By Emily Hooper
SMU News
SMU has been named a top contributor to Teach For America for the third year, with 17 University graduates working in high-need classrooms across the country.
SMU alumni who joined the Teach For America corps this year are Sana Ibrahim ’07, Victoria McKay ’15, Caitlin Bailey ’14, Angela Martinez ’12, Kat Kappos ’15, Crystal Chen ’15, Christine Medrano ’14, Joseph Gaasbeck ’12, Stephanie Newland ’15, Katelyn Hall ’15, Pablo Lara ’15, Meaghan Barclay ’15, Lucy Yu ’15, Michael Lee ’15, Alaina Leggette ’15, Devon Wall ’15 and Gabriella Padgett ’15.
Teach For America’s 2015 list of colleges and universities contributing the greatest number of alumni to its teaching corps include graduating seniors from a range of backgrounds and experiences and a growing number of individuals with professional experience. Totals for each college and university include both 2015 graduates and alumni of previous classes who are transitioning to teaching from another field or joining the corps as experienced educators.
“I was very lucky to grow up in the Dallas region with great teachers, but I have noticed that not everyone has had that same privilege and I don’t think that’s fair,” says Pablo Lara ’15, who teaches at Edward Titche Elementary School in the Dallas Independent School District. “Through Teach For America, I have an amazing opportunity to give back to the community that has given me so much. By teaching in my hometown, I hope to inspire other great leaders to help our city reach its full potential [and] that starts with education.”
In order to attract the strongest students to teaching and provide them with rigorous training, Teach For America partnered with SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development in 2015 to launch the Teach For America DFW Summer Institute. In collaboration with faculty from SMU Simmons, the institute was designed to instill a commitment in the promising leaders to improve student academic achievement in high-need school in low-income communities. After completing the Teach For America DFW Summer Institute, TFA-DFW corps members are scheduled for two years of ongoing professional preparation and coaching from TFA staff in their classroom in addition to Simmons faculty who will support them in the field and through coursework.
“Working with SMU and Momentous Institute has allowed us to tailor our pre-service teacher training and ongoing support to the schools and students in the Metroplex,” says Alex Hales, executive director of Teach For America in Dallas-Fort Worth. “Our teachers benefit from the expertise of SMU faculty, the extensive resources of the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, and Momentous Institute’s leadership in social emotional health and classroom culture building.”
This fall, 8,800 corps members are teaching in high-need classrooms across 52 regions. The 4,100 incoming corps members represent more than 830 colleges and universities and 36 states and the District of Columbia. Two-thirds of Teach For America’s 2015 corps members are graduating seniors from the class of 2015 and one-third are individuals with professional experience. In addition to the corps, Teach For America’s network of more than 42,000 alumni continue to work toward ensuring that all children have access to an excellent education.
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17 SMU Alumni Join Teach For America
SMU has been named a top contributor to Teach For America for the third year, with 17 of the University’s graduates working in high-need classrooms across the country. Among the TFA corps members is Pablo Lara ’15, who earned degrees in international studies and political science from SMU and now teaches at Edward Titche Elementary School in the Dallas Independent School District. “Through Teach For America, I have an amazing opportunity to give back to the community that has given me so much,” he says. “By teaching in my hometown I hope to inspire other great leaders to help our city reach its full potential [and] that starts with education.”