arne Duncan visited our school as
part of his Southwest Schools Tour.
Ryan Pontier (R.G.V.) I accepted a
professorship at Miami Dade College
in the School of Education where I
work with pre-service teachers to
prepare them to equitably educate
emergent bilingual students.
Tracy Sanderson (Greater Philadelphia) Madeline May was born in
October 2012, to Adam, big sister
Savanna, and me.
Brandon Stanfill (New Jersey) After
the birth of our first child, Sofia,
Lindsey Stanfill and I left the Greater
Newark region after almost a decade and relocated to the Greater
Cincinnati area where I currently
serve as the principal of Garfield
Middle School in Hamilton, Ohio.
Madonna Ramp (Miami-Dade) I work
Jeremy Shedlosky (N.Y.) My wife
and I moved to Chicago in 2012. I
am currently the principal at CICS:
Nima Tahai (Bay Area) Garfield
Elementary in Oakland, Calif., is
embarking on a dramatic school
transformation for all 600 of our
pre-K/-fifth grade scholars, families
and staff.
Making strides on Chicago’s
South Side!
Jennifer Caccavale (D.C. Region)
I am currently a K-12 educational
manager with The College Board
and work with schools and districts
in Massachusetts and Vermont. I
married Samuel Caccavale in April
2013, and we are living in Tewksbury, Mass.
Thomas Clark (Baltimore) After
several years working on TFA staff,
I left to join the founding team of
myEDmatch, the job-matching site
for educators that promotes mission
and culture alignment by connecting
schools and teachers with shared
educational beliefs and goals.
Jessica Cook (Houston) Nate Cook
(Houston ’05) and I welcomed our
first baby, Andrew Benjamin Cook,
and are loving life as parents!
Karolyn Dicken (L.A.) I’m now in
Colorado Springs since my husband
got a job as a youth pastor, working
as an instructional coach. We had
a baby girl, Kadence, and Kalyb
couldn’t be a prouder big brother!
Lee Douthitt (Baltimore) I graduated
from law school in 2012 and am
practicing at Miles & Stockbridge
with another alumnus in Baltimore.
I also am a director and chair of the
academic committee of a local charter school. My wife, Natasha, is an
assistant principal at KIPP: Harmony
Academy in Baltimore.
Samantha Fraser (Metro Atlanta)
My husband and I are enjoying our
wonderful son, Ben.
Emily Gendrikovs (Mississippi) After
the corps I taught in Gary, Ind., for
three years. I then moved home to
Grand Rapids, Mich., where I teach
math in the low-income high school
from which I graduated.
Sarah Hague (N.Y.) I am currently
working as Fab.com’s senior director
of U.S. logistics.
Michael Hassler (Mississippi)
My wife, Michelle Lucy Hassler
(Mississippi ’06), and I welcomed our
first child, Heath, in April 2013.
Kevin Henry (New Mexico) I am in
my third year at a general practice
law firm and was named a 2013
Up and Coming Lawyer by the
Wisconsin Law Journal.
Suzannah Holsenbeck (South
Dakota) So proud to be entering
my second year as arts director at
Cooperative Arts and Humanities
Magnet High School in New Haven,
Conn., one of only two public visual
and performing arts high schools in
Connecticut.
Lillian Hughes (Dallas - Fort Worth)
I’m excited to be covering public
Saint Louis Public Schools
Come Teach & Lead With Us
• Leader autonomy
• Performance-based pay
• Professional coaching
• Customized professional
development
David Hardy (Miami-Dade ’03)
Deputy Superintendent
of Academics
Dr. Amy Philips
Principal
CVPA High School
Dr. Kelvin R. Adams
Superintendent
Haliday Douglas
Director of Talent Strategy
and Management
Rachel Seward (St. Louis ’05)
Deputy Superintendent
of Institutional Advancement
To learn more, please contact
[email protected]
See for yourself!
www.slps.org/joinus
education full time as the early
education reporter at EdSource, a
nonprofit education news website in
California.
Stephanie Lowe (Greater Philadelphia) Gregory Lowe (Greater Philadelphia ’05) and I welcomed our first
daughter in November 2012.
Paula Jenkins Colon (Miami-Dade)
My husband, Jacques Colon (MiamiDade ’05), and I moved to Seattle for
my pathology residency program at
UW Medical Center.
Theresa McCaffrey (N.Y.) I became
a birth doula with a group called
Birth Partners and continue to
raise my two awesome children,
PJ and Lulu.
Braden Kay (St. Louis) I finished
my Ph.D. in sustainability at Arizona State. I have spent five very
interesting years trying to support
city government, schools, and
communities in becoming more
sustainable.
Laura Mehall-Miller (E.N.C.) My
husband, Mike, and I welcomed our
second son, Jude Francis. I then
started the school year in the newly
created position as dean of students
at Forest Hills Middle School.
Derek Kennedy (L.A.) Medical
residency is tough.
Stephanie Kramer (N.Y.) My husband and I welcomed our first child,
Keegan, in April 2013. I am now the
mentor teacher and a kindergarten
teacher in my school and continue
to support teachers across the Seattle School District in literacy.
William Mobley (St. Louis) When my
Skadden fellowship expired, I was
able to remain at Legal Services of
Eastern Missouri, through a grant
from the St. Louis Mental Health
Board, to represent adults with
mental illness to solve civil legal
problems that stand in the way of
their recovery.
Oliver Morrison (Mississippi) Moved
to New York to study journalism. Tell
me your story ideas!
William Murphy (Mississippi) My wife,
Shequeta, and I welcomed our first
son, Liam Chandler, in February 2013.
Christopher Nielsen (Greater
Philadelphia) I’ve started a new
role in leadership and opened up a
new school, as a charter, part of one
of the best school systems designed
to get students in the college of
their choice.
Stacy Ochoa Mikrut (L.A.) I graduated
from Northwestern University with a
Ph.D. in developmental and stem cell
biology. I am working at UCSD in a
heart development lab and am part
of a fellowship where I help teach at
San Diego State University.
Boston. I am also serving as a dean
of curriculum and instruction at UP
Academy in South Boston.
Jill Reyes (L.A.) I am working as
a law clerk for the Legal Center
for Foster Care and Education, involved in policy work that impacts
the education outcomes of youth
and children in foster care. I
attribute my motivation and inspiration to get involved in this work
from my experiences as a TFA
teacher.
Matthew Pierson (Phoenix) Got married to Emily Green (New
Mexico ’07)!
Thomas Ryberg (Las Vegas) My
wife, Andria Ryberg, is the founding director of a preschool out
of the church for which I am a
pastor. Garden of Dreams Community Preschool will utilize the High
Scope curriculum to offer the best
education possible to an intentional
blend of lower- and higher-income
students of various racial backgrounds.
Christine Ranney (Las Vegas) My
fiancé and I purchased a condo in
Erin Seif (Houston) I have a toddler,
Jax.
TRANSFORMING EDUCATION IN
PHILADELPHIA SINCE 2001
MASTERY CHARTER SCHOOLS
THE NATIONAL TURNAROUND LEADER
The Loch Ness Monster.
The City of Atlantis.
Differentiated
Instruction.
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After Teach For America, I knew I wanted to
continue making a difference in urban education
and work somewhere with leadership opportunities.
If you are committed to public education reform,
then Mastery is the place for you.
”
Matthew Troha, Greater Philadelphia ’03 and current Mastery Executive Principal
One of these things you can
actually believe in.
18 Mastery Campuses
125 School Leaders
47 Teach For America
Alums Serving in School
Leadership Roles
Proudly Serving
9,500 Families
Join us today.
To learn more and apply:
Learn about Teach to One
at newclassrooms.org
www.masterycharter.org
Jessica Shyu (New Mexico) After
two years in the classroom and four
years on Teach For America staff,
I joined Teach For China in Spring
2011. The challenge has been humbling, the impact amazing, and the
fellows, staff, community members,
and students we get to work with
inspiring.
Lindsey Stringer (Baltimore) We
moved to Boston for my husband
to begin a Ph.D. program at Boston
College. I am still enjoying my work
with TNTP.
Tony Sutton (Charlotte) My wife
and I welcomed a beautiful baby
girl, Sophia Nyala Sutton, class
of 2034.
Michael Turner (Houston) I joined
the Tennessee Department of Education as the director of personalized learning, supporting districts
and schools throughout the state
in utilizing educational technology
to achieve transformational results
with their students.
Tawnee Waldron (Metro Atlanta)
I ended my six-year career at TFA
to pursue my passion: becoming a
naturopathic doctor to specialize in
homeopathy and chronic conditions,
and bring this option to low-income
families in the future.
Jennifer Weiss (N.Y.) In June 2013,
I married Geoff Booth in New York
City. TFA alums Erin Coulter (N.Y.
’05) and Keyvan Sadigh (Greater
Philadelphia ’03) attended.
Andrea Willcox (L.A.) I had a baby
boy and I’m back in the classroom at
a charter school a little closer to my
home. I’m teaching second grade, a
wonderful and exciting switch from
middle grades math.
University, graduating with a M.Ed. in
public school leadership.
Jackson Bell (L.A.) I enrolled at
UCLA Anderson School of Management, working on earning an M.B.A.
children and families that I’ve
worked with, and feel inspired by
them to continue my efforts. I now
work with a team of talented
teachers, many of whom are TFA
corps members and/or alums.
Kristin Boerner (Bay Area) I taught
at my TFA placement school (Horace
Cureton Elementary) in San Jose for
five years, then earned my master
of public management degree from
Carnegie Mellon University. In 2011,
I joined Renaissance Learning Inc.
and analyze educational policy
initiatives.
Jade Craig (Mississippi) I graduated
from Columbia Law School and completed a policy fellowship through
TFA with the Mississippi Department
of Education. In July 2012, I started
as a law clerk to the Honorable
Carlton W. Reeves of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of
Mississippi.
Taylor Butler (Charlotte) I am in
health care and made this move to
ensure we reach our families in all
aspects, not just the classroom.
Brett Doudican (Chicago) My wife
and I had a baby girl and moved
back to our home state of Ohio to be
closer to family. I still have my heart
in the Chicago TFA and educational
movement but am hoping to start a
long-term commitment here in Ohio.
2006
Amber Adrian (L.A.) I married the
love of my life in February 2013.
Beatriz Banuelos (R.G.V.) I completed the Summer Principals Academy
at Teachers College, Columbia
Vivek Chandrasekhar (E.N.C.) I
finished clerking on the Second Circuit and am returning to a law
firm in New York City.
Kelsey Contreras (N.Y.) I have
learned so much from the many
Jessica Edelman (L.A.) After the
corps, I moved to New York City,
taught one additional year, went to
grad school, and now work on staff
Looking for a higher calling?
We educate the whole childmind, body, and soul.
We personalize instruction
through blended learning and small groups.
We support and reward
outstanding teachers and leaders.
We’re hiring top talent to grow one Bronx
school into a network. Come lead with us.
brillacollegeprep.org
Brilla College Prep is what happens when kids’ educational
prospects are not determined by their ZIP codes.
- N Y P OS T
for TFA in the Newark, N.J., office.
I’m still in this work because I was
inspired by the brilliant students
at Gompers Middle School in
Los Angeles.
Sarah Enloe (N.Y.) At my wedding,
three friends from institute honored
me with readings: Amanda Gonzales-Byrd (N.Y. ’06), Ricky Cole (N.Y.
’06), and Megan Carey (N.Y. ’06).
Melissa Galvez (Houston) Proof of
the small world: I ran into Genevieve
Cheng (Houston ’06) when she started working at Education Resource
Strategies in Watertown, Mass., three
months after I started there.
Michelle Gonzalez (Houston) I am
working in Klein ISD at the Vistas
High School Program. We are a
one-to-one campus and serve 100
percent at-risk students using the
latest technology to increase the
graduation rate and put students on
a new life path in Houston.
Ketica Guter (Las Vegas) I am
working in Chicago at Noble Street
Charter School and love it!
Ben Hoffman (D.C. Region) I married
Alexandra Bedoya-Skoog (D.C.
Region) on June 14 in Chicago’s West
Loop! Daniel Stuckey and William
Yukstas (both D.C. Region) were
groomsmen, while Lorea Barturen
(Denver ’09) was a bridesmaid.
Stephanie Moore (E.N.C.),
Faheemah Mustafaa (Miami-Dade
’05), and Annie Scogin (D.C. Region)
were also in attendance. Alexandra
recently earned her Ph.D. from the
University of Michigan’s combined
program in education and psychology. She now works for the Wisconsin
Youth Company, while I am the Carol
Houck Smith Fiction Fellow at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Abbey Hutchins (N.Y.) On Feb. 3,
2013—Super Bowl Sunday—my
child, Wyatt Prior Hutchins, in our
hometown of Portland, Maine. After
five years on staff, I decided to take
a little hiatus and spend some quality time with Wyatt.
Treci Johnson (Charlotte) I served
in the administration of the 44th
President of the United States,
Barack Obama.
Nicole Kahn (Greater Philadelphia)
Since completing my corps commitment in 2008, I am happily married
and still teaching English at Mastery
Charter Lenfest in Philadelphia,
proud of my decision to teach and
impact students in the classroom
over the course of my career.
Katherine Kelly Fell (N.Y.) My
husband, Chris Fell (N.Y.), and I were
married on July 4 in Long Island, N.Y.
