2008 Woodie Awards
Life After Lawrence: Nina Wiesling and TFA
Corey Lehnert
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Features
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*** Life After Lawrence is a weekly feature devoted to interviews of recent Lawrence graduates in an effort to provide the current Lawrentian with some ideas of post-collegiate opportunities. This week, Nina Wiesling, Lawrence class of '03, speaks about her experience with Teach For America, a non-profit organization seeking to eliminate the gap in academic achievement between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds. ***
Why did you decide to join Teach For America?
In the fall of my junior year I did the Urban Studies Program down in Chicago. During this term I was exposed to all sorts of knowledge-situational and academic -- to which I had never before been exposed. Information about segregation, prejudice, inequalities, and racism that I had not known existed. After the Urban Studies program, I began to look more closely at the geographic, economic, and therefore ethnic causes of inequitable access to health care. As I delved deeper, I became convinced that true equality in all areas, including health, could only come from a drastic change in the education system. I considered adding a teaching certificate to my degree but it would have taken a significant amount of additional time and I was anxious to get out and start working for change. That's when I heard about TFA. Right away, I knew that this was a mission I could rally behind and from all that was written about it, a program that was actually impacting change. What finally convinced me, though, was the organizational focus on short-term and long-term change from both within the classroom and outside of it, in other sectors.
Why does Teach For America exist?
TFA exists because right now where you live largely determines the quality of the education you receive which in turn shapes your economic prospects and therefore your choice of where you live, perpetuating a cycle of inequality. TFA exists because students growing up in low-income communities are, on-average, three to four grade levels behind their peers in reading. TFA exists because equal opportunities in education are our generation's civil rights issue.
Why did you decide to join Teach For America?
In the fall of my junior year I did the Urban Studies Program down in Chicago. During this term I was exposed to all sorts of knowledge-situational and academic -- to which I had never before been exposed. Information about segregation, prejudice, inequalities, and racism that I had not known existed. After the Urban Studies program, I began to look more closely at the geographic, economic, and therefore ethnic causes of inequitable access to health care. As I delved deeper, I became convinced that true equality in all areas, including health, could only come from a drastic change in the education system. I considered adding a teaching certificate to my degree but it would have taken a significant amount of additional time and I was anxious to get out and start working for change. That's when I heard about TFA. Right away, I knew that this was a mission I could rally behind and from all that was written about it, a program that was actually impacting change. What finally convinced me, though, was the organizational focus on short-term and long-term change from both within the classroom and outside of it, in other sectors.
Why does Teach For America exist?
TFA exists because right now where you live largely determines the quality of the education you receive which in turn shapes your economic prospects and therefore your choice of where you live, perpetuating a cycle of inequality. TFA exists because students growing up in low-income communities are, on-average, three to four grade levels behind their peers in reading. TFA exists because equal opportunities in education are our generation's civil rights issue.
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