{"id":9953,"date":"2010-09-21T09:25:40","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T16:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=9953"},"modified":"2013-01-09T09:38:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T16:38:18","slug":"teach-for-america-inspires-graduates-to-give-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/teach-for-america-inspires-graduates-to-give-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach for America inspires graduates to give back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four recent NAU graduates accepted into the competitive\u00a0Teach for America<\/a>\u00a0program are discovering the rewards of teaching in urban and rural public schools.<\/p>\n

May 2010 graduates\u00a0Che August,<\/strong>\u00a0Leigh Conner<\/strong>,\u00a0Hannah Cunniff\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Ray Stoeser<\/strong>\u00a0each were selected by Teach for America from a record-breaking 46,000 applicants from across the United States. They have traveled different paths in the program but settled on the same passion\u2014to increase the academic achievement of students in low-income communities.<\/p>\n

\"Leigh<\/a>
Kids in Leigh Conner’s eighth grade class take time to clown around for the camera. Conner is second from left in the back row.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Teach for America is a national corps of college graduates and professionals who commit to teach in low-income urban and rural areas and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. Started by a Princeton student\u2019s senior thesis 20 years ago, the organization’s mission is that all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.After an intensive five-week training institute and passing state standardized teaching tests, the four are among 4,500 new corps members in more than 100 school districts in 31 states and the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n

Conner, who received a bachelor of science in women\u2019s and gender studies with a sociology minor, aspired to teach for the program \u201cto be one of the teachers who gets to tell my students not only that they can, but that they will succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simultaneously working toward teaching credentials and a master\u2019s degree in special education, she did not join Teach for America with \u201cnaive notions\u201d about closing the education gap in these communities. But she does hope to lead through teaching. (Today, 9-year-olds in low-income communities are three grade levels behind their peers in high-income communities.)<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite obstacles, my students are capable of achieving significant academic gains and earning standardized test scores that equal or rival those of schools in far more affluent areas,\u201d Conner said.<\/p>\n

She is excited to instill a love for learning in her students while teaching special education chemistry at Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, which ranked 1,284 out of 1,653 California public high schools.<\/p>\n

Fellow NAU alumnus Ray Stoeser strives to make his mark in Detroit.<\/p>\n

\"Ray<\/a>
Ray Stoeser teaches in his Crockett High School classroom in Detroit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou have to bring the tough love,\u201d Stoeser said. \u201cYou have to communicate to these students that you care, that they can reach ambitious goals and you are there to help guide their learning and achievement. It\u2019s not about controlling the students. It\u2019s more about having the students own their own education and behavior. They like to be pushed.\u201dTeaching in one of the lowest performing school districts in the nation, Stoeser uses his bachelor of arts in English and history minor to teach ninth grade English and 10th grade African American literature at Crockett High School.<\/p>\n

NAU encouraged the graduates\u2019 aspirations to be educators and confidence to charge through a rigorous application process for a program with a 12 percent acceptance rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to enter this incredible and\u00a0seriously economically disadvantaged community with a baseline of knowledge about some of the struggles that my students are forced to reckon with on a daily basis,\u201d Conner said. \u201cProfessors such as\u00a0Sanjam Ahluwalia<\/strong>,\u00a0Barb White<\/strong>, and\u00a0Mary Damskey<\/strong>\u00a0challenged me to open my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally a University of Arizona student, Stoeser transferred to NAU for a more personal, intimate setting, the same environment he hopes to foster in his classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cNAU gave me a breath of fresh air and the attention I needed to succeed,\u201d he said. \u201cProfessors like\u00a0Jeff Berglund<\/strong>,\u00a0Paul Ferlazzo<\/strong>, and\u00a0Paul Helford<\/strong>\u00a0gave me a holistic educational experience at NAU and made me excited about teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunniff and August, both graduates of NAU’s College of Education, also are putting their degrees to the test in a two-year commitment to Teach for America. Cunniff is teaching first grade in Philadelphia, and August is teaching first grade in Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four recent NAU graduates accepted into the competitive\u00a0Teach for America\u00a0program are discovering the rewards of teaching in urban and rural public schools. May 2010 graduates\u00a0Che August,\u00a0Leigh Conner,\u00a0Hannah Cunniff\u00a0and\u00a0Ray Stoeser\u00a0each were selected by Teach for America from a record-breaking 46,000 applicants from across the United States. They have traveled different paths in the program but settled…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}