We met on the first day of institute in
2006. Hayley (Gross) Spira-Bauer,
Megan Cassidy Cluff, and Jessica
(Smyth) Jameson (all N.Y.) served as
bridesmaids. Josh Lotstein and Brett
Cluff (both N.Y.) served as groomsmen. Shanna Mann, Kevin Lohela,
Tina-Marie (Rosenberger) Lohela,
Catherine Finneran, and Michelle
Behrens (all N.Y.) were in attendance. We can’t thank TFA enough
for playing such an important role
in our lives!
Emily Leahey (E.N.C.) I’m part of
the regional marketing team at
Teach For America and living in the
phenomenal city of Nashville. Last
summer, I helped plan a reunion with
several members of the 2006 E.N.C.
corps in Virginia.
Jeremy Ly (Chicago) I started a
position at Urban Alliance-Chicago.
We employ youth and inspire
excellence with under-resourced
high school seniors.
Joseph Marik (Memphis) I am
designing and managing a district
internal alternative licensure program called Denver Teach Today. I
hope to develop community-minded
educators who provide rigorous and
meaningful learning experiences for
their students.
Jatisha Marsh (Metro Atlanta) I was
chosen as a 2013 Hope Street Group
National Teacher Fellow.
David McKenna (Las Vegas) I moved
to Erzurum, Turkey, to teach English
in an International School.
Sarah Milianta-Laffin (Houston) As
a 2013 Fund for Teachers Fellow, I
traveled to Greece and attended The
Creativity Workshop to find ways to
incorporate the arts into STEM lessons—moving from STEM to STEAM:
www.fundforteachers.org.
Tom Musgrave (L.A.) I married my
fellow corps member, Ashlee Rae
Musgrave (L.A. ’06).
Jesse Olsen (N.Y.) My ed-tech
startup is growing, serving all TFA
institutes and nine regions to track
student achievement and working
with thousands of other teachers
across the country: www.jumpro.pe.
Kieran Palmer-Klein (Chicago)
Detroit is ground zero for education
reform and I am working to ensure
that the students of Detroit have
access to an excellent education.
Join us.
Kyle Petrie (N.Y.) Gary Comer College Prep (a Noble Street Charter
School) in Chicago is sending its
third class of seniors to college
next fall. In our first two classes we
had 100 percent of our graduating
seniors matriculate to college.
Jessica Ramos (Greater Philadelphia) I am serving as the principal
resident at the Allen M. Stearne
elementary school. Using Paul Bambrick’s observation feedback cycle
model, I get into classrooms weekly
and coach teachers on how to make
the highest leverage adjustments to
maximize student learning.
Tiffany Reed (Greater Philadelphia)
I married in 2011 and gave birth
to Margaret Esther in May, 2013.
I taught math and special education for six years before moving to
student affairs work at Brandeis
University.
Alexandra Rouse (Mississippi) My
husband and I live in my hometown
of Seattle where I started my master’s degree in public administration
at the University of Washington in
September 2013.
Samuel Shimeall (L.A.) I finished
law school at Ohio State and am
clerking for a federal judge in
Ohio. I’m in touch with some of my
students, one of whom lives with
my wife and me and attends
community college nearby.
Robyn Sunde Rosado (N.Y.) I got in
married August 2008. Four years
and three states later, my Air Force
officer husband is stationed in Ohio,
where we’ve bought our first home.
I’m a stay-at-home mom beginning pre-K homeschooling with our
daughter and son.
Anna Taylor (St. Louis) Ben Taylor
(St. Louis ’06) and I were married in
May 2012 and our son Ian was born
in June 2013. We live in St. Louis and
both continue to work in education.
Maribel Villalobos (Phoenix) I went
from teaching with TFA in Phoenix to
teaching in Oregon, and now I am a
teacher in California.
Timothy Ware (Memphis) After
teaching in one of the most challeng-
ing public schools in Memphis and
founding and leading Veritas College Prep, a high-performing public
charter school, I joined New Leaders
as the executive director, Memphis.
Christian Wright (Phoenix) Completing my Ph.D. in biology, studying
foraging behavior of Gila monsters.
2007
Stefanie Albrecht (L.A.) I’m studying
human development and psychology with a focus on early childhood
education at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education.
Kathryn Anstaett (St. Louis) In our
first year of operation, my team led
students at Columbus Collegiate
Academy-West to tremendous
academic growth. Our students grew
almost two years in reading and almost two-and-a-half years in math as
measured by the NWEA. Our school
received the highest rating from the
Ohio Department of Education for
student progress.
Christian Bell (Houston) I
completed my Ph.D. in educational
administration, with a concentration
in educational policy and planning,
from the University of Texas at
Austin in May 2013.
Austin Bernstein (Hawai‘i) I am a law
student at Emory University School
of Law.
Roschelle Renee Boyd (L.A.) As
a nurse practitioner and certified
nurse-midwife, I am still committed to
the movement! By ensuring that my
patients and their families have access to high-quality health care and
serving those in need, I am creating
an environment that fosters holistic
care and education.
Keena Brossart (Houston) Hiawatha
Academies in Minneapolis is home
to many alumni and current corps
members. In the middle school
alone, 14 of the 18 instructional staff
members are TFA alums.
Heather Busch (Phoenix) My
husband and I welcomed a baby
boy, Charlie. I have begun a job as
network literacy coach at a charter
network, Hiawatha Academies, in
Minnesota and am excited by the
potential for change in our school
and city.
Chaka Campbell (L.A.) I am in
my third year as a manager of
teacher leadership development
photo by Angel Chevrestt
in the incredibly amazing region of
Baltimore. My passion and heart for
working to end educational inequity
has been strengthened because
of the relationships I’ve built with
students, community members,
school staff and leaders, and my
TFA Baltimore family.
Emily Cirino (E.N.C.) My husband,
David, and I purchased our first
home in Henderson, N.C., my
placement region.
Seton Education Partners has launched two
leading-edge school models to serve the poor where
Catholic schools are disappearing. We’re looking
for mission-driven leaders who want to start or grow
schools that help underserved children develop
knowledge, virtue, and faith.
Seton was co-founded by a KIPP pioneer and Teach
For America alumna. Teach For America alumni
make up half of our core team, and many more serve
in our schools. Bridge your passion for educational
equity with your faith–all in an entrepreneurial,
results-oriented setting.
Help build a network of urban schools that educate
the whole child. Launch a new charter school.
Grow and lead a blended learning Catholic school.
Pave the path to college and heaven.
Are you ready to answer the call?
OPPORTUNITIES IN NYC, PHILADELPHIA, MILWAUKEE,
CINCINNATI, LOS ANGELES, AND MORE.
www.setonpartners.org
No child should be denied his or her right
to an education in faith,
which in turn nurtures the soul of a nation.
POPE BENEDICT XVI
Janine Crantz (R.G.V.) I graduated
medical school at University of North
Texas Health Science Center and
started OB/GYN residency at Wright
Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton,
Ohio, in July 2013.
Abraham de Villiers (L.A.) I am in my
second year as the assistant principal at Alain LeRoy Locke College
Preparatory Academy A.
Zach Dembo (Mississippi) I am
in the middle of my first tour as
a judge advocate general in the
United States Navy in Norfolk, Va.,
working in military justice and
command services.
Elizabeth Dooley (L.A.) I worked
on United States v. Windsor (the
successful challenge to DOMA’s
constitutionality) through Stanford
Law School’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. The clinic served as
co-counsel for Edith Windsor, the
plaintiff in the case. I, along with
three other law students, wrote and
edited briefs filed on behalf of Ms.
Windsor. I feel so fortunate to have
played a small role in furthering
LGBT rights.
Elliot Epstein (N.Y.) I was elected
the programming chair of NextGen,
the volunteer group that promotes
the Trevor Project’s mission. If anyone is interested in learning more
about Trevor, feel free to contact me
at [email protected]
Angela Firman (Colorado) Jake
Firman and I welcomed our first
child, Mia Helen Firman, in
September 2013.
John Frame (N.Y.) I finished a
summer fellowship with Teach For
America–Los Angeles as an Education Pioneers Graduate Fellow. I am
excited to enter the education nonprofit sector as a service manager
for City Year Los Angeles.
Colleen Freyvogel Di Buono (D.C.
Region) I returned to the Washington,
D.C., area to become the director of
student support services at Creative
Minds International Public Charter
School.
Aimee Gipper (Phoenix) I moved to
Melbourne, Australia in June 2012.
Lauren Gray (R.G.V.) I am excited to
continue my work in education as a
dean of instruction at YES Prep West
for the third year. I am a new mother
of a beautifully handsome boy,
Cameron.
Vincent Harris (Houston) I am in the
Ph.D. program in educational leadership, higher education administration
at Louisiana State University. As the
graduate coordinator for the LSUBlack Male Leadership Initiative, I
am able to impact the lives of black
males and increase their educational
trajectory through academic support,
innovative leadership, and professional development.
Lisa Hearin (G.N.O.-LAD) In April
2013, I married Tim Hearin (L.A. ’06)
in New Orleans.
Megan Hendy (Connecticut) We
moved to Knoxville, Tenn., while my
husband pursues his Ph.D. at UT.
We have two girls and I am teaching
sixth grade language arts in a Title
1 school.
Emily Huggins (Chicago) I am the
PYP dean of instruction at Uplift
Education’s newest campus, Uplift
Triumph. I am a part of the founding
staff working with 288 scholars to
ensure they have a quality education that leads them on the path to
and through college.
Joy Johnson (N.Y.) After a two-year
stint at the Educational Testing
Service coleading an evaluation of a
professional development program
targeted to increase teaching quality
in low-performing schools across
Tennessee, I accepted an offer for
doctoral study at the University
of Michigan.
Emily Kiernan (D.C. Region) I
started a job as a project manager
at Evolent Health and bought a
home in Chevy Chase, Md., with my
husband, Jared (Baltimore ’07).
Kristin Knight (New Jersey) My
husband, Adam, and I welcomed
our son, Wesley Atticus Knight,
in April 2013.
Casey Lamb (Metro Atlanta) I started a role running Schools That Can
Alumni from as far away as Delaware, Texas, Colorado, and Washington traveled to Holyoke, Mass., to celebrate the wedding of Matthew (R.G.V. ’06) and
Katherine (Yarbrough) Kuzmeskas (R.G.V. ’07) on September 1, 2012. The far-flung group even found time to snap a themed shot for One Day, fingers raised.
Pictured here (left to right): Luisa Sparrow (R.G.V. ’05), Lindsay Schniepp (Mississippi ’08), Melissa Dominguez, Evan Smith (both R.G.V. ’06), the happy
couple, Nick McCoy, Tana Bryn Peterman (both R.G.V. ’06), Anne Pearson (R.G.V. ’01), and Carly Alford Smith (R.G.V. ’07).
NYC. I am excited to continue working toward the goal of ensuring all
students have access to excellent
educational opportunities by recognizing, supporting, and expanding
the impact of high-performing
and high-potential schools
serving low-income students across
sectors.
Sauce Leon (New Jersey) I am
excited for year seven in the classroom! I currently serve as a history
teacher and grade-level leader at
Newark Collegiate Academy with
my husband, Daniel Glaubinger
(New Jersey ’12) who is the school
librarian and phonics teacher.
Lucia Luan (St. Louis) My husband
and I welcomed a baby boy
named Myles.
Stephanie Lund (Phoenix) I started
a doctoral program at Arizona State
University and will utilize this platform to further our understanding
of what we as educators can do to
positively impact our students.
Teresa Madden Harrold (Greater
Philadelphia) I am in my fifth year
of teaching in Pittsburgh Public
Schools. As a proud member of
Allderdice High School’s PromiseReadiness Corps, I work with a
cross-curriculuar team to advise
ninth grade students and loop with
them into 10th grade. Our goal is to
ensure students are eligible for the
Pittsburgh Promise Scholarship and
have the skills and mind-sets to be
successful in college or workforce
training.
Christopher McCrimmons (Houston)
My first two professional games
shipped: “Aliens: Colonial Marines”
and “BioShock: Infinite.” I can now
honestly say I’m a pro game dev!
I married the love of my life, Nina
Barbieri.
Julia Melle (Mississippi) Forrest
Lindsay-McGinn (Mississippi ’08)
and I wed in Pottstown, Pa., in August
2013. We reside in Philadelphia
where I am clerking for a judge and
Forrest is in medical school. Forrest
is starting Med Scouts, a medical careers pipeline program for local high
school students. While at Temple Law
School, I cofounded School Discipline
Advocacy Service, which provides
free legal advocacy for parents and
students facing school push-out.
Melissa Monaco (S. Louisiana) I
left the United States to volunteer
in Haiti and travel in the Caribbean
and South America with Gwyndolyn
Raisner (New Mexico ’09) to see
new parts of the world and make a
difference.
Kori Mosakowski Hamner (Memphis)
I began a new role as the director
of professional development and
support for Shelby County Schools
in Memphis, Tenn.
Janet Nester Olszewski (Phoenix) I
married Rob Olszewski in Cincinnati
in August 2013. Stephany Copeland (Phoenix ’07) and Matt Kruger
(Phoenix ’07) attended.
Queria Nunnley (Memphis) My husband and I welcomed our first child,
Hayden Christopher Nunnley.
Brittany Osborne (Charlotte) My
husban, Jason, and I welcomed our
first son, Hudson, in October 2012.
