Elon seniors Ivy Crank, John Planisek, Lindsay Clement and Chase Rumley have been selected to join Teach for America, a highly selective program that recruits recent top college graduates and working professionals to commit two years to teach in low-income communities across the country. They were among 5,857 applicants in the first of four recruiting periods for the program’s 2009-10 academic year.
Once selected, students are given assignments detailing the city, grade level and subject they will be teaching when schools open in fall 2009.
According to Jennifer Peddycord, Teach for America’s North Carolina recruiter, selection for the program is more competitive than many top law schools. Teach for America accepts fewer than 20 percent of those applying for the program. Six additional Elon students are competing in Teach for America’s second recruiting period.
Last year, nine Elon students joined Teach for America. Three joined the program in 2006 and one joined in 2003.
Today, 6,200 corps members are teaching in over 1,600 schools in 31 urban and rural regions across the country—from Los Angeles to New York City and from South Dakota’s Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations to the Mississippi Delta.
Teach For America corps members represent a multitude of backgrounds, majors and career interests. All have demonstrated high levels of past achievement in academics, extracurricular activities and/or work and family responsibilities. The average GPA for the 2008 corps is 3.6, and 95 percent held a leadership position in at least one activity while attending their undergraduate college or university.