For Immediate Release
Contact: Danixa López
danixa@santacruzpr.com
305-467-5592
NEW YORK, August 16, 2012—Teach For America and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation announced today the expansion of their partnership to increase the number of Latino leaders working for educational equity and excellence. The partnership focuses on raising awareness among top Latino undergraduates of the impact they can have in the teaching profession.
Teach For America recruits, prepares, and supports outstanding individuals of all backgrounds who commit to teach for two years in underserved schools and become leaders throughout their life in the movement for educational equity. The HHF, established by the White House in 1987, identifies and develops Latino leaders in the classroom, community, and workforce to meet America's priorities. Visit www.HispanicHeritage.org.
“Teach For America and HHF share the goal of identifying and developing Latino education leaders who will impact future generations with the work they do, both inside and outside the classroom,” said HHF President and Chief Executive Officer Antonio Tijerino. “We’re looking forward to building on our joint efforts to expand educational opportunity in communities across the country.”
Teach For America places a particular focus on attracting and fostering the leadership of Latinos and others who share the racial and socioeconomic backgrounds of the students underserved by public schools. Nearly 10 percent of Teach For America’s 5,800 incoming corps members are Hispanic, compared with less than 6 percent of graduates of the top 350 colleges and universities.
Under the new partnership, Teach For America will expand its support of Latinos On Fast Track (LOFT), HHF’s workforce program that provides top Latino students and emerging professionals with leadership training, mentoring, and career-path inspiration. LOFT has tens of thousands of members ages 18 to 27, and works with thousands of others through its Youth Awards program, which honors Latino high school seniors for academic excellence and community service.
Teach For America is a featured sponsor of the Youth Awards and other LOFT programs such as the LOFT Leadership Summit, which brings together Latino interns from across the country, and the LOFT Actionable Leadership Training, a two-day event to build skills in fundraising, communications, and mobilizing networks. In the coming year, Teach For America alumni and staff will host a series of informal chats known as charlas with LOFT members in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C, and other regions.
“Teach For America is committed to steadily increasing the diversity of backgrounds and experiences among our teachers,” said Patricia Leon-Guerrero, managing director of recruitment and Latino initiatives at Teach For America. “Through our work with HHF in the past, we’ve seen how closely our missions are aligned, and we’re excited to continue strengthening the pipeline of talented and passionate Latinos who will work relentlessly to improve educational outcomes for our next generation of leaders.”
There are 21 LOFT members in Teach For America’s 2012 corps. Alejandro Lozano, a recent graduate of California State University, Long Beach, is among these committed new educators and will be teaching in San Antonio. While earning two bachelor’s degrees from CSU, he served as the president of the Associated Business Students Organization Council, overseeing 12 organizations and more than 100 officers. Off campus, he worked with the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Regional Hispanic Leadership Council to pilot programs that help provide college students with the tools to succeed in jobs related to business, education, and nonprofit organizations.
Lozano demonstrates the dedication and leadership that Teach For America corps members bring to their work in the classroom. This school year, 10,000 corps members will reach more than 750,000 students in 46 regions in 36 states and the District of Columbia. At the same time, nearly 28,000 Teach For America alumni continue working to end educational inequity by addressing its root causes.
About Teach For America
Teach For America works in partnership with communities to expand educational opportunity for children facing the challenges of poverty. Founded in 1990, Teach For America recruits and develops a diverse corps of outstanding individuals of all academic disciplines to commit two years to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the movement to end educational inequity. This fall, more than 10,000 corps members will be teaching in 46 urban and rural regions across the country while nearly 28,000 alumni work across sectors to ensure that all children have access to an excellent education. For more information, visit www.teachforamerica.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
About The Hispanic Heritage Foundation
Established in 1987 by the White House, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) is a 501c3, nonprofit which inspires, identifies, prepares and positions Latino leaders in the classroom, community and workforce to meet America’s priorities. HHF also provides Latinos in America with role models, cultural pride and a promising future through public awareness campaigns and special events. What distinguishes HHF from other organizations is a focus on helping “a Latino to help hundreds." Visit www.hispanicheritage.org for more information and follow us on Twitter @HHFoundation.
About Latinos on Fast Track
LOFT (Latinos On Fast Track) is a leadership and workforce development program which connects emerging Latinos to each other, to experts, to resources, to platforms, and career paths in STEM fields, business and finance, public policy, communications, education, entrepreneurship and other fields. Join the LOFT Network at http://loftnetwork.org and follow us on Twitter @LOFTInstitute.
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