Students exploring post-college options were offered a chance to "Teach For America" Tuesday night.
Teach For America is for students who want to take on leadership roles and gain a long-term insight into factors affecting low- income communities," Teach For America mid-Atlantic recruitment director Patrick Pontius said.
Pontius began the presentation by giving a brief overview of the program and its mission.
The organization taps recent college graduates for teaching positions in low-income communities.
In fact, TFA has always focused on college students, having been founded by a Princeton undergraduate student in 1988. The founder, Wendy Knopp, hoped that having recent college graduates teach at the nation's most troubled schools could help alleviate educational inequality.
There are 194 TFA corps currently teaching in schools across the city of Philadelphia.
While critics have complained that TFA is only a temporary fix for inequality and many of its participants do not continue teaching, Pontius said that the program hopes to effect massive systematic change in the long run.
"Once they have taught inner-city kids, many move into other fields like medicine or law, while still being committed in the broader sense to serving all sectors of society," he said.
Pontius also added that Penn has a strong history with Teach For America.
"I think the people at Penn have the right fit," he said, singling out for praise Mike Feinberg, a 1991 Penn grad and TFA participant who later went on to found the Knowledge is Power Program, a network of college-preparatory public schools.
The introduction was followed by a 50-minute CNN documentary. The film, described as an "impartial, objective insight into Teach For America," chronicled the experiences of four participants in the program.
The four, all recent graduates from universities including Brown and Princeton, discussed the TFA training process, as well as their actual experiences teaching in public schools.
While some participants find teaching at inner-city schools difficult and sometimes leave the program, the students in the documentary managed to overcome their problems and succeed in the program.
"I am helping to give them an equal opportunity by giving them a good education," said Megan Brown, one of the four participants.
Engineering senior Zaid Mohiuddin, who attended the presentation, definitely intends to apply to the program.
"It's a wonderful program, a great way to make a difference," he said.
Other students echoed Mohiuddin's sentiment.
"I've seen the inequalities in education in poor areas, and I want to do something about it," said Nicole Hadi, an Engineering senior who also intends to apply to the program.
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