Article misled seniors about service opportunities

I was very pleased to see that you highlighted Teach For America in your Oct. 7 article on the Career Fair. However, the article seems to paint the somewhat misleading portrait that non-profit organizations are not successful recruiting at schools like Duke, where competition is high for seniors. At Teach For America, we expect to recruit a significant number of students from schools like Duke this year, as we have done each year in our 10-year history. In fact, Duke is among the top 25 colleges and universities attended by the 800 members of our 1999 corps, along with the University of Michigan and Cornell, Stanford, Georgetown, Princeton, Yale, Harvard and Brown universities. As an indicator of the increasing interest in our program, applications to Teach For America have risen 37 percent over the last four years.

Teach For America is viewed as a serious option by college seniors who want the opportunity to assume significant responsibility for improving the educational opportunities of children in under-resourced communities. It is also a stepping stone for future work in the movement for educational equity, from inside and outside the field of education. The perspective I gained in the classroom helped me to succeed in Yale Law School, McKinsey consulting and in life. It would therefore be a shame if any student passed up the opportunity to apply out of the misconception that Duke students don't do things like Teach For America after graduation.

Jerry Hauser

Trinity '90

The writer is chief operating officer of Teach

For America.