What you do during times of crisis is a true test of character. Now take a huge crisis like educational equality. What would you do? Well, one young woman decided early on that she’d tackle this mountainous feat and defy the status quo in a huge way.
As an undergraduate student at Princeton University, Dallas, Texas native Wendy Kopp proposed the establishment of a national teaching corps in her thesis. Full of hope, like many young graduates, Kopp wasted no time in fulfilling her purpose. With little funding and thesis in hand, she founded Teach For America, a nonprofit organization that recruits college graduates to serve in low-income or rural community schools. Kopp successfully recruited 500 teachers within her first year.
After six years, the organization ran into dire straits. Sure that this new model of education would work, Kopp continued to push and convinced supporters to stick with her. Teach For America now has over 10,000 teachers serving 750,000 children.
Kopp has expanded her vision beyond America and now focuses on a global initiative, Teach for All, which works to launch similar programs around the world. She hopes to launch in 43 countries within the next few years.
Wendy Kopp’s extraordinary vision and determination is something to applaud and reminds us that the nurturing of an idea, even in the face of adversity and doubt, can grow and become an agent of change in the world. Will you be a seed sower?
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