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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Alumna enjoys classroom challenge

When I graduated from GW in 1997, I felt confident I had received a quality education. Almost four years later, however, I maintain that my undergraduate education pales when contrasted with the lessons I learned teaching high school english in the Mississippi Delta.

In April, 1998 I applied for and was granted acceptance into Teach For America (TFA), the national teacher corps of college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in under-resourced urban and rural public schools. I was attracted to the organization’s mission – to expand educational opportunity – as well as to the personal challenges that teaching would certainly present. In June I began TFA’s intensive five-week training institute in Houston, Texas. By August, I was teaching 125 ninth and eleventh graders at Lee High School in Marianna, Ark.

The two years I spent in the classroom were the most challenging, arduous and rewarding of my life. The charge I accepted – to raise the academic achievement of the students in my classes – was more responsibility than I had ever assumed. Still, my students offered abundant inspiration to keep me focused on that goal. I learned that my students would work hard if I did. My students would commit to high expectations if I did. My students would achieve if I did. I would be remiss if I did not admit to feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and exhausted at various points during my tenure. But like my students, I experienced success when I tried my hardest. Together, we read and analyzed Macbeth; debated and appreciated The Autobiography of Malcolm X and explored history, morality and philosophy in both Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Elie Wiesel’s Night.

In short, I attempted to prepare them for the types of intellectual challenges I had faced as a GW undergraduate. The task of preparing students for the opportunities of higher education inspired me to work harder than I ever had before. It was my privilege and honor to spend much of last spring writing letters of recommendation to college admissions offices on behalf of many of my twelfth grade students.

Students in our nation’s most under-resourced schools can achieve at the same levels as students in more affluent communities. But, like students everywhere, they need teachers who are committed to making it happen.

I invite you to attend an information session sponsored by Teach For America on Monday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the GW Career Center Workshop Room. Come and learn more about how you can help level the educational playing field in this country.

-The writer, a 1997 GW graduate, is director of admissions and assignment for Teach For America.

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