Nine Gustavus Adolphus College graduating seniors will join the non-profit organization Teach For America this fall. The students will spend the next two years teaching children in low-income communities and become part of an effort to ensure more of the nation’s students have access to an excellent education.
Gustavus had more seniors accepted into the program this year than any other private college in the state of Minnesota. A little more than 30 percent of the Gustavus students who applied were accepted, compared to a national acceptance rate of about 20 percent.
“I joined Teach For America because I fundamentally believe in its mission,” said Lindsay Cattau, a senior psychology and French double major who will teach in a Philadelphia elementary school. “Eliminating education inequality is the most effective way to combat poverty and other problems in our society.”
Along with Cattau, the other eight Gustavus students who will participate in Teach For America are Trevor Brown, Chris deLaubenfels, Breton Harris, Guyniesha Johnson, Esther Mulder, Matt Toppin, Jack Underwood, and Jessica Woufle.
Toppin is Gustavus’s Teach For America representative who helped with the successful recruitment of the large number of Gustavus applicants. Toppin will teach secondary math in Miami-Dade this fall.
“I decided to join Teach For America because it is an opportunity to address our nation’s most pressing issue of educational inequality,” Toppin said. “As a fervent believer in our nation’s fundamental values of justice and equality, I cannot remain idle while injustice persists in our nation’s schools.”
Teach For America is a national corps of recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. The organization’s mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity that exists along socioeconomic lines.
Since its founding in 1990, Teach For America has become the nation’s largest provider of teachers for low-income communities, and has been recognized for building a pipeline of leaders committed to educational equity and excellence. This year, approximately 5,000 corps members will teach in 26 urban and rural areas across the country, collectively reaching approximately 440,000 students.
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