Nicole Petraglia (Bay Area) At
Erin Sricharoon (L.A.) I recently got
married.
Evan Sterling (Metro Atlanta) I’m
pursuing an M.Ed. in cross-cultural
education at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks, researching alternative
schooling and science in a cultural
context.
Janelle Styons (Charlotte) I enrolled
at Northeastern University to obtain
a master’s in education with a
special-education concentration.
Mamie Doyle (Greater Philadelphia ’04) and Marc Mannella (Baltimore ’98) were married on October 12, 2013, surrounded by their “TFA family.” Pictured
here: (front row, left to right) Lizette Suxo (N.Y. ’01), Tracy Portle MacArthur (S. Louisiana ’04), Theresa Doggett (Greater Philadelphia ’04), the bride and
groom, Nora Pillard Reynolds, Anna Shurak (both Greater Philadelphia ’04), Anne Wang (Mississippi ’01), Juliet Curci, Linnnea deRoche, and Katie Wcislo
(all Greater Philadelphia ’04); (second row, left to right) Suzanne Hughes (Greater Philadelphia ’05), Mike MacArthur (S.Louisiana ’03), Christine Rowland
(Charlotte ’05), Emily Foote (Altanta ’02), Patrick Doggett, Roy Chan (both Greater Philadelphia ’04), Mike O’Hara (Greater Philadelphia ’11), Sarah
Gomez (Houston ’99), and Sarah Mahon (Greater Philadelphia ’04); (third row, left to right) Eric Leslie (Greater Philadelphia ’04), Ben Speicher (Bay Area
’03), Christopher Laskowski (Baltimore ’98), Brian Whitley (R.G.V. ’98), Mike Lucas (Baltimore ’98), Mike Wang (S. Louisiana ’99), Jon Cetel (Greater
Philadelphia ’07), and Ashley Novack (Greater Philadelphia ’07); (back row, left to right) Marc Martin (Baltimore ’98) and Kate Martin (Baltimore ’01).
Harlem Link, the staff is dedicated to
supporting students through college.
We had our second annual alumni reunion for students who started in kindergarten here, and are now in eighth
grade elsewhere. We supported them
through the middle school selection
process and are helping them with
the high school selection process.
Ali Puente Douglass (New Jersey)
I was awarded the NYU Women’s
Rights and Reproductive Justice Fellowship, which allowed me to partner
with the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer
Program and start there in September
2013 as a post-bar fellow.
Daniel Racic (N.Y.) I am participating in the LEAP program to receive
my SBL license, with the goal of
becoming the founding principal of a
new district school. I am also excited
about sharing my Excel data tracker,
which has already been purchased
by two new schools.
Elizabeth Rhatigan (N.Y.) This is
my seventh year and counting of
teaching.
William Romney (New Jersey) I
married the woman of my dreams.
We met in our freshman year of high
school. It took 10 years for us to
date, then 12 years to wed.
Kenneth Ruth (L.A.) I married Tammy
S. Shirley (L.A.), who was a corps
member with me, in April 2013. It was
wonderful to see so many of our TFA
L.A. friends back together again.
an incredibly diverse and vibrant
population.
Nadine Sanchez (New Jersey)
Mateo Sanchez was born in January
2013, second to my firstborn,
Joaquin Sanchez.
Lindsey Sheehan (G.N.O.-LAD) I
moved to San Diego to continue
restoring tidal marshes and coastal
systems with my consulting company.
I teach swim lessons in my free
time.
Sarah Saxton-Frump (R.G.V.) For my
fifth year in Austin, I moved into a
new role at KIPP Austin Collegiate
and am the successor school leader,
helping KAC grow to a high school
of 800 students. I bought a house in
April 2012.
Eva Seligman (G.N.O.-LAD) I moved
to Chicago for residency in pediatrics at Lurie Children’s Hospital of
Chicago, and enjoy working with
Evan Smith (Mississippi) I am pursuing a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. I
have a wife, Abigail, and two children,
Kinna and Elliott.
Jared Solomon (Baltimore) My wife
and I bought our first house and are
proud Maryland residents. Next up,
renovations!
returned to my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, which is at a “sweet
spot” in time for education reform
with our mayor, governor, and community supporting the Cleveland
Plan.
Amanda Allen (Jacksonville) I’m
in my second year teaching at
Citizens of the World Charter School
in Los Angeles, and the sense of
community among families and
staff members is the best I’ve ever
experienced.
Alex Thibeault (Bay Area) I am a
doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where I enjoy
research with refugee and immigrant
students, clinical work with a diverse
range of youth and adults, and
partnership with local schools to run
a mentoring program involving both
underperforming and high-achieving
children and adolescents.
Lauren Apolito (Jacksonville)
Brittany Johnson (Jacksonville ’09)
and I are coteaching at our placement school, Martin Luther King
Elementary. We teach all subjects
to 46 energetic fifth graders and are
enjoying our partnership.
Jennifer Troya Biggers (D.C. Region)
I am living in New Haven, Conn., and
working at the amazing Achievement
First Amistad High School.
Caitlin Bevvino-Ring (Chicago) I
teach ninth grade English and physics in Oakland, Calif. I completed
a postbaccaluareate premedical
program.
Sean Tynan (Charlotte) After teaching at the American School of Madrid
for three years, I got married and
moved to Charleston, S.C., to work
for EverFi as the South Carolina
schools manager. In my role, I continue to have an impact on students
by providing teachers with online
resources that teach, assess, and
certify students in critical life skills
like financial literacy, health, and
career success.
Andrew Vega (L.A.) I worked to organize a Common Core Conference
in Boston that hosted nearly 400
teachers who were eager to learn
more about the new standards.
Max von Euw (N.Y.) I am teaching
in the Kisimiri Secondary School on
the outskirts of Arusha National Park
in Tanzania. I’m also working with a
Maasai community to help create
a health clinic in an area where the
closest clinic is a 25-kilometer walk
away. Check out my blog, thekisimiriproject.wordpress.com.
Kelley Young (Phoenix) I am still
teaching at Buckeye Union High
School, my placement school, and I
just married Zachary Smalley, who
also works in Buckeye.
2008
Sandra Abraham (Chicago) I’ve
Mariel Bailey (N.Y.) I’m in medical
school at UCLA, with a research
project in medical education.
Caitlin Bliss (G.N.O.-LAD) I graduated from Columbia Teachers College Summer Principals Academy
as part of the New Orleans founding
cohort, summer of 2013.
Anna Brandt (N.Y.) After graduating
with my master’s degree in higher
education from Penn Graduate
School of Education in May 2013,
I moved back to New York City to
work at the Harlem Children’s
Zone as an advisor at the college
success office.
Alex Brownstein (Indianapolis)
Since 2010: Moved to Bloomington,
adopted an embarrassment of a
dog, married Coady Brownstein
(Indianapolis ’08), planned and
executed educational conferences
across the country, and became
director of global PD.
Aaron Burgess (E.N.C.) After my
corps experience in North Carolina,
I moved to Berkeley, Calif., where
I received my master’s degree in
public policy.
Willie Byrd (Memphis) Craigmont
Middle School was the first school
this academic year to donate funds
to meteorologist Jim Jagger’s “Go
Jim Go!” campaign. Our students
raised over $300; all proceeds benefit Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
TAKE
YOUR
PICK.
LEAD.
IN NASHVILLE.
LEAD is a diverse network of charter
schools in Nashville serving grades 5-12.
And that gives you a lot of choice
about how to grow your career.
LEAD
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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Educating for College, Preparing for Life
Sarah (Charlotte ’09) and Courtlyn Reeves (Charlotte ’11) tied the knot in Charleston, S.C., on May 25, 2014, surrounded by a host of alumni friends.
Pictured here: (front row, left to right) Sarah and Courtlyn; (middle row, left to right) Erin Lindsay, Taylor Wells (Charlotte ’09), Melissa Rolfsen (Charlotte
’10), Chantalle Charles (E.N.C. ’09), Becky Thomson, Laura Wolbert, Molly Whelan (all Charlotte ’09), Angie Pickersgill, and Sasha Klyachkina (both
Charlotte ’11); (back row, left to right) Erin Convery (N.Y. ’09), Meg McKinney, Sarah Gray, Andrew Mikac, Nemal Patel (all Charlotte ’11), Stefan Schropp,
Joe Olwig (both Charlotte ’09), and Eric Pickersgill (Charlotte ’11).
Jeanne Casteen (Phoenix) 2013 was
a busy year for me. Not only did I
get elected to join the governing
board of Creighton School District
where I taught for four years, but I
got married.
Kristin Collier (N.Y.) The 150 kids I
teach in Chicago make my life better.
They are so insightful, so poetic, and
so good at developing a critical eye
in order to be better readers and
thinkers.
Richard Cheng (Connecticut) Since
TFA, I was a founding principal of
Domus Academy New Haven, a turnaround program serving the city’s
most at-risk youth. I am pursuing
an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton
School and an M.P.A. degree with
the Harvard Kennedy School and
hope to create an education startup
after graduation.
Nydia Counts (Metro Atlanta) I am a
managing director, teacher leadership development in Houston and
finishing a graduate degree at the
University of Texas at Austin in curriculum and instruction.
Molly Cobb (Kansas City) I completed the academic portion of
my master’s in occupational therapy
and am completing the clinical
portion.
Rosanny Cuello Ventura (N.Y.) I
am still at my placement school,
starting my sixth year of teaching English language learners in
mathematics/ESL. I am extremely
committed to helping my community, as my school is in the neighborhood where I grew up, Washington
Heights.
David DeAngelis (Mississippi)
I left my job at Google after three
years to go back to the classroom
to be part of the founding staff of
KIPP San Francisco College Prep
High School. I had the privilege
of starting the music program,
and am teaching band, choir, and
guitar.
Sandhya Dhir (N.Y.) I am in business
school at Northwestern’s Kellogg
School of Management.
Ellen Dobie (Phoenix) Along with
several committed teachers at
McMeen Elementary, we launched
our first Student Leadership Committee, in which third, fourth, and
fifth graders take on leadership
responsibilities within the school
and collaborate on systems-level
decision-making.
Rachel Doyle (R.G.V.) I married my
wonderful husband, Mark Alvarez, on June 14 in Edinburg, Texas.
Lindsay Swain (R.G.V.) officiated the
ceremony; Naina Gonsalves (R.G.V.)
served as matron of honor; and
Bethany Edwards Alberts (R.G.V.),
Kelly Jones (R.G.V.) and Kieley
Humrichouse (R.G.V. ’09) joined in
the celebration.
Corinne Egan (E.N.C.) Brendan Egan
(E.N.C. ’08) and I celebrated the birth
of our first child, Charles Howard, in
July 2013.
Joseph Fink (Connecticut) I relocated to Chicago to be the director
of curriculum and culture at Chicago
International Charter School’s
Washington Park campus.
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develop positive self-perception, healthy relationships, and the
tools for productivity. The A Disciplined Life education model
combines academic rigor with a focus on character development.
Become an A Disciplined Life Ambassador at Perspectives and help
students develop positive self-perception, healthy relationships, and
the tools for productivity.
Learn more at www.pcsedu.org
Rachael Tutwiler Fortune (Jack-
Serving Chicago Since 1997
sonville) Emmanuel Fortune
(Jacksonville ’09) and I got married
in Ponte Vedra, Fla., in July 2013.
Christa Thomas (Jacksonville ’08)
was the maid of honor and Stephen
Courchane (Jacksonville ’09) was a
groomsmen.
JR Fujimoto (S. Louisiana) I’m
working on the Hawai‘i island as a
managing director, and am proud to
be working on staff back in my home
state. After joining the New Global
Citizens team in 2012, I worked to
create the cocurricular program, a
Common Core-aligned global issues
curriculum focused on project-, problem-, and discourse-based learning:
www.newglobalcitizens.org!
Jarrod Grim (G.N.O.-LAD) I received
my master’s in city planning from
Rutgers and work with the Alliance
for Downtown New York.
Joanna Guldin-Noll (Baltimore) I
married my husband, John Noll, after he came home from a yearlong
tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Brittany Hampton (Indianapolis)
I graduated from law school and
work as an associate for Wyatt,
Tarrant & Combs. My firm represents
the largest school district in the
state, with over 90,000 students.
Hivan Herrejon (Phoenix) I was
accepted into the part-time Master
of Science in Integrated Marketing
program at Northwestern University.
Katherine Howe (G.N.O.-LAD)
Jake Quinton (G.N.O.-LAD ’09),
Claire Reuter (G.N.O.-LAD), and I,
current students at LSU School of
Medicine and Xavier College of
Pharmacy, are among the Albert
Schweitzer Fellows. We are leading
different educational programs in
local schools aimed at addressing
health disparities among vulnerable
communities in New Orleans: www.
schweitzerfellowship.org/chapters/
neworleans/fellows.
Nadina Juarez (Connecticut) I have
a beautiful boy, Christopher, born in
January 2012.
Kristen King (Hawai‘i) I lead a team
of eight at InsideTrack, Inc., focused
on coaching Alabama community
college students toward graduation.
Dewey Klurfield (G.N.O.-LAD) Finished my master’s degree at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service,
and am living and working in D.C.
Alicia Laura (G.N.O.-LAD) I beat
cancer and finally returned to my
original placement school.
