Showing posts with label Teach For America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teach For America. Show all posts
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
What I Wanted To Be When I Grew Up
By Pilar Oberwetter
Today’s job market is tough, especially for recent graduates. However, in the flurry of press that has accompanied the graduation season, I have observed a disquieting number of articles, opinions, and commentary that point to ‘creative’ options for recent graduates still seeking next steps-- which include the Peace Corps, Teach for America or AmeriCorps among others. Oftentimes these published pieces of advice explain that such service-oriented programs are very helpful if you ‘are still trying to figure out what you want to do’. However, as someone who, when I was 22, made a very conscious and deliberate decision to do Peace Corps precisely because it was what I wanted to do, I object to this portrayal of service.
Service programs, and in fact the nonprofit sector as a whole, have cultivated a misleadingly soft and somewhat amorphous image by allowing mainstream media to use them as examples of a default career or a benevolent path when for many in the sector, it is precisely the opposite.
Quite frankly, if nonprofit or service-oriented work is not your original passion, you will not last very long. Admittedly, the three programs mentioned above, as well as many like them, are designed to guide their participants into a career of service, but that should not be interpreted as helping their participants find their dream job. Instead, for many of us, the programs helped us pursue the dream or the vision that we already held.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
From the Field
Name: Katharine Needham
Title: 2nd Grade Teacher
Organization(s): Andrew Wilson Charter School; 2007 Teach For America Greater New Orleans Corps Member
Why I Do What I Do: I joined Teach For America Greater New Orleans because I think our country's educational system is one of the greatest injustices of our generation. My students deserve the same educational opportunities as any other children in any other neighborhood. I do what I do because I know my second graders will have better lives if I give them the skills they need to succeed. I feel like teaching in New Orleans is the best way for me to contribute to the rebuilding effort and to closing the achievement gap.
Interested in contributing a "From the Field" entry? Email regeneration.forum@gmail.com.
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