For Immediate Release
Contact: Carrie James Rankin | Teach For America
415.271.2000 | carrie.james@teachforamerica.org
NEW YORK CITY, November 8, 2012—Teach For America today announced its first veterans recruitment initiative, You Served For America, Now Teach For America. The initiative kicked off last night with a webinar featuring veterans from various branches of the military who are also Teach For America corps members and alumni. They spoke with fellow veterans who are considering a career in education, focusing on our nation’s critical need for compelling classroom leaders and sharing their experiences developing the skills they learned as soldiers to become successful teachers.
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. This year, Teach For America has 10,000 first- and second-year teachers in 46 regions across the country reaching 750,000 students. Among its first-year teachers are 23 percent who came to the corps with professional or graduate-school experience.
The You Served For America, Now Teach For America initiative aims to add to the over 100 veteran corps members currently leading in our nation’s highest-need schools—90 percent of whom are also AmeriCorps members. Former U.S. Army staff sergeant and 2009 Teach For America alumnus Shaun Murphy will lead the initiative that partners with branches of the military and veterans’ organizations.
“Joining Teach For America is an opportunity for veterans to put their leadership and skills to work in America’s highest-need communities while meeting their desire to continue to serve our nation,” Murphy said. “Teach For America is committed to making this path a reality through continued investment in the initiative and prioritization of partnerships across the U.S. Armed Forces community.”
“This program enables America’s new greatest generation of veterans to continue to serve their country after coming home from war. Teach for America is giving veterans the well-deserved opportunity to transition into meaningful careers in the civilian workforce,“ said Paul Rieckhoff, the founder and CEO of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “Teaching in schools across America, I know our new veterans will prove to be great role models for thousands of young Americans.”
This year 79 veterans joined Teach For America, including LaDerrick Collins, a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Army now teaching fourth grade in Kansas City. “My military experience has played an integral role in my ability to invest students in their own education,” Collins said. “Soldiers are required to do whatever it takes to get a job done. I’ve found teaching to be no different.”
“There are so many kids in this country who aren’t getting the education they deserve,” said Brian Thompson, a 10th grade world-history teacher in Washington, D.C., Teach For America alumnus, and former sergeant with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. “Joining Teach For America was a great way for me to use the leadership skills that I learned in the military while continuing to serve my country. Every day when I stand in front of my kids, I know I’m making a difference in their futures.”
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. Today more than 10,000 corps members are teaching in 46 urban and rural regions across the country, while nearly 28,000 alumni are working 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.
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