Elianna Lippold-Johnson (N.Y.) I got
married to Raphael Golberstein in
August 2013 in Minneapolis.
Ben Locke (Baltimore) I am working
at Perspective Charter School’s IIT
Math and Science Academy as a
10th grade history teacher.
Neal Manor (G.N.O.-LAD) My wife and
I welcomed our first child in November
2012, Amelie Cadence Manor.
Victoria McCall (Greater Philadelphia)
I got married in September 2012.
Tara McDonald (G.N.O.-LAD) I am
the associate dean of kindergarten
at a charter school in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
after a sudden move from my placement region. My placement was in
kindergarten and I fell in love with it.
Travis McKinney (Phoenix) I married
Gabriela Salerno-McKinney (Phoenix ’08) in July 2013 in Plano, Texas.
Aaron Forni (Phoenix ’08), Faith
Hester (Phoenix ’07), and Hanna
Ricketson (Phoenix ’07) attended.
Melissa Miller (Houston) I worked
with The New Teacher Project and
TFA in several roles. I moved to Chicago to enroll in the MAT program in
art education at Columbia College
and took a position with a training
center teaching adult math classes.
Corrine Mitchell (St. Louis) I founded
a school in the 53216 zip code in
Milwaukee where, historically, there
has never been a high-performing
school.
Sarah O’Shea (E.N.C.) After finishing
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
To the tens of thousands of alumni
who answered our 2014 survey:
We value your experiences.
We act on your perspectives and opinions.
my two-year commitment, I continued to work as a teacher in both
public and charter schools in the
region. My husband, Patrick O’Shea
(E.N.C.), and I relocated to Chapel
Hill, N.C., where I work as a literacy
coach for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City
Schools. We had our first son, Henry,
in February 2013.
Gordon Owen (N.Y.) I am the head
of the modern literature studies program at the Urban Assembly School
of Business for Young Women in New
York City. I write, plan, and implement the curriculum for our school’s
reading intervention program.
Rory Payne (G.N.O.-LAD) Joe Goddu
(G.N.O.-LAD) and I are coming up
on our 10th Mardi Gras. We each
transitioned into new roles—me as
afterschool director for New Orleans
College Prep and Joe as dean of
culture for the RENEW Schaumburg
school.
Evan Perkiss (Bay Area) My wife,
Bridget Hudson (Bay Area ’07) and
I were married in December 2012 in
a small and exciting ceremony in the
Philippines.
Cora Polsgrove (Charlotte) I transitioned into my role as fourth and fifth
grade facilitator in addition to serving
as K-5 math facilitator at my school.
Zak Ringelstein (Phoenix) I founded
UClass, the global lesson exchange,
after teaching in Phoenix with TFA.
UClass now connects teachers and
students across 86 countries. Wendy
Kopp sits on the UClass board. I was
invited to the White House to discuss
education policy with President
Obama and Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan. Sign up for free at
uclass.org.
Raquel Saenz (R.G.V.) Working on a
Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction
with a focus on critical pedagogy
and culturally relevant pedagogy
among immigrant youth in OECD
countries.
Amanda Shapiro (N.Y.) I am a law
student focused on social justice and
women’s rights.
Rushi Sheth (Colorado) I completed
my M.B.A. at Northwestern Kellogg.
Prior to my start date with Boston
Consulting Group, I interned for fellow alumnus Dan Carroll (Colorado
’09) at his startup, Clever. Clever
provides roster syncing solutions for
K-12 districts and serves over 10,000
schools nationwide.
Perla Silva (D.C. Region) I married
my best friend, Kevin Kwiatkowski,
an avid TFA supporter. I also started
a job as assistant principal at a
school that greatly resembles my
TFA placement school.
William Stafford (D.C. Region) Married Beth Thompson (D.C. Region)
in June in Boston. Our roommates
from institute, and great friends,
were both in the wedding party—
Katie Tillson and Will Stoetzer
(both D.C. Region). Also in the
wedding party was TFA alum Dan
Soltman (N.Y.).
Amber Stewart (Metro Atlanta)
I have been blessed to have the
opportunity to serve as a gifted coordinator for scholars in a low-income
community charter school.
Ryan Tauriainen (Hawai‘i) I am
leading AppleTree Public Charter
School as a principal in Washington,
D.C. We received recognition by
Secretary Duncan at the National
Charter School Convention and in
The Washington Post.
Erika Thomas (Phoenix) I am effectively leading a team of first grade
teachers at two sites as we pioneer
our journey through becoming
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) schools, where
inquiry and creativity are fostered.
Jamie Tully (Chicago) In my position at Chicago Public Schools as
a school wellness specialist, I work
with a team committed to ensuring all students have access to
a healthy school environment to
learn and play. I know that our work
Michael and Anne (Long) Sudmeier (both New Mexico ’06) got hitched on September 29, 2013, in the company of nine fellow TFA New Mexico alumni--including Brandon Smithwood (’06), who performed the ceremony. Pictured here: (front row, left to right) Smithwood, the bride and groom, and Alan Brauer,
Jr. (’01); (back row, left to right) Amanda Armstrong, Lexie Wallace (both ’06), Shannon Steffes (’02), Hannah Gay (’06), Erin Wahler (’05), Julia Risk (’07),
and Brittany Viklund (’08).
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through Healthy CPS will impact
student academic success.
’07). We still love and live in
Oakland, Calif.
Jasmine Velazquez (N.Y.) I have
been elected to serve on the
Community Education Council for
District 4 in New York City.
Lani Young (Colorado) I am living
in Hirosaki, Japan, with fellow alum
Travis Haby (Colorado ’10). I teach
English to native Japanese speakers
of all ages and abilities at an English
conversation school and travel the
country in my free time.
Ursula James
MPA Candidate, ’15
Policy Analysis Concentration
Teach For America Alum, ’11
Internship: Alliance for a Healthier
Generation’s Healthy Schools Program,
Clinton Global Foundation
Savana VonFeldt (Phoenix) I got
married to a PE teacher, had a baby
boy, and moved to Chicago after
finishing five years of teaching at my
placement school. I am working at
a creative consulting ad firm called
Unbundled Creative as the executive
art director, as well as painting and
selling art.
Meagan Walsh (Las Vegas) My husband, Dan, and I welcomed our third
child, Rhapsody Sky, in June 2013.
Galen Wilson (Bay Area) I got
married to Casey Farmer (Bay Area
2009
Mark Adato (Hawai‘i) Joined the
New Leaders program, which
is piloting in Hawai‘i (Emerging
Leaders Program).
Lorna Alkana (L.A.) I am applying
my interest in visual aids (honed
in the classroom) to graphic
design and art that communicates
cultural narratives and visual
essays.
Alexandra Aronson (Kansas City)
Husband Mark Aronson (Kansas
City) and I bought a home in May.
Jonathan Baggett (Metro Atlanta)
I had a baby boy, James William
Baggett. I am also in M.B.A. school.
Stephanie Bloom (D.C. Region)
Students in my sixth grade math
classroom outperformed the state
of New York’s students on the new
Common Core assessment by 40
percent. My students at Achievement
First East New York Middle School
proudly represent the third-highest
scores among charter schools in
the state.
Amanda Briody (Baltimore) Last
year, I worked relentlessly to engage
my students in biology content and
track their growth throughout the
school year. Because of my efforts
and the success of my school during
the turnaround initiative, I earned
entry into the model teacher cohort
and became the instructional coach
at my placement school, Frederick
Douglass High School in Baltimore.
Alton Campbell (E.N.C.) My classroom has become a place for excellence. Our big goal is a 90 percent
class average and every student
has bought into it. The principal and
teachers on my team have bought
into it as well.
Daniel Carroll (Colorado) After
growing frustrated while trying to
use technology in my classroom, I
cofounded Clever (getclever.com) to
remove the obstacles to online and
blended learning.
Alyson Clarke (Houston) I am in my
fifth year at my placement school,
Kelly Garcia (Houston) I am working for
StudentsFirst as a field coordinator in Tampa,
Fla., in an M.B.A. program at the University
of Florida.
Melissa Geiger Shulman (Kansas City) I
accepted a position as chief of staff for a
state representative and our office is working
on policies that affect education and special
education.
Beth Glazer (Metro Atlanta) I teach at
an amazing charter school called New
Academy Canoga Park Charter. They teach
using a program called Reader’s and Writer’s
Workshop, adaptable for children of all
development levels.
Arlene Gonzalez (Houston) I am an instructional coordinator on my campus. This position is amazing because I am able to inspire
teachers and help them believe all students
can learn.
Benjamin Hanessian (Mississippi) I started
pursuing my M.B.A. at Chicago Booth.
Amanda Hayek (Baltimore) Eric Hayek
(Baltimore) and I were married in Baltimore
in July 2013. There were over 15 TFA alums
at the wedding.
Keith J.D. Hightower (Hawai‘i) I joined the
inaugural cohort for New Leaders’ Emerging
Leaders Program in Hawai‘i.
Austin Deakins (Houston ’07) and Jean Yau (Houston ’09) made it official on July 6, 2013—”a beautiful day” in Portland, Ore., writes Jean. Alumni who
joined in the celebration included: (front row, left to right) Gary Tashima (R.G.V. ’07), Kate McGrath (Houston ’10), the groom and bride, Susanna Reid,
Melissa Boudreau, and Andrew Salek-Raham (all Houston ’07); (middle row, left to right) Erin Milligan-Mattes and Megan Vesce Milas (both Houston ’07);
(back row, left to right) Brian Vannest (Houston ’08), Kristina Yelton, Keena (Presnell) Brossart, Matthew Brossart, and Rich Hession (all Houston ’07).
serving as an assistant principal.
Helana Corda (Bay Area) I am serving in several leadership positions
at my school as well as teaching
full time. I am also enjoying being a
director with Aim High.
Brendan Csaposs (S. Louisiana) I
have taken on a role as an assistant
principal with Rocketship Education
in San Jose, Calif. While working as
an AP, I am also developing schools
as a founding fellow to open a new
Rocketship school in Memphis, Tenn.
Whitney Curtis (Dallas - Fort Worth)
I am back in the classroom at Gabriella Charter School and absolutely
loving it.
Madeline Devine (G.N.O.-LAD)
I am in my second year at the
Fuqua School of Business at Duke
University, concentrating in social
entrepreneurship. I was selected for
a fellowship where I am working to
integrate social impact and sustainability content into the curriculum
and expand course offerings in
that space.
Rose Emrich (Mississippi) I’m
teaching in Brooklyn., N.Y., with a
small but mighty cohort of Delta
alums. I still look at pictures of
my students from Holmes County,
Miss., as inspiration for my continued work.
Thomas Dobberke (Mississippi) I am
working for Target and going to grad
school for human resources at the
University of Minnesota.
Samaiya Ewing (Chicago) I am
pursuing an Ed.M. with a focus on
school leadership at the Harvard
University Graduate School of
Education.
Brittney Dorrance (L.A.) For the past
five years, my focus has been to
hold all of my students to the highest of expectations while preparing
them for college, leadership,
and life.
Melissa Dreyer (Houston) I have
made the big jump up to upper
elementary (third grade) after four
years with ECE.
Paige Fernandez (Houston) I
received the HISD Elementary
Teacher of the Year award in
May 2013.
Shereen Flam (G.N.O.-LAD) I’m
teaching abroad with two Teach
First corps members and am thrilled
to see the same standard of high
expectations being carried out.
Kathryn Flores (St. Louis) Last
summer, I married the love of my life,
Cesar Flores, in Puerto Rico. We’re
excited to start our life together in
the R.G.V. and continue our passion
for social justice!
Ashley Furan (N.Y.). I am excited to
have an impact on the achievement
gap in my role at KIPP in Columbus,
Ohio (my hometown!).
Britney Gandhi (Houston) My
husband, Rupak Gandhi (Houston
’07), and I were married on March 8.
We had a traditional Hindu wedding
ceremony in the morning and a
Christian ceremony in the evening,
followed by a reception. My husband
is currently the principal of Sam
Houston Math Science and Technology Center, and I am the principal
of Tijerina Elementary School, both
in Houston.
Andrew Hodges (Memphis) I’m in Cambridge
attending the Harvard Graduate School of
Education.
Michael Jacobson (South Dakota) I married
Ericka Lane in January 2011, had our first kid,
Nicholas Christopher, in November 2011, and
our second kid, Lucas Michael, in May 2013.
I finished my M.A. and Ed.S. degrees from
University of South Dakota and reside in
Swan Valley, Idaho.
Francesca Johnson (Chicago) I taught in
Chicago for four years and am now enrolled
in a school leadership program at Harvard
Graduate School of Education. I plan to return to Chicago once I complete my program
and work in CPS as a school leader.
Andrea Khan (New Jersey) As a current
TEFL teaching volunteer in Ukraine, I cannot
credit enough the incredible experience I
gained as a TFA corps member in Newark,
N.J., and the invaluable skills I learned.
Amanda King (Phoenix) I am on the project
to open an elementary campus for Phoenix
Collegiate Academy. We will move to a new
building across from the middle school in
2015 that will eventually become K-4 Phoenix Collegiate Academy Elementary.
Miranda Kozman (Greater Philadelphia) I am
working to spread the word about csmlearn.
com, a free web-based course my team
developed to teach students the 34 most
essential math, literacy, and problem-solving
skills needed in every academic program
and career.
