As the birthplace of our nation’s democracy, Philadelphia boasts a history of momentous events and admirable leaders. In a city marked by generations of innovation and progress, the unfortunate reality today is that many Philadelphia students from low-income backgrounds aren’t receiving equal access to the educational opportunities they deserve. 

Today in Philadelphia, only 61% of kids from low-income backgrounds graduate from high school within four years, and only 10% will go on to graduate from college. Since 2003, Teach For America • Greater Philadelphia has been working in partnership with schools and community members across the region to change this reality by expanding educational opportunities for children growing up in under-resourced neighborhoods. 

Over the last ten years, we’ve seen the tremendous impact our corps members, in partnership with their colleagues and partners across Philadelphiaand Camden, are having in their classrooms and school communities. Each day, more than 300 corps members and many dedicated alumni strive to be transformational teachers and leaders for our city’s students, while supporting our neighborhoods’ efforts to raise the bar on what it means to educate our most under-resourced children.

Among our more than 900 alumni, I’m proud of the ongoing efforts of so many leaders, including Marc Mannella (Baltimore ’98), CEO of the expanding KIPP Philadelphia Charter Schools, and Reggie Fisher (Houston ’91) and Anna Shurak (Greater Philadelphia ’04), two school leaders in the School District of Philadelphia. In a city that has spawned entrepreneurs such as Ben Franklin, our alumni are driving innovative efforts. Alyson Goodner’s (Bay Area ’02) work at School Collective is linking schools across the city, and Alejandro Gic-Artigas (Greater Philadelphia ’09), founder of the Springboard Collective, leads efforts to bring literacy enrichment to children around the city.