Teach For America
As a college senior, Wendy Kopp proposed Teach For America's creation in her Princeton University undergraduate thesis. She was convinced that many in her generation were searching for a way to assume a significant responsibility that would make a real difference in the world and that top college students would choose teaching over more lucrative opportunities if a prominent teacher corps existed. As a 21 year-old, Kopp raised $2.5 million of start-up funding, hired a skeleton staff, and launched a grass-roots recruitment campaign. During Teach For America's first year in 1990, 500 men and women began teaching in six low-income communities across the country. Since then, Teach For America's network has grown to 17,000 individuals. We have become the nation's largest provider of teachers for low-income communities, and we have been recognized for building a pipeline of leaders committed to educational equity and excellence.
Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates and professionals of all academic majors and career interests who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. This year, a corps of 56 of the nation’s most promising future leaders are teaching in our city’s lowest-income classrooms as a part of Teach For America • Denver. They are working to ensure their students have the educational opportunities they deserve. Our alumni are a leadership force, working from within education and every professional sector to effect broader change. Together they are helping us make educational equity a reality in Denver.
For more information, go to www.teachforamerica.org/about/regions/denver.htm.