Ema Land (New Jersey) I love my role as an
MTLD supporting teachers in New Jersey to
have the classrooms they truly want.
Know what it means to
inspire greatness.
Know what it means to
become a New Orleanian.
Brent Levin (S. Louisiana) I am teaching
kindergarten and coaching soccer and
basketball at the Sheridan School in
Washington, D.C.
Brittney Little (Dallas - Fort Worth) In
September 2013, I transitioned out of the
classroom into a role as the road-to-college
counselor. I work to ensure that our scholars
are accepted into the college of their choice.
I’m still in my placement school after four
great years.
Emily Machado (D.C. Region) I am working
as a first grade teacher at E.L. Haynes Public
Charter School in Washington, D.C. I am also
leading TNTP Academy seminar sessions for
new ELL and dual-language teachers.
Alida Maravi (D.C. Region) Natalie Hanni
(D.C. Region) and I are roommates and are
getting our master’s degrees in education
together at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education.
Allegra Mascovich (L.A.) I work for the
school that originally inspired me to join
Teach For America. In my opinion, The
Preuss School UCSD puts into practice
many of the goals and ideals that Teach For
America instills in its corps members.
Ryan McCauley (Charlotte) I finished my
master’s degree in policy, organization, and
leadership studies from Stanford University
and am excited to return to the classroom at
STRIVE Preparatory Schools in Denver.
Tom McInerney (Chicago) I teach technology in a small rural district in Colorado and
couldn’t be happier. Also, my sister Kate
joined TFA as a 2013 CM.
Kenny Francis, GNO ‘12
Kindergarten Teacher, FirstLine 2014
Teach at
FirstLine Schools.
Erin McKee (D.C. Region) I am teaching first
grade at Ventura Park Elementary in southeast Portland, one of the most impoverished
areas of the city.
Michelle Millar (Houston) I am in a joint
M.B.A/M.P.P. program at Harvard, eager to
learn more about education policy, develop
my business acumen, and determine what
role I can play in the movement.
Andrew Murphy (Las Vegas) I returned to my
birth country and graduated from the Yonsei
University Korean Language Institute. I was
selected as a Korean Government Scholar
and will pursue a master’s in Korean History
from Seoul National University.
www.firstlineschools.org
Follow us on Twitter @FirstLineNOLA
WANTED:
Teachers who wake up feeling
like it’s the first day of school
every day,
who sweat the small stuff and
BRING THE BIG JOY,
who know that good intentions are
worthless without great results.
We’re looking for those who
BELIEVE
that this struggle is one of
life and death
and that our democracy is
fraught without EQUAL ACCESS
TO HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION
IN EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD FOR
every child.
We’re looking for teachers
who know that an inclusive
school is a stronger school,
who know that it might take
six days or six weeks or six months,
but that one day soon, that student you
REFUSE
to
give
up
on
will
be
the
one who makes you cry
when he stands at the assembly to
be recognized for high achievement.
We’re looking for those
teachers who believe in the
City that Lit the World
AND THE SCHOLARS WHO WILL
SET THE WORLD ON
fire.
Those who can do, teach.
Those who teach with soul,
TEACH WITH US.
Learn. Lead. Serve. Succeed.
Katie Rose Norman (S. Louisiana) I moved to
D.C. to work for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu as
her director of scheduling.
Katie O’Shaughnessey (Greater Philadelphia) I moved with my family to New Haven,
Conn., to work at Hopkins School. Their
Breakthrough New Haven program helps
students from underserved communities earn
scholarships to area private schools and was
awarded the 2013 CAIS Award.
Cassi Parkinson (Colorado) I’m in my fifth
year in my placement school and I couldn’t
be happier for sticking it out.
Pace Pegues (Miami-Dade) As I leave the
classroom to pursue my M.B.A., I am amazed
at the opportunities I have to share my experience with others. There are people willing
to learn about the challenges in education
and they create channels for me to spread
awareness.
Victoria Pietrus (Bay Area) Teaching high
school English at the best school in Chicago.
Alicia Powell (Phoenix) I am teaching in
Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, at an expeditionary learning school. My students come
from mixed economic backgrounds because
we believe all students can achieve, lead,
and impact their communities.
Sarah Quinn (Baltimore) I am completing
law school at the University of Notre Dame
and working for the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in Chicago.
Emma Reicks (Phoenix) I am partnering
with a local professor and my colleague,
Viridiana Carrizales, to lead parenting
groups at one of our partner schools. We
were thrilled to receive funding to attend
additional training and curriculum so that
we can lead English, Spanish, and advanced groups.
Matthew Robinson (Chicago) I am serving
as a leader on my staff as we open a new
college preparatory middle school on
Chicago’s West Side.
Kimberly Ross (R.G.V.) I am a tuition scholarship
recipient at Villanova University in the M.A.,
Hispanic studies program. I was promoted to
collections specialist at Chestnut Hill College.
Darcel Sanders (Bay Area) Following participation in the 2012-2013 California State Senate
Fellowship, I was hired by Sen. Carol Liu,
Senate Education Committee chair. I staff her
on ECE, K-12 education, human services, health,
and corrections.
Craig Scanlon (Chicago) I was admitted into
Notre Dame’s ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education) leadership program, where I will receive
my principal certification and master of arts in
administration in 2015.
Ryan Schwartz (Colorado) After TFA, I cofounded Campuscene, a virtual and mobile
touring platform to help students explore any
college campus in the United States.
Morgan Shepard (R.G.V.) I’m home! I have
joined the Prince George’s County family as
a middle school English teacher.
Sabrina Shingwani (N.Y.) After the corps, I
moved to Charlotte, N.C., to work for Bank
of America. I now do corporate credit risk
for leveraged finance. I also volunteer with
a nonprofit called HEART Tutoring, where I
visit a Title I school once a week to tutor a
second-grader in math.
Bradley Smith (Colorado) I work at Auburn
University as the Student Government
Association advisor. I also serve as advisor
for Auburn’s new chapter of Students For
Education Reform as I continue to advocate
for my potential first-generation college
students in Denver and others like them
around the country.
Sarah Snell (New Mexico) My school,
Central Elementary in Lordsburg, N.M., was
recognized by Gov. Susana Martinez for
achieving some of the greatest improvement
of any elementary school in the state.
Our school grade increased 14 points from
the 2011-12 school year to the 2012-13
school year.
Edana St. Pierre (L.A.) I am teaching kindergarten at KIPP Raices in East Los Angeles.
I sent my eldest off to college in Northern
Arizona and am helping my youngest start
his college list. TFA helped me get into the
teaching profession that I always wanted
and dreamed of.
Jeremiah Tarbutton (Houston) I am a campus director with Citizen Schools, leading the
movement to bring citizens off the sidelines
into classrooms to teach apprenticeships
at Patrick Henry MS in (Houston). I have the
opportunity to impact 300-plus sixth graders
through developing my staff to support our
students through ELA instruction, collegeand career-readiness offerings, and family,
student, and community engagement.
Hoi See Tsao (L.A.) I’m a student at Harvard
Medical School. Life is busy on hospital rotations, but it helps to have fellow TFA alumni
going through the medical school journey
with me.
Rochelle Valdez (Massachusetts) I am working at Boston Public Schools as the recruitment manager.
Sara Vogel (N.Y.) I am an educator with
the New York City nonprofit Global Kids,
teaching students at public schools to create
their own video games about social issues.
I play more Gamestar Mechanic than I care
to admit.
Katherine Wanserski (Dallas - Fort Worth) I
graduated from HGSE and took my degree
25 miles up the road. Working with many
current corps members and alumni, I
serve as a head of school at a turnaround
elementary school in Lawrence, Mass.
James Watkins (Miami-Dade) I married
Annie last May. She is busy doctoring at
the county hospital in Minneapolis. Been
keeping myself busy with a small business
venture: www.sociablecider.com.
Victoria Whittaker (Chicago) In the small but
mighty region of San Diego coaching and
supporting all of our teachers working hard
in classrooms for our kids.
John Willis (D.C. Region) I cofounded a startup called Bright Bot that turns any mobile
app into a data-collection tool for teachers.
We’re simplifying data and killing the quiz.
Cary Wright (Mississippi) Mary Grawe,
Tom Dobberke, Mike Conroy, Drew Willert,
Alex Dorman, Caitlin Butler (all Mississippi),
and I gathered in Minneapolis from across
the country for a weekend of fun and
friendship.
Caroline Younts (Colorado) I am the drama
teacher at Denver Center for International
Studies, downtown campus. I am getting my
master’s in theater education at University of
Northern Colorado.
2010
Amalia Aldredge (Colorado) I am so proud
of the eighth grade students that I taught—
they grew by 19 percent from the previous
two years on the science section of TCAP
this year.
Erica Allen (Memphis) I am living in Boston
with my son, Demarco. It feels great to be
working in my home city knowing that I am
serving the students of the community I grew
up in.
where
past & present
create the
future
Teach Twice is a social enterprise
that works to improve the living
conditions of other cultures by
sharing their stories and folktales through children’s books.
The organization recently hired
its first paid staff member and
CEO, Alyssa Van Camp, BS’10,
MEd’13. Van Camp’s role with
Teach Twice feeds into her dual
passions for international education and domestic public school
classrooms. She has spent time
in Uganda and has been a teacher
in public schools. As the Teach
Twice team looks to the future,
it is publishing books and working hard to recruit donors, create
more partnerships and build
distribution networks, both
in schools and retail outlets.
Adrien Anderson (Dallas - Fort Worth) I am
in law school at the University of Denver. I
serve on the Alumni Advisory Board for TFA
Colorado and volunteer for the University of
Colorado at Boulder Office of Admissions.
Priscila Arellano Zameza (Dallas - Fort
Worth) My love for working with children,
especially those with special needs, led me
to the field of speech-language pathology.
I’m earning my M.S. in speech-language
pathology at UNC Chapel Hill, with a focus
on children’s communication disorders and
early intervention.
Cristoval Ayala (Bay Area) I’m excited to
make the transition from classroom to staff.
JOIN OUR TIMELINE.
Andrea Barletta (Jacksonville) I started
teaching my fourth year at my placement
CHARTER SCHOOL
NEW BEDFORD
peabody.vanderbilt.edu
#VUPeabody
• SPRING
2014 97
ONE DAY ONE
DAY | FALL
2014 97
school in Jacksonville, Fla. I had the
epiphany today that teaching, while
it will always be one of the hardest
things I’ve ever done, does get
easier with each year under
your belt.
Kenneth Barton (Metro Atlanta)
Although I have left the corps, I am
still fired up about education and
youth issues! As a Georgetown Law
student, I get to teach a high school
law class in southeast Washington.
Brittany Bell (N.Y.) I am teaching
for the fourth year in my placement school. I am also the specialeducation liaison/IEP teacher. On a
personal note, my husband and I are
officially homeowners.
Amy Berkhoudt (Detroit) I run a
nonprofit organization called the
Detroit Food Academy. We use
hands-on, experiential learning and
real-world application to activate
young Detroiters as critical thinkers, conscious consumers, lifelong
learners, values-based leaders, and
community activists.
Amanda Bikowski (St. Louis) Now
in my fourth year of teaching, I
couldn’t be happier with the success I experience with our scholars
every day in Durham, N.C. Maureen
Joy Charter School completed its
renovation project and moved to a
restored school building, and I’m
proud to see the community rally
around us.
Rebecca Bradley (Detroit) I am in
law school and I spent a summer in
D.C. working at an education policy
and law organization.
William Burke (Phoenix) I’m working
for a nonprofit called Playworks. It’s
a job that allows me to work at restructuring a school’s recess so that
all students feel safe and comfortable at school. I provide students
healthy conflict-resolution tactics
and the opportunity to develop
leadership skills.
Amanda Butterworth (Memphis) I
missed being in front of the classroom every day in law school, so
now I run a student-led group that
teaches classes on the law to high
school students.
Rachel Carey (Dallas - Fort Worth)
Choosing to get involved with The
Teaching Trust’s Ed-Policy Fellows
Program is broadening my scope of
knowledge around the high-stakes
decisions being made in the capital
that impact the classrooms I support in Uplift Education.
Kathy Choi (D.C. Region) I r left my
role at The Bridgespan Group SF
to join the team at BloomBoard,
a Palo Alto, Calif.-based ed-tech
company focused on observation,
evaluation, and professional development platforms for teachers.
Emily Coady (G.N.O.-LAD) I finished
with the William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India where I
developed an ESL curriculum for
grades one through five.
Rebecca Colo (Massachusetts)
I married my best friend, James
Colo. My fellow corps member, Jen
Danowitz (Massachusetts), stood
next to me as my bridesmaid.
Brian Cook (D.C. Region) I got engaged to Theodosia Goddard in April
after two and a half years of dating.
We met teaching English together
during my second year in the corps.
I’ve worked on TFA’s recruitment
team in D.C. since the corps, and
last year I founded the Black Male
Recruitment Initiative, which has now
turned into my full-time role.
Jessica Dallman (New Mexico) I am
living in Boulder, Colo., pursuing a
master’s degree at Naropa University. I continue to work with deaf and
hard-of-hearing children and adults
at a local charter school. Working
with this population during my time
as a corps member led me to want
to work in the counseling field.
School in Temple Hills, Md. This experience
forever changed me and my students, and
I took all of those life lessons with me to
UCSD School of Medicine.
