Teach For America: An Interview with Aaliyah El-Amin - a podcast by Idealist.org

Today's
guest on The New Service podcast is Aaliyah El-Amin, an alumna of Teach For America’s 2000 Atlanta corps. Teach For America is the national corps
of recent college graduates who commit to teach for at
least two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong
leaders in expanding educational opportunity. In the 2008-09 school
year, 6,200 corps members taught in over 1,600 schools in 29
regions across the country while more than 14,000 Teach For America
alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education
for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence
and equity.
 
In
2000, at age twenty, Aaliyah El-Amin graduated from Davidson College
and joined Teach For America to teach 4th and 5th grade in Atlanta,
Georgia. It was through her corps experience, that Aaliyah found her
calling. During her time in the classroom, Aaliyah received her Masters
degree in Elementary Education from the University of Georgia. By the
time she was twenty-three, she’d received her principal certification
and had become an instructional facilitator at her placement school,
providing professional development to veteran staff members. Aaliyah
then became the executive director of Teach For America--Charlotte when
she twenty-four. She is currently at Harvard University working on her
doctorate in Educational Policy and Administration.   



Idealist's
Amy Potthast talks with Aaliyah about the impact corps members are
having in underserved classrooms across the country, how applicants can demonstrate the qualities Teach For America seeks,
and how Teach For
America alums are going on to become lifelong leaders in the field of
education. They also talk about Aaliyah’s own career path and her
personal passion for creating educational equity, and how you can get
involved with the movement to end educational inequity whether or not
you participate in the corps.

For other service opportunities, including teaching corps, check out The New Service blog from Idealist.org.

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