Teach For America

A couple days ago I applied for Teach for America. I originally heard of the program in a book I read over the summer called Ms. Moffett’s First Year: Becoming a Teacher in America. Until a few days ago, I had forgotten about it, but my memory was refreshed while browsing Harvard Law School’s website for a friend of mine.

I noticed that by opting to pursue certain programs, such as the Peace Corps and Teach for America, enrollment could be deferred for two or more years. This piqued my interest, and I applied. (Most or all of my information about the program comes directly from the Teach for America website.)

The program itself is designed to close the gap between, to put it simply, rich schools and poor schools. In a highly selective process, individuals with college degrees are given rigorous, succinct training, and placed into underprivileged schools for two years.

Application Process

The application itself is easy enough. It requests all of the standard information, such as work history and academic history. The final portion requires you to upload three documents: a 500 word essay concerning why you want to do Teach for America and how it will help you, a resume, and a 500 word essay detailing a challenging experience in your life and how you overcame it.

The resume was the hardest part for me because Teach for America is very interested in leadership experience, and I don’t really consider anything I’ve led to be relevant.

There are four different deadlines per year. Since I chose the third deadline, I find out if I make it to the second round of admissions on January 13th. The second round of admissions is a phone interview that lasts about thirty minutes. To prepare for this phone interview, Teach for America provides a .pdf file detailing some things which might be fair game for discussion. This document will only be a part of the process, though.

The primary purpose of the phone interview is to further examine an individual’s character and temperament. (The most promising candidates are sometimes promoted directly past the phone interview to the final interview.)

The final interview is a day long process where prospective members of the “corps”, as it is called, participate in numerous exercises, the most difficult being the presentation of a 5-minute sample lesson. A month after this final interview, applicants find out whether or not they were selected and what grade(s)/subject(s) they will be teaching.

Here is the timeline for the application process.

Location and Pay

You get to pick the top three areas where you would like to teach. I chose Nashville, TN; Charlotte, NC; and Boston, MA. I chose Boston because if I can’t be placed in Nashville or Charlotte, which are nearby, then I may as well move to a city with a good comedy scene.

Once corps members begin teaching, they get paid a regular first-year teacher’s salary. At the end of the year, unless congress decides to stop funding it, each member gets around a $5000 dollar bonus. In Nashville, I would be making around $35,000 before taxes and certification/master’s classes deductions.

If I get selected for a phone interview, I’ll let you know how it goes. I don’t know if I’m allowed to record it, but I’ll find out.

EDIT: By the way, I didn’t make it, lol.