Michael Drawbaugh (South Dakota) I am
teaching second grade at IDEA Carver in
San Antonio, Texas. I am also an instructional
coach for Carver and a learning team leader
for the Teach For America–San Antonio
region.
Bradley Earl (Dallas - Fort Worth) The fourth
year of my journey into education kicked off
in Harlem. I am serving as the eighth grade
math teacher and think I might have found a
permanent home.
Jacqueline Davis (Metro Atlanta) I
accepted a position with the dean’s
office of the Robinson College of
Business at Georgia State University.
Erica Edwards (Bay Area) I am in the integral
counseling psychology graduate program
at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, studying to become
a marriage, family, and child therapist. By
providing mental health services for parents
and children in low-income communities, I
can help to fight the achievement gap in an
alternate way.
Jenna Diggs (D.C. Region) I taught
science at Benjamin Stoddert Middle
Avraham Emanuel (Miami-Dade) Studying
hard at Michigan Law!
rsed.org/joinus
San Jose • Milwaukee • Nashville • DC
Juan Mateos
Rocketship Fuerza Community Prep Assistant Principal
‘08
enters Teach For America as
a San Jose corps member
‘14
opens Fuerza as member of
founding leadership team
‘11
joins Rocketship as 4th grade
humanities teacher
BEYOND
transforming his community
Nicholas Fazio (San Antonio) I am a full-time
M.B.A. student at Baruch College in New
York City. I’m seeking to combine my experience as an educator with my business and
technology knowledge to make a difference
in the educational technology sector.
YOU’VE ALWAYS
BEEN A LEADER.
You know how to bring out the best in others,
to bring people together in teams and to ignite
their passion to do amazing things.
Now you’re ready to step up to an even greater
challenge as a school principal who can inspire
teachers and students to achieve their full potential.
Visit BrightOhio.org to learn more.
Noel Madison Fetting-Smith (G.N.O.-LAD) I
am a working artist in Denver. My work explores the challenges of education, the emotions of struggle, and dreams for the future in
abstract landscape and portraiture.
Paul Flo (Hawai‘i) I am working at a secondary school in a small village in Malaysia.
My students are working hard to become
proficient in English so that more opportunities will be available to them in the future.
Jacqueline Foss (Houston) I became a
curriculum consultant with Rice University
STEMscopes.
Elin Franzen Curry (Colorado) As someone
who thrives in an environment of uncertainty,
I helped to open another new school with an
innovative model over the past two years.
I’m excited to keep growing along with my
students.
Denise Gaffor (New Jersey) I am completing
my 600-hour administrative internship at my
current school, excited for the support of my
leadership team and my students.
Alexandra Garfield (Connecticut) I am
working for a Spanish-language immersion
program for high school students called
LITA, teaching and traveling with students to
@RocketshipEd
Read Juan’s story
rsed.org/blog/juan
Denver, Colorado
Spain for six-week language and cultural immersion
experiences.
Heather George (R.G.V.) As a graduate student in
Columbia University’s master of public administration
in development practice, I worked on programs to
improve teacher effectiveness with the Millennium Villages Project in Ghana and the MDG Center for West
and Central Africa in Senegal.
Timothy Gilliss (Baltimore) I continue to pursue a
career in acting in New York City.
Elizabeth Gray (Colorado) I am in the school counseling master’s program at the University of Colorado
Denver.
Travis Haby (Colorado) Currently on the JET
program in Hirosaki, Japan. Thus far I have had the
opportunity to teach at 20-plus different elementary
and middle schools; excited to take some of the
strong points of the Japanese education system
back stateside.
Founded in 2006, STRIVE Prep is a
K-12 network of free, college
preparatory, public charter schools.
Sarah Hargis (San Antonio) I am the executive assistant to the director of e3 Civic High, a charter high
school that opened in San Diego’s multimillion-dollar
library in the downtown area. Students living downtown have few options for attending school nearby,
much less a school that focuses on project-based
learning.
Netkeitha Heath (St. Louis) I am mentoring and tutoring students outside of school on a weekly basis. The
interactions I have with these kids are rewarding to me
and essential for their success.
Adrian Hernandez (R.G.V.) I am attending Stanford
Graduate School of Education as part of the policy,
organization, and leadership studies class of 2014.
Jerrod Hill (Metro Atlanta) I’m an M.B.A. student at
Wharton Business School.
Justin Ingram (Charlotte) I am teaching earth science
to eighth graders and IB environmental systems and
societies to 11th and 12th graders in Quito, Ecuador.
Rebecca Jones (Oklahoma) I am a graduate student
at Teachers College at Columbia University. As a
candidate for a master’s in education in politics and
education, I offer a perspective that tests the “theories”
that have been conceptualized in books.
Nathaniel Kaplan (Indianapolis) I have been using
song lyrics with a positive message to promote reading skills as well as build community in my classroom.
Make the revolutionary
commonplace.
www.striveprep.org/careers
Lydia Kinkade (D.C. Region) I got married and started
a job as director of innovation at Innovation Incubator
in the Kansas City area.
Join us.
NOW HIRING FOR THE 2015-16 SCHOOL YEAR
Antony Kironji (Baltimore) I am pursing a career in
health (medical school) and hope that once I am done
I will be able to work with underserved populations.
Patrick Kobler (San Antonio) I am proud to take the
experiences learned through TFA and apply them to
my role with education reform at the George W. Bush
Institute.
Rebecca Labov (Detroit) I had the
opportunity to work with four other
incredible TFA corps members and
alums to start the Preparatory Academy at Southeastern, a collegepreparatory program that expands
on our district’s model of studentcentered learning.
Danielle Mancinelli (G.N.O.-LAD) I
earned my master’s degree and am
working as a reading specialist at
Mastery Charter School-Pastorius
Elementary.
Kaitlyn Lawrence (Houston) I am
an M.B.A. student at Rice University
while privately tutoring and assisting
high school seniors with the college
process. I enjoy volunteering and
working for the nonprofit Pin Oak
Charity Horse Show and volunteering for TFA recruitment for the
University of Georgia.
Gerald Martin (Houston) Joining
Teach For America has been the
most rewarding experience in my life
thus far. I was a first-generation college student, and it’s extremely important to me that I continue to serve
as an advocate for young minorities.
I am still in the classroom today
because I contribute dedication and
a shared passion for empowering
each student to reach their highest
potential.
Amber Lee (Indianapolis) I am
teaching second grade high ability
in the Noblesville School System in
Noblesville, Ind.
Rachel Mason (New Mexico) I married Patrick Mason in August 2012
and we had our first child in June
2013.
Benjamin Levy (Bay Area) I started
eduCanon, a platform that empowers teachers to add formative assessments into video. We participated in the LearnLaunchX accelerator
and are excited to democratize access to and creation of high-quality
interactive video content.
Brittany Mattingly (Indianapolis) I’m
living in Tampa, Fla., and got married
last summer.
Linda Rigamer Lirette (New Jersey)
I started a position as choral director and drama teacher at a charter
high school outside Atlanta. My
Louisiana nonprofit, T-Possibility,
welcomed over 1,500 guests at our
last festival, raising enough money
to place a new roof on our future
culture center.
Jamie Lonie (Houston) After two
years as an MTLD, I’m moving into a
director of communications role for
TFA’s Houston region.
Rodolpho Loureiro (Delaware) Working to serve the children of Newark,
N.J., as an instructional leader and
curriculum specialist for North Star
Academy, a part of the Uncommon
Schools network.
Benjamin Lynch (Mississippi) I am a
master of public policy student at the
University of Virginia and completed
a summer internship with StudentsFirst.
Elena Maina (Phoenix) My daughter,
Maria Wambui, was born in August
2013. Imagining her future goals and
aspirations has strengthened my
commitment to educational equality
for all children because I realize how
enraging it would be for me for Maria
to receive a poor education simply
because of her background.
Jessica McConnell (S. Louisiana) I
married my TFA crush in November
of 2011.
Ishani Mehta (N.Y.) I moved on
from my position as specialeducation coordinator to work as
an instructional leader and fourth
grade lead teacher at Excellence
Girls Charter School with
Uncommon Schools.
Kelley Moore (D.C. Region) I transitioned from a middle school math
general-education position to an
elementary math special-education
role.
Jacqueline Mulvehill (D.C. Region)
I work for a nonprofit called Citizen
Schools supporting first- and secondyear teachers. One aspect of my
job is recruiting volunteers from the
community to teach an “apprenticeship” or class of their own creation
at underperforming Boston public
middle schools.
Lyle Nesse (Baltimore) I am proud
to be serving as a teacher at W.E.B.
DuBois High School.
Luis Nobriga (Houston) Moved to
New York City to be a founding
sixth grade reading teacher for KIPP
Washington Heights.
David Nungaray (San Antonio) I am
working on my master’s at Trinity
University with the Tomorrow’s Leader
program in San Antonio as I continue
my work in San Antonio ISD.
Joseph Ostlund (Twin Cities) Same
goal, new perspective: In an M.B.A.
program with the vision of inspiring
continued innovation of cross-sector
collaboration in support of education
reform.
Leah Palestrant (Jacksonville) I
have taken on a role as the training
and evaluation manager for City
Year in Jacksonville, Fla., the same
city where I taught with TFA. It is
so exciting to build a partnership
between City Year and Teach For
America, and we even have TFA
corps members and City Year in the
same classrooms throughout the
community.
Amber Phelps (Baltimore) Patrick Daniels (Baltimore ’99) and I
coached the Baltimore City College
High School Speech and Debate
Society to two Debate National
Championships in 2013.
Erin Rackers (Baltimore) My husband, Josh Rackers (Baltimore), and
I got married and had our reception
in the banquet room where we had
our Induction dinner three years
before.
Gianna Ramos (Bay Area) I am attending UCLA David Geffen School
of Medicine as part of the PRIME
Program. PRIME is a dual-degree
program that develops leaders in
underserved medicine.
Barrett Robin (R.G.V.) I am a law
student and youth court mentor
working with at-risk students at a
local middle school. My mentees
are predominantly Latino and come
from low-income families. They are
wonderful!
Taylor Rub (Twin Cities) I moved
from working in Minneapolis Public
Schools to a Montessori charter
school, and I am coteaching in a
fourth-through-sixth-grade classroom
with a team comprising a Montessori
teacher and a few assistants/special
ed paraprofessionals. We’re developing a working model for coteaching and supporting special education
students in an urban Montessori
environment.
Brittney Sampson (Greater Philadelphia) My students are excited about
the letters and pictures they received in the mail from their pen pals
at Gettysburg College. My eighth
graders love seeing how much they
have in common with college seniors
and imagining how different college
will feel compared to middle school.
Shandrea Sellers (Houston) I am the
founding sixth grade social studies
teacher and grade-level chair at YES
Prep Hoffman.
David Shackelford (Bay Area)
Working on a cool SaaS platform for
teachers, students, and school leaders at Education Elements.
Daniel Sheehan (Alabama) I
began law school at Yale. I hope
to eventually return to California to
work on education and economic
development issues in local or state
government.
Dorian Simmons (N.Y.) I became
a member of UPenn Law and was
pleased to find students who are
TFA alumni and to find ways to contribute to educational equity through
various groups.
Stuart Souki (L.A.) After finishing my
third year of full-time K-12 teaching in Crenshaw and Watts, I took a
full-time position at East Los Angeles
Community College as associate
professor of physiology.
Ben Spielberg (Bay Area) I work as a
math instructional coach at a middle
and high school in my placement
district and am the outreach director
for the San Jose Teachers Association Executive Board. I started a
political blog, 34justice.com, and
continue to run adult sports league
teams I started with my TFA cohort.
Aaron Stinnett (Houston) I am helping to save souls using soles. The
organization I work with, KC Sole, is
making a difference in the lives of
Kansas City, Mo., and surrounding
youth.
Lita Tandon (D.C. Region) I’m at
Harvard Business School exploring
the intersection of business and education in hopes that I can contribute
to the effort in the most effective way
possible.
Greer Thomas (Las Vegas) I’m a
kindergarten teacher at Robert Lunt
Elementary and also an afterschool
program teacher.
Sarah Turner (Greater Nashville) I
became deputy policy director for
the office of Louisiana Governor
Bobby Jindal in June. On October
4, I married Teddy Jones (Greater
Nashville) at my home in Little Rock,
Ark.
Kyle Warren (Oklahoma) I’m running
around rural Arkansas still working
Prepare for
your future...
with some incredible corps members but
now as part of the charter TFA-Arkansas
team.
Treacy Weldon (Twin Cities) After teaching ESL for a third year, I am finishing my
master of arts in teaching, specializing in
English as a second language.
Anne Yoncha (Jacksonville) I worked with
artists from Wilmington’s Creative Vision
Factory, a shared studio space sponsored
by Delaware’s Division of Mental Health,
to design and create the Kalmar Nyckel
Mural, a 5,500-square-foot outdoor painting that revitalizes the neighborhood and
educates about 375 years of Delaware’s
history.
Emily Zava (Memphis) I began teaching at
Westside Achievement Middle School in
the Achievement School District in Memphis, Tenn.
Temple University School of Medicine
Post Baccalaureate
Pre-Medical Program
Provides the opportunity to fulfill your
goal of becoming a physician. We offer
two courses of study:
Basic Core in Medical
Science Track: 12-month full-time
program for students who need to complete their pre-medical requirements.
