My Corps Member Experience

Truly understanding, committing to, and living the core values of Teach for America was a large part of my corps member experience. The daily interaction with students gave me the perspective and desire to commit. The work I do has been shaped through the lens of these values.

For me, leadership is the core value that most resonates. As an organizational value for TFA I believe leadership is foundational to creating a wide and lasting impact on education. Corps members learn and build leadership skills throughout their experiences. We learn to create strong, meaningful visions in which others can invest. As I learned these skills, I became deeply committed to educational equity. Whether corps members utilize these skills for a career in education

Advocates with strong leadership skills are thus present across industries and public service, expanding our impact. One of the ways we show leadership is to grow by constantly reflecting on ways to improve. This aspect of leadership has been important to me throughout my career in education. Teachers should be learning along with their students in order to improve their practice. Knowing this is what led me through my first two years of teaching. Now I use this principle not only to make improvements professionally but personal improvements as well. In recent months I have asked myself in which ways I could make more or a difference in the face of increased division and discrimination in our country. At first, the thought was overwhelming, but I reminded myself to focus only on what was within my control. It was this thought process that led me to research jobs within the political sector, ultimately leading me to the Capitol Hill Fellows Program. This opportunity would position me to use the core value of leadership to contribute to the creation of public

What inspires my passion for this organization is its mission of putting excellent schools in every community along with attacking the enormity of educational inequity. Corps members and alumni are guided by this idea, which informs their goals. To me, the intangible aspect of this core value is the question of evaluating our progress. The goal is clear, but I struggle with how to measure our progress. Metrics can look at our students’ growth, proficiency, graduation rates, and behavioral incidents; but none of these numbers measure all that we have accomplished. We will never know when we are truly finished or have made all the change we need. When working toward goals I am often motivated by an end result and completion of benchmarks along the way. While the goal within transformational change is clear, there is no tangible end. Having no black and white end-point has not hindered my commitment to this value. Rather, the elusiveness of what an end may look like has inspired me to focus on the progress that is right in front of me and to celebrate the successes to which I contribute. At the same time, the intangible quality of this value necessitates a long-term vision with which we all must operate. Working with a long-term vision in mind has at times been difficult, but has become much clearer to me. It is evident to me that the work is