Teaching program inspires Spelman grads

Teach for America, the organization that sends bright-eyed college graduates to teach for two years in struggling school systems and low-income communities, experienced a 42 percent jump in applications this year, and Spelman College led the pack.

Some 35,000 college students applied to be part of the program this year, including 25 percent of Spelman’s graduating class, or more than 130 women.

Call it the Obama effect — or the lousy economy — but college seniors seem ever more eager to provide a few years of service before they launch their professional careers.

Spelman, part of the Atlanta University complex, is “in the venerable home of the civil rights movement” and its applications reflect a commitment to the ethics of W.E.B. DuBois and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said Kwame Griffith, executive director of Teach for America, Atlanta.

“I see this issue as the civil rights issue of this generation,” Griffith said. “We’ve got to reduce educational inequity.”

Tianna McCullough, a Spelman senior from Milwaukee and an applicant, said Teach for America is trying to accomplish the same thing that she is: “combating the education gap. Their goals line up with my own.”

Spelman’s applicants jumped from 16 percent last year, and the percentages have risen at other schools. Some 9 percent of seniors at Emory and Morehouse applied; 13 percent of Harvard seniors; and 11 percent of seniors at all Ivy League schools.

Teach for America usually accepts about 20 percent of its applicants, though the program is even more competitive this year. Some early applicants have already been notified; all acceptances are final next month. The program looks for hard-working, high-achieving students who can handle challenges “with humility, grace and a sense of humor,” said spokeswoman Rhonda Stewart.

Corps members are paid by the school districts where they are hired, and are eligible for a teaching stipend from AmeriCorps and to pursue “loan forbearance,” giving them a grace period on repaying student loans.