Advanced Core in Medical
Science Track: 10-month full-time
program for students who have completed the pre-medical requirements
and wish to enhance their credentials.
Students have the unique opportunity
to matriculate into our School of
Medicine immediately after successful
completion of the program.
The online application and additional
informations are available at
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3500 North Broad Street, Suite 124,
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phone: 215-707-3342
e-mail: [email protected]
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2011
Samantha Abrams (Massachusetts) I am
living in Tel Aviv doing my master’s in
conflict resolution. I would like to start a
charter school in a low-income community
that focuses on teaching children how to
deal with conflicts effectively.
Lauren Anderson (Memphis) I am working
as associate of development in my hometown, Memphis, Tenn. Since being back in
Memphis I have gotten the opportunity to
work closely with other nonprofit organizations and others in the community to show
why TFA and the educational movement as
a whole is needed in Memphis.
James Arndt (Phoenix) I work at a school
that is full of current and former corps
members. We have taken great strides and
at the end of the year should have almost
70 percent of our students entering high
school with one or more math credits and a
year ahead in science.
Gwendolin Bandi (Massachusetts) After
four years of relentless pursuit, the John
J. Doran Elementary School of Fall River,
Mass., replaced its Level 4 status with the
Level 2 title. This transformation was a result of the collaborative efforts of families,
students, staff, and community partners
who led the tireless pursuit of quality education for all children.
Briana Bratton (Oklahoma) I am continuing the movement of reducing educational
inequity by remaining in my placement
school. I believe by staying in the classroom, I am a part of the solution.
Janae Brown (Houston) I originally taught
in KIPP Houston; however, I currently teach
seventh grade ELA in DeKalb County
Public Schools in Decatur, Ga. I am also
in graduate school at Mercer University
majoring in higher education leadership.
Jharrett Bryantt (Houston) I manage the
EMERGE program. I work with high-achieving children in underserved communities to
gain them admission into Ivy League and
Tier 1 institutions.
Carol Cabrera (Mississippi) I am a SpiderMan-loving, theater-going singer-songwriter, and I am proud to say I bring that into
my integrated literature/world cultures/
world geography/physics project-based
learning course every day.
Jacqueline Camerlengo (Massachusetts) I
am working in Boston’s first in-district charter school. I teach eighth grade science. I
was a founding teacher when my school
came in to turn around a chronically
underperforming school. After two years
of instruction, our eighth graders improved
so much so that 58 percent scored at or
above proficient on the eighth grade science MCAS.
Emma Case (Colorado) I am working with
other TFA CMs and alumni at the KIPP
Colorado schools, teaching sixth grade
writing.
Joseph Chang (R.G.V.) I am transitioning
to medical school. I hope that in a future
medical career I can continue to use education as a tool to change the community.
Larissa Christen (D.C. Region) I am teaching kindergarten in the school district in
which I reside and I am also a new mommy
to a beautiful baby girl.
Manfred Collado (Greater Philadelphia) I
am excited to say that I am still involved in
the lives of my former students through tutoring programs and high school advising.
I serve on the management of a privately
held industrial supplies distributor.
Cameron Cook (Colorado) My wife and
I are teaching in Cochabamba, Bolivia,
and working on our Spanish. We hope to
move back to Texas, stay in education, and
continue to build community in low-income
neighborhoods.
Rebecca Crook (Bay Area) I moved to
Johannesburg, South Africa, to serve
as director of student achievement for
eAdvance. eAdvance manages a network
of low-fee private schools called SPARK
Schools. I coach teachers, develop literacy
curriculum, and nurture the academic and
cultural excellence at SPARK.
Ryan Gassaway and Lacy Reed (both Connecticut ’07) were married on August 17, 2014, in Pittsburgh, surrounded by a small army of Teach For America
friends. The couple met on their first day of induction in June 2007. Pictured here: Max Wagner, Sonja Weaver-Madsen, Akilah Bond (all N.Y. ’09), Jessica
Crowley (TFA staff), Beth Rhatigan (N.Y. ’07), Kerry Donahue (E.N.C. ’07), Michaela Bromfield (N.Y. ’11), Diana Filo (Baltimore ’04), Ashley Williams (N.Y.
’09), Adriana Rosales (Houston ’07), Meg Smith (Connecticut ’07), Justin Pigeon (Houston ’06), Keith Vigraham (N.Y. ’04), Emily Adams (L.A. ’09), Michael
Aronson (New Jersey ’02), Leslie-Bernard Joseph (N.Y. ’05), Casey Lamb (Metro Atlanta ’07), Jamie Uva (N.Y. ’04), Kaitlin Seaver (New Jersey ’01), Paddy
Shea (Mississippi ’09), Lindsay Freeman, Jacob Mnookin (both New Jersey ’02), Max Millkin (Connecticut ’07), Chelsea (Belz) Morgan (N.Y. ’08), Sorby
Grant (N.Y. ’07), Kate Fagan (Phoenix ’07), Alexis Hammack (N.Y. ’05), Emily Scheines (Connecticut ’07), Kate Blanchard (Las Vegas ’05), Courtney Goldner (Phoenix ’04), Tricia Fahy (Chicago ’07), Eleni Ceven (Connecticut ’07), Cate Reed (D.C. Region ’00), Narin Prum (N.Y. ’05), Chris Bostock (Connecticut
’06), Mary Ann Holland, Jon Tob, and Peter Lavorini (all Connecticut ’07).
Joshua Delaney (Metro Atlanta)
I’m at Harvard Graduate School of
Education obtaining my master’s in
education policy and management.
Michaela Duggan (Greater Nashville) I moved to Massachusetts
and am teaching sixth grade in
Boston.
management system that makes
it quick and easy for teachers to
record behaviors while improving
school culture.
Henoch Derbew (L.A.) I’m so grateful to have spent two years at Da
Vinci Schools, both with the mighty
Bouasy co-lab and the SPED-LMU
crew. I’m teaching back home in
Brooklyn. N.Y.
Kathleen Farley (Baltimore) I’m
teaching middle school science at
Excellence Boys Charter School in
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Ting Gou (Metro Atlanta) As a
student at the University of Michigan
Medical School, I’m seeking out
opportunities to work in clinics in surrounding low-income communities.
Stephanie Diaz (Miami-Dade) I
brought 22 students from Miami to
Boston to visit colleges. We stayed
in the dorms at Boston University,
ate in the dining hall, and experienced college firsthand.
Gabrielle Frey (G.N.O.-LAD) I
moved from New Orleans to New
York and am still teaching kindergarten.
McKenzie Glenn (Greater Nashville) I am a sales associate
for LiveSchool, Inc., a behavior
Sarah Gray (Charlotte) I am a premed post-baccalaureate student
in North Carolina. I want to work
in health care in a community like
where I taught. So many students
do not come to school ready to
learn. I want to change that so all
students have an opportunity to be
successful in the classroom.
Jeannie Guzman (D.C. Region) I
relocated to Nairobi, Kenya, and
work for a social enterprise, Spire,
that tackles higher education in the
developing world. I am working
as a curriculum associate with a
particular focus on character
development.
Amanda Hall (N.Y.) I am a master’s
candidate at Columbia studying
economic history in poor urban communities. I am writing my dissertation
on the history of economic engines
in the South Bronx, N.Y.
Will Hardaway (Mississippi) I am
working toward earning my M.B.A.
at Emory University. After graduation, I hope to use my degree to
continue the fight for educational
equality at the district or state
level.
Madelaine Harrington (Metro
Atlanta) I started law school at
Georgetown University Law Center.
I am participating in the pro bono
pledge by working for a nonprofit
founded by a Georgetown alum.
Robert Hedrick (Jacksonville)
Since finishing my second year
teaching in Jacksonville, Fla., I
moved back to my home state
of Alabama and am attending
medical school at the University of
South Alabama, staying involved
in various education initiatives to
help serve my community.
Gregory Herman (N.Y.) As a Harlem
native, it gives me great joy to teach
science at Success Academy Harlem 1.
Samuel Heroy (Greater Nashville)
I hope that I can find a way to use
the skills and knowledge I am
gaining as a math Ph.D. student to
contribute toward the educational
equity movement.
America staff as the manager,
institute operations after our first
pilot program in Memphis. I also
got married, and my husband and
I are excited to call Memphis home
together.
Krystal Hill (Mississippi) I am a
full-time post-baccalaureate student at the University of Houston
taking prerequisite courses for
admittance into medical school.
TFA institute teachers and their
students sat in on my chemistry
class.
Kameron Ingram (Houston) I’m
continuing teaching in my placement region of Houston, now as a
Big Kippster at KIPP: Explore.
Alexandra Hoffman (D.C. Region)
I am continuing to teach in
the classroom in a new region
(Chicago).
Perie Reiko Koyama (D.C. Region)
I am in law school at Georgetown
University and would love to
connect with fellow TFA alumni
connected to legal practice in
D.C. I am particularly interested in
partnering with lawyers who have
worked in public interest or for
firms with a strong pro bono commitment.
Katherine Hoovler (San Antonio)
In my first year as an alum at my
placement school, I looped with my
class from pre-K to kindergarten.
Amber Huett-Garcia (Memphis)
I started my role with Teach For
Emily Kasiske (Mississippi) I am
attending UVA for my M.Ed. in
reading education.
Rebecca Lewis (L.A.) After finishing
my commitment, I relocated to take
an MTLD role in Chicago. While
I miss my students (and the sun),
the TLD team in the Windy City is
challenging and inspiring me to
do even more to support our corps
members.
Maribel Lopez (Bay Area) I attended my placement school as a
child and am thrilled to continue
working there.
Jose Magana (Bay Area) After
finishing the corps, I spent my
summer as a CMA at the L.A.
institute preparing for my
move to teach first grade at the
highest-performing school in LA,
KIPP Empower Academy, and to
prepare for graduate school for
my eventual move into school
leadership.
Erin Malone-Smolla (Greater
Nashville) At Duke Law, serving
as an Education Law Society
representative.
Good teachers
can be great.
That’s why we’ve designed a new online
master’s degree program specifically
for Teach For America corps members
and alumni that is aligned with Teach For
America’s Teaching as Leadership model
and provides the knowledge and skills
necessary to make a lasting impact in the
classroom.
To find out how you can become
transformational in your teaching, visit
education.jhu.edu/tfa or speak to our
admissions team at 1-877-JHU-SOE1.
Ranked #1 by U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools of Education
Natalie Marsh (Mississippi) In the
last month of my second year, my
baby into the world. I already realize how much TFA prepared me for
parenthood.
Charron Matthews (N.Y.) I joined the
Democracy Prep team to make an
impact in Harlem, my hometown.
Jasmine Maze (D.C. Region) I am
the foreign-language department
chair at my placement school,
Gwynn Park High School.
Julia Miller (Greater Philadelphia)
I’m attending Temple Law School
and have joined the organization
SDAS (Student Disciplinary Advocacy Service).
Cherece Milton (Houston) I have
moved out of the classroom to
be part of the recruitment team
for Teach For America, because I
know one day my contributions to
ensuring that all students have the
best teacher in front of them will
pay off and eliminate the educational inequity we have seen for
so long.
Amir Moini (Hawai‘i) I relocated
to Los Angeles to pursue work in
LGBT nonprofit and film.
Kelly Morman (Mississippi) I am a
master of public affairs candidate
at Indiana University’s School of
Public and Environmental Affairs,
concentrating in nonprofit management and economic development.
I serve the Bloomington, Ind., community as a Resource Development Fellow for the Boys and Girls
Clubs of Bloomington.
Randy Narvaez (Greater
Philadelphia) After finishing up
TFA, I was offered an amazing
opportunity to work for one of
the best charter-management
organizations in the country,
Uncommon Schools.
Theresa Nguyen (Colorado) I
attended the first annual Alumni
and Educators Conference in
Detroit. I met a TFA alumnus who
changed my career trajectory. I
was referred to the Noble Network
of Charter Schools to teach health
science. Within a week, I packed
my bags and started my teaching
position at UIC College Prep in
Chicago.
Jose Nora-Jimenez (N.Y.) I am
now a founding member of a new
school in my hometown of the
Bronx, N.Y.
Gabriel Olmeda (Massachusetts) I
moved to Shanghai, China, to teach
at the Shanghai Singapore International School. It is a great opportunity for me to gain more professional
experience with teaching English
language development.
Natalie Owens-Pike (Mississippi)
I returned to work at the Breakthrough Collaborative program in
Minneapolis, where I got my start
as a teacher. I am the director of
alumni and community outreach
for Learning Works at Blake:
A Breakthrough Program, and
continue plotting my return to the
classroom as I build programming
for over 700 students and teacher
alumni.
Shaterika Parks (Charlotte)
Teaching math at Martin Luther
King, Jr. Middle and ITT Technical
institute.
Tatiana Patsimas (Connecticut) I
am a student at Quillen College of
Medicine in Johnson City, Tenn.
Stephanie Poucher (G.N.O.-LAD) I
began law school in August 2013,
and I am working toward my juris
doctorate and a master’s in justice,
law, and society. I plan on focusing
on the rights of children.
Calee Prindle (Mississippi) I began
working at Achievement First
Brooklyn High School as the 10th
grade composition teacher. At
AFBHS, teaching scholars to write
argumentatively and persuasively
is the top priority in writing class in
order for students to be collegeready.
