Living Here

Life in Louisiana is an eclectic mix of sights and sounds. We are like a gumbo—a little bit of everything thrown together in a pot. Here, corps members enjoy the bustle of shops and crowds downtown, the unique mix of festivals throughout the year, Mardi Gras celebrations, crawfish boils, and music filling the air.

Teach For America - South Louisiana is unique in that it includes a major city, Baton Rouge, as well as many small towns, all within a 50-mile radius. Corps members teach in the East Baton Rouge parish school system and in towns to the north such as New Roads, Clinton, and Greensburg. These are the lowest-performing school districts in one of the lowest-performing states in the nation, making corps members’ work here especially vital.

East Baton Rouge Parish, our urban center, has clusters of corps members in several areas of town, including the lush Garden District, quirky Spanish Town, spacious Capitol Heights, and metropolitan Towne Center. Most of our rural corps members in East Feliciana, St. Helena, and Pointe Coupee live in the small communities in which they teach. Many are thrilled to find that they are able to rent large, historic houses, complete with hardwood floors and fireplaces. Corps members teaching in East Feliciana and St. Helena tend to cluster in the town of Clinton, where they have developed a strong community and often alternate hosting Friday night dinners.