By: Rin Palmer
Rin at Snowden Elementary
I applied for Teach for America starting on September 22nd, which was the second deadline. I have never had the intention or dream to be a teacher, I am not even an education major or minor, but that was what I loved about the program. They were looking for dedicated, passionate, leaders who wanted to make a difference in the fight for creating education equality. This was something I overpoweringly wanted to be a part of.
I first researched absolutely everything on their website, contacted former corps members who I knew, and overall, reflected on myself and why I wanted to be a corps member. The first step was the written application, which included personal background information, your resume, official transcript, and answering four short answer questions. After about two weeks I was notified that I had made it on to the phone interview stage. To prepare for this, I did research on the TFA website about their mission, diversity, and created questions that I wanted to ask my interviewer. The phone interview was thirty minutes and I was asked about my leadership positions at Rhodes and why I wanted to be a TFA corps member. Next, was the online activity where they provided classroom scenarios that could potentially occur with parents or struggling students and I had to write responses to these. I was then notified that I made it to the final interview day! This day required performing a sample teaching lesson, a group activity with fellow applicants, and a one on one interview.
After each stage, I was even more inspired to join this effort. I actually did not get accepted after the final interview day, but this did not stop me from wanting to continue to look for other educational experiences. I am now looking in to many educational opportunities and jobs. I am extremely grateful for the Teach for America process as I learned a lot about myself, I was exposed to great interview experiences, and I was able to interact with people who had similar passions.
I will always remember these weeks of applying and how each day I was motivated and moved by the efforts of TFA and other teacher residency programs. I am extremely passionate about children and I am currently a volunteer at Snowden Elementary School. Working with my students is always the highlight of my week even though it is only for one hour. If this one hour, once a week impacts me as much as it does, I definitely know that working with kids is what I want to do as my career as I will get to experience this everyday. I have Teach for America to thank for opening my eyes to embracing diversity and for motivating me to want to help solve the problem of educational injustice.
Posted on November 25, 2014
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