Janelle Ramsel (Hawai‘i) I started
law school in Madison, Wis.
Ashlyn Razzo (Miami-Dade) I
started as the founding chemistry
teacher at Uncommon Collegiate
Charter High School.
Katherine Reynolds (Charlotte)
I’m pursuing a master’s degree in
education policy and evaluation,
as well as teaching the college
course Education in American
Culture at the University of
Kentucky.
Jimi Rodriguez (Houston) I am
working at my dream school, KIPP
Generations Collegiate.
Kelly Rossiter (G.N.O.-LAD) I am
working at Carver Prep in New
Orleans as a special-education
teacher.
AJ Santos (Connecticut) I returned
to institute as a CMA.
Sara Scheinbach (Metro Atlanta)
I got married in August 2013 and
started law school at The Ohio
State University shortly after. I
am on the law school’s executive board of the Education Law
Society.
Michael Scott (Dallas-Fort Worth)
After my experience in the corps,
I moved to New York to teach at
Democracy Prep Public Schools. I
serve as grade-level leader, summer mentor teacher, and seventh
grade social studies teacher.
Lydia Shelly (Phoenix) This year
at back-to-school night, several
parents said they were happy that
their child had me again for math
since I looped with my kids.
Richard Sloan (N.Y.) Building access points for special education
students using cross-curricular
projects is an amazing arrow to
knock on the bow.
Dena Soffer (N.Y.) I am a founding
reading teacher at Excellence Girls
Middle Academy, a new Uncommon School.
Samantha Spiegel (D.C. Region)
92.5 percent of my students
scored proficient or advanced on
the Biology H.S.A. in 2013-2014.
Elsa Stanley (Mississippi) I’m
teaching in a small town in
Colorado.
Brandi Stepp (New Mexico) I accepted a role as a foreign trainer
with Disney English in Shanghai,
China.
Grant Swanson (South Dakota)
In the spring of 2013, I took 26
middle-schoolers and eight chaperones to Yellowstone National
Park for an incredible educational
opportunity called Expedition Yellowstone. Traveling 15 hours from
St. Francis Indian School on the
Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, this was a once-in-a-lifetime
adventure. The hands-on, outdoor
education was transformational
and incredibly engaging.
Danna Thomas (Baltimore) I am
proud to be both Miss Thomas and
Miss Baltimore, and to have represented the city that I love so dearly
at the Miss Maryland scholarship
competition.
Hannah Wahlen (San Antonio)
Studying law with a focus on
education at Emory University in
Atlanta.
Amanda Ward (Memphis) I am
currently attending the Cornell
Institute of Public Affairs for my
master’s degree. I am studying
international development with a
focus on education policy in postconflict countries.
Paul Watts-Offret (Mississippi) I am
finally writing!
Marissa Wicklund (Kansas City) My
husband and I started a photography business in downtown Kansas
City where we hope to offer lower
rates so that everyone can afford a
quality photo session: wm-photography.com!
Rachel Willcutts (R.G.V.) I’m teaching at Asian University for Women
in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Our
all-female students come from 15
different countries across Asia, and
99 percent are on scholarship. The
university aims to increase access
to education for girls who couldn’t
otherwise go to college and equip
them to become leaders in their
communities.
Rachel Wolfman (Baltimore) I am
bringing the excitement and passion of Baltimore to the children
of the Bronx, N.Y., with Jumpstart:
Children First.
Sherese Woolard (Memphis) I am
teaching at KIPP Academy Nashville and I love it.
Kana Yoo (N.Y.) I am a founding
kindergarten teacher at Democracy
Prep Harlem Elementary School.
Maxwell Yurkofsky (Detroit) I am a
doctoral student in education policy
at Harvard Graduate School of
Education.
AT DC PREP, LEARNING HAS NO LIMITS.
This is true for students and adults alike, and is one of the reasons that the
ALUMNI CONTACTS
NATIONAL ALUMNI AFFAIRS
Executive Vice President, Alumni Affairs
Andrea Stouder Pursley (Phoenix ’02)
[email protected]
School Systems Leaders Fellowship
Ellen Winn
[email protected]
Alumni Diversity and Regional Support
Melinda Wright (N.Y. ’94)
[email protected]
Alumni Involvement
Myra Palmero
[email protected]
Talent Matching
Seth Saavedra (Connecticut ’07)
[email protected]
Career Leadership
Lisa Benson
[email protected]
School Leadership
Hilary Lewis (G.N.O. — LAD ’01)
[email protected]
Social Entrepreneurship
Naya Bloom (D.C. Region ’94)
[email protected]
Teacher Leadership
Shannon Wheatley (R.G.V. ’04)
[email protected]
Private Sector Careers
Christina Chinnici
[email protected]
REGIONAL ALUMNI CONTACTS
Alabama
Sassha Bellairs
[email protected]
Appalachia
Crystal Kinser
[email protected]
Arkansas
Kara Smith (N.Y. ’08)
[email protected]
Austin
Lindsay Fitzpatrick (N.Y. ’04)
[email protected]
Baltimore
Jane Lindenfelser (S. Louisiana ’05)
[email protected]
Bay Area – Oakland
Rupa Dev (New Jersey ’12)
[email protected]
most talented and dedicated urban educators are attracted to our schools.
Through regular classroom observations, individual coaching, and frequent
opportunities for collaboration with peers, good teachers become great
Bay Area – Richmond
Tyler Hester (L.A. ’08)
[email protected]
Houston
Julie Rogers
[email protected]
Oklahoma
Mary Jean “MJ” O’Malley (Oklahoma ’09)
[email protected]
Bay Area – San Francisco
Beatrice Viramontes (L.A. ’08)
[email protected]
Indianapolis
Jason Simons (E.N.C. ’08)
[email protected]
Phoenix
Peter Hodgson (Phoenix ’08)
[email protected]
Bay Area – San Jose
KT Sloan
[email protected]
Jacksonville
Darryl Willie (Mississippi ’02)
[email protected]
Rhode Island
Sulina Mohanty (Phoenix ’07)
[email protected]
Buffalo
Katie Campos
[email protected]
Kansas City
Ann Wiley (Charlotte ’05)
[email protected]
Rio Grande Valley
Militza Martinez
[email protected]
Charlotte
Tracy Oliver
[email protected]
Las Vegas Valley
Shawna Wells (Las Vegas ’04)
[email protected]
Sacramento
Nik Howard (Greater Philadelphia ’03)
[email protected]
Chicago
Jessica Zander (St. Louis ’06)
[email protected]
Los Angeles
Nicole Delaney (L.A. ’98)
[email protected]
San Antonio
Sarah Drambarean (R.G.V. ’08)
[email protected]
Colorado
Rachel Kelley (Baltimore ’00)
[email protected]
Massachusetts
Andarla Hodge (Colorado ’11)
[email protected]
San Diego
David Lopez (Houston ’10)
[email protected]
Connecticut
Alexys Heffernan (L.A. ’02)
[email protected]
Memphis
Nefertiti Orrin
[email protected]
South Carolina
Elizabeth Rainey
[email protected]
D.C. Region
Zenash Tamerat
[email protected]
Metro Atlanta
Bianca Larry
[email protected]
South Dakota
Marion Katz (South Dakota ’07)
[email protected]
Dallas-Fort Worth
Lacey Pittman (G.N.O. — LAD ’08)
[email protected]
Miami-Dade
Kiesha Moodie (Houston ’08)
[email protected]
South Louisiana
Laura Vinsant (S. Louisiana ’07)
[email protected]
Delaware
Catherine Lindroth
[email protected]
Milwaukee
Amal Muna
[email protected]
Southwest Ohio
Jaime Kent (D.C. Region ’08)
[email protected]
Detroit
Amy Lybolt
[email protected]
Mississippi
Elizabeth Harris (Mississippi ’05)
[email protected]
St. Louis
Mallory Rusch
[email protected]
Eastern North Carolina
Sara Price
[email protected]
New Jersey
Katherine Cueva
[email protected]
Twin Cities
Kyrra Rankine (N.Y. ’99)
[email protected]
Greater Nashville
Brian Gilson (Memphis ’07)
[email protected]
New Mexico
Nate Morrison (New Mexico ’08)
[email protected]
Washington
Elizabeth Smyth (Bay Area ’08)
[email protected]
Greater New Orleans – Louisiana Delta
Jeffrey Fingerman (G.N.O. — LAD ’03)
[email protected]
New York
Craig Weiner
[email protected]
Greater Philadelphia
Claiborne Taylor (Houston ’02)
[email protected]
North Carolina Piedmont Triad
Nafeesha Irby (Charlotte ’09)
[email protected]
Hawai’i
Jacob Karasik (New Mexico ’09)
[email protected]
Northeast Ohio-Cleveland
Hannah Chauvin (G.N.O. — LAD ’11)
[email protected]
Don’t see your region listed here and want to
connect?
Contact [email protected]
ones — and tomorrow’s school leaders.
Nicole Bryan (D.C. Region, ’00)
2013–Present | Managing Director for Early Childhood, DC Prep Home Office
2010–2013 | Principal, DC Prep Edgewood Elementary Campus
2008–2010 | Director of Curriculum, DC Prep Edgewood Elementary Campus
Preschool through 8th Grade | www.dcprep.org
Join us and apply your passion.
DAY | FALL 2014 107
Highest-performing public charter school network ONE
in Washington,
DC
POST-ITS
LISTEN
to Education on Tap, Teach For
America’s new biweekly podcast.
Subscribe on iTunes or SoundCloud.
EXPLORE
the Job Board and Talent Community
to search for or post jobs, upload
your resume, and be seen by partner
organizations. Visit www.tfanet.org
and click on the Job Board link.
APPLY TO
SOCIAL INNOVATION AWARD:
compete for up to $100,000 in
seed funding and professional
coaching for early-stage
entrepreneurs. Applications
due December 19:
www.onedayallkids.org.
SAVE
THE DATE
ALUMNI AWARD FOR
EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING:
for outstanding alumni teachers
in schools serving low-income
students. Apply by January 11:
2015 SCHOOL LEADERS OF
COLOR CONFERENCE
Febuary 6–7, 2015
Atlanta, GA
ENTREPRENEURS UNITED 2.0
May 8–9, 2015
Kansas City, MO
RURAL PRINCIPAL
FELLOWSHIP: three years
of specialized principal prep,
executive coaching, an allexpenses-paid master’s degree,
and principal certification.
Apply by January 11:
TFA’s ANNUAL
EDUCATORS CONFERENCE
July 16–17, 2015
Jacksonville, FL
DID YOU
SUBSCRIBE
GO TO
HEAD START?
Share your story to honor Head Start’s
50th anniversary. Send to jennifer.
[email protected].
FOLLOW
@OneDayAllKids on Twitter for the
latest TFA Alumni news and to join the
conversation about educational equity.
to the School Systems Newsletter,
a quarterly blast for alumni working
or interested in school administration
roles. Join the list by emailing
[email protected].
QUESTIONS
?
Contact Jen Brandon.
[email protected].
RURAL SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
ACADEMY: beginning summer
2015, for alumni interested in
improving rural schools.
Apply by January 11:
SCHOOL SYSTEMS
LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP:
includes a yearlong placement
in a district leadership role, six
cohort seminars, executive
coaching, and ongoing talent
matching support. Applications
due January 11:
CAPITOL HILL FELLOWS
PROGRAM: places policyminded alumni into full-time,
paid congressional staff
positions. Look for the
application in January at
We
nerds.
We know you. You dove into teaching. You read every possible
article on curriculum development you can find. You have a
Google alert for education policy. You value nothing more than
working with other smart, dedicated and focused educators.
Come join us.
www.achievementfirst.org/team
Through DiscoverU, 17-year-old Alana Ortiz traveled from Houston to the Grand Canyon to help hearing- and sight-impaired students explore the canyon
by raft. “In this picture,” she said “I was getting the hang of maneuvering the raft, and I was so excited. I’d never interacted with anyone who was hearing or
visually impaired. I was nervous about doing something wrong. But having someone else depend on me made me realize that I can go away from home and
depend on myself.”
BULLETIN BOARD
Who’s that
Grand Guide?
Alana Ortiz Learned by Leading
says Tonyel Simon (Houston ’09), the
executive director of DiscoverU in Houston, which connects disadvantaged high
school students with life-changing out-of-school and summer opportunities such as
the selective Bezos Scholars Program @ The Aspen Institute and the Bank of America Scholars Program. With Emily Sketch-Haines (Houston ’05) directing programs,
the nonprofit does four things: It vets a vast array of national opportunities; partners
with Houston high schools to identify students who would benefit by participating;
supports students in applying (good practice for their college applications); and covers partial costs that families can’t bear, such as Alana Ortiz’s flight from Houston
to Phoenix.
Last school year DiscoverU helped 126 students from three high schools. Working
with more schools this year, the team aims to more than double participating students
to 300. OD
“IT’S HA RD BE WHAT YOU CA N’T SEE,”
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Permit #153
New Haven, CT
315 W. 36th Street, 6th floor
New York, NY 10018
NOBLE
1
city
4th-ranked
change-making
high school In
America
10%
of Chicago’s high
school students
17
campuses all
achieving
best-in-class
student culture
and results
BeNoble.org
3,500
alumni in
college
290
Teach For America
alumni

Issue - Teach for America

Transcription

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