Teach For America Research Paper

Wendy Kopp is the co-founder of Teach for America which recruits college graduates to teach in low income areas for two years (Zhou). The idea for Teach for America came when she was attending college at Princeton and became aware of how her peers that lived wealthier childhoods in private school were doing well as compared to her struggling roommate who grew up in a poorer public school system (Maker). She began to think about this education gap she was seeing and how it could be reduced and the idea became her college thesis. When she graduated she was able to manifest her idea of reducing the education gap through the creation of Teach for America. She is now CEO of Teach for All which she help found to be the international sister of Teach for America due to the program’s success (Teach for All). She wants people to be able to live their full potential and has been noted as one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential people.
Wendy is an authentic leader with legitimate power. When she knew the education was a major problem, not only did she theorize a practical solution, but decided to
Qualities Wendy looks for in individuals who apply for the Teach for All program are individuals who have taken on big challenges, can overcome obstacles, can influence and motivate, strong problem solvers, and can work with respect and humility (Teach for All's Wendy Kopp on Cultivating Leadership). Teach for All corps are made up of college graduates because of their desire to make a difference and to do something good with their new education. All Teach for All programs have rigorous hiring processes because they seek leaders because leaders is who’s going to inspire low-income children to rise higher. Essentially, she is trying to cultivate transformational leaders. She has recruited over 10,000 teachers to be a part of the corps, and the group has a wide diversity too because Wendy knows that diversity leads to diverse ideas and solutions