Q & A

What led you to apply to Teach For America?

I was sure I was going to go to law school. But I had gotten advice from virtually everyone not to go straight through because you’ll always regret missing a chance to expand your horizons. I couldn’t see any other opportunity that matched TFA’s offer to actually dive right into making change and, frankly, taking on a ton of responsibility, so I applied.

When you think about yourself before and after the corps, what changed?

I learned quickly that my biggest mistake was thinking the classroom was about me. As I started to think of myself more as a facilitator in my students’ journey to improve their literacy, I felt much more confident in the direction my classroom was headed. That’s not to say there aren’t bumps in the road when you’re facilitating teenagers, though.

What lessons did you learn?

I think the biggest lesson was a fundamental shift in how I viewed being “effective.” In your academic career, achievement is mostly about receiving tasks, executing them, and being rewarded for completion. In the corps, you can’t just do the job, you have to see the bigger picture, as in the goals you’re striving towards for your students.