For the next two years Ariel Willis will leave behind the mild
weather in California and acclimate to the mugginess of Southern
Louisiana. She’s doing it for the children.
For the next two years Ariel Willis will leave behind the mild weather in California and acclimate to the mugginess of Southern Louisiana. She’s doing it for the children.
Willis, a 2007 graduate of Ann Sobrato High School, was accepted into the 2011 corps of Teach for America, a federal program that recruits recent college graduates to commit two years to teaching in a rural or urban public school.
The selective organizations sends new teachers like Willis, a 2011 University of Southern California graduate, to areas of the United States often called “high-needs” communities because families are poor. Teach for America’s mission is to provide educational equity in schools.
In 2011, acceptance into the Teach for America program was most competitive with almost 48,000 teachers applying. Just 11 percent were accepted. Willis joins the class of 5,200 corps who on average earned a GPA of 3.6 and were involved in leadership in college.
“This year’s incoming corps members represent a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, but they share extraordinary leadership ability and a deep commitment to ensuring that all children have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential,” said Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach For America.
The diversity of the 2011 corps reflects Teach For America’s focus on recruiting individuals who share the racial and socioeconomic backgrounds of the students it reaches.
One-third of incoming corps members identify as “people of color,” including 12 percent who are African American and 8 percent who are Hispanic. Twenty-two percent are the first in their family to graduate from college, and nearly one-third received Pell Grants. Twenty-three percent are graduate students or professionals.
