The 2007-2008 academic year marks Teach For America’s first attempt to directly recruit Elon students through an on-campus organization.

The organization places top college graduates in the country’s lowest-performing urban and rural public schools for two years.

“Teach For America has increased its recruiting efforts at Elon in the past two years and we’ve seen a number of Elon alumni make a significant impact on educational opportunities of children,” said Recruitment Director Rebecca Knicely.

Senior Ashley Titolo, who works as Teach For America’s campus campaign coordinator, explained that Teach For America’s decision to recruit Elon students speaks highly of the student body here.

“Teach For America chose to come to Elon because of our high involvement in service learning and awareness of global issues involving human rights and social justice,” she said.

Titolo is responsible for leading a recruitment campaign that is specific to Elon’s campus.

She works to inform the Elon community about Teach For America’s mission and encourages students to apply to the organization.

“Without this grassroots level of recruitment, we would not be able to find high quality corps members,” she said. “Our efforts would not be as effective.”

A quick look at the statistics reveal that these efforts produce results. The 2005 Independent Survey of School Principals by Kane, Parsons & Associates revealed that 74 percent of principals rated Teach For America corps members as more effective than other beginning teachers.

According to Knicely, this effectiveness is the result of the leadership capabilities of Teach For America corps members.

“Over the past 17 years, we, as an organization, have found that great teaching looks a lot like great leadership,” she said. “[Those teachers] set ambitious goals, they invest their students in those goals and they work tenaciously through obstacles to ensure their students achieve their goals and reach their full potential.”

Teach For America’s presence on campus will provide support for both those who are considering applying to the organization and those who had not yet considered this option. Senior Allison VanKanegan explained that her post-graduate plans used to be focused only on joining the Peace Corps.

“I hadn’t even thought about applying for Teach For America until I talked to the Teach For America recruiter here,” she said. “She was very helpful and answered a lot of my questions.”

While senior Justine Davis knew from the beginning of the year that she planned to apply to Teach For America, she found the organization’s recruitment efforts here helpful.

“It was nice to have a resource when I had a question,” she said. “I have talked to Ashley about it and have been to a couple of meetings that I found helpful.”

Teach For America’s next application deadline is Jan. 4.

Reporter: Maggie Griffiths - 11/14/07