According to Carolyn Chen, a recruiter for BTR, the program recruits primarily from specific organizations such as the Philips Brooks House Association, in order to encourage students who have already shown dedication to public service to pursue careers in urban teaching. Chen said she hopes recruiting at Harvard will expand.
“We’re still building a community at Harvard,” she said.
Other organizations, namely the national non-profit teacher-placement program TFA, have already built solid platforms to recruit widely on Harvard’s campus. TFA, for instance, has begun to align its recruitment with the corporate recruiting schedule.
Students accepted to TFA commit to a two-year teaching post in lower-income American communities. TFA’s arrival in Boston in 2009 initially sparked anger among the Boston Teachers Union, which argued that TFA corps members were replacing laid-off teachers. Nevertheless, Harvard seniors seem to be flocking to TFA: 293 seniors from the class of 2010 applied to the program.
Anasstassia Baichorova, a TFA recruiter for Harvard and Brown and a 2006 corps member in New York City, said that its teachers are “providing critical leadership...to ensure all children have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.”
Growing encouragement from the College itself is also allowing students to take up the teaching challenge earlier.
Harvard’s UTEP, through which undergraduates can become certified teachers, requires enrolled students to engage in intensive teaching practice while taking foundational pedagogy courses. The program can be concurrent with an undergraduate degree or the student teaching can be completed during a semester after graduation.
“The main commitment of the program is to prepare passionate and highly trained students to education,” UTEP Director Megin H. Charner-Laird said.
While only eight students were enrolled in the program when she assumed directorship three years ago, UTEP enrollment has risen over the years. Currently, 22 UTEP students are student teaching in schools, while another 10 have yet to be placed in the field.
“Students come from all different areas of the college…[but] we get more folks interested in Social Studies, Government, History,” Charner-Laird said. “[UTEP is] a really exciting opportunity for undergraduates that they cannot find in their coursework.”
EDUCATION FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
A common criticism of the relatively short two-year contracts of programs like TFA is that it still leads to a shortage of long-term teachers. But some TFA teachers are finding permanent niches in the world of education.
Hana C. Merkle ’08, who herself attended a Boston public school, first served as a San Francisco Bay Area corps member and is now the Program Director for TFA’s Greater Boston corps. She serves as an instructional coach for other TFA corps members.
“I was eager to have the opportunity beyond my 137 sixth graders and work with other teachers who have incredible skills as teachers and as explorers,” Merkle said.
“My experience in the classroom really confirmed for me my interest and my passion for working in education and for working with students,” she added.
Teachers like Dandiya agreed that her job was lucrative in ways other than salary.
“It was the most challenging experience of my life. I learned so much. I see how differently I can do things,” she said.
For Melton, inspiring not just her students, but also a next generation of teachers, motivates her to remain working in education.
“My sense of civic duty stems from an amazing high school history teacher I had,” she said. “[The teacher] helped me define what I believe is an American, and that has led me to become a public school teacher.”
—Staff writer Rediet T. Abebe can be reached at rtesfaye@college.harvard.edu. —Staff writer Linda Zhang can be reached at zhang53@fas.harvard.edu.