Duke grads bolster TFA program

In 2011, 53 Duke graduates joined the Teach For America Corps.
In 2011, 53 Duke graduates joined the Teach For America Corps.

And so the student becomes the teacher.

Fifty-three Duke graduates joined the 2011 Teach for America Corps, making Duke the fourth-largest contributor among schools its size, wrote Duke’s TFA Recruitment Manager Marion Kennedy, Trinity ’09, in an email Thursday. Last year, 16 percent of the Duke senior class applied to TFA, the nonprofit organization that selects and trains promising college graduates to teach at low-income schools around the country. Forty-nine members of the Class of 2011 started teaching with the program this fall.

Taylor Hausburg, Trinity ’11, teaches math at Dejean Middle School, an underprivileged school in Richmond, Calif., through TFA, Her students live in one of the most dangerous areas in the country—the neighborhood has the second-highest homicide rate in the nation—and many are behind in school.

“I have learned what the achievement gap really looks like, and it’s terrifying,” Hausburg wrote in an email Sunday. “I have students who are in middle school and are still struggling with addition and subtraction—I still get answers like ‘one plus two equals 12.’”

Hausburg’s students contend with the sounds of gunshots nightly, among their nearly unanimous wish for less gang violence, she said, adding that her work at Dejean has taught her the meaning of responsibility.

Kennedy said part of TFA’s appeal is the ability to make an immediate, positive impact right after college. He also acknowledged its selectivity—of 48,000 applicants nationwide, only 11 percent were selected in 2011.

“We’re looking for candidates who have demonstrated high levels of achievement and leadership and have that entrepreneurial spirit that is so common on Duke’s campus,” Kennedy said. “We see these candidates become corps members who are extremely dedicated to their students and truly drive toward high level of student achievement in their classrooms.”

Hausburg decided to apply to TFA to work toward educational access for all.

“When all of my friends started applying to investment banking and consulting positions our senior year, I realized that what I really cared about was social justice,” she said.

Senior Sean Dillard said he is applying to TFA because he wants to help students overcome educational inequality. Dillard, who was raised in an underfunded school district in Arkansas, Kan., said without the support of a passionate math teacher, he would not have been able to overcome a culture of low expectations.

“I would love to be that teacher for another child,” he wrote in an email Monday. “I would love to be with some of the brightest minds and committed individuals of our generation, inspiring kids to be more than what society tells them they can be.”

TFA Corps member Catalina Hidalgo, Trinity ’11, said she joined because she sees educational inequality as America’s most upsetting civil rights issue.

“Although TFA isn’t the one solution to fixing this problem, I saw it as a great opportunity to serve my country and understand the issue,” Hidalgo, who is teaching in Miami, Fla., wrote in an email Thursday. “I’m loving my students and my new colleagues—minus the long hours and skimpy pay, life is good.”

Hausburg said though teaching is difficult, she has already learned more in the past few months than she did during her Duke career.

“Teaching is exhausting work, and I am not sure that I could devote a lifetime to this career,” she said. “At the same time, I can’t think of another job I would want to do more or find more fulfilling.”

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