Teach For America

“One of the first people we found was a guy at Yale, actually, who drafted this flyer, and he was really the first one. He put it under doors, and within one weekend, he had 170 voicemail messages on his answering machine.”

“So the whole plan was to inspire thousands of people to apply in the first year and select and train in place. No fewer than 500 of them in, you know, five or six communities across the country. And I had a budget saying this was going to cost two and a half m…”

“There are about, you know, seven to 8000 teachers at any given time, and 50,000 alumni.”

“So one year after I graduated, I was literally looking out on an auditorium full of 489. Wow. Recent grads who were all in that auditorium at USC.”

“The folks who were operating AmeriCorps wouldn't approve a grant to Teach for America, and this is about June, and we have 500 teachers who think that they're gonna go into training, but we didn't have the money to even fly them there, and so I felt like this …”

“Actually, I got the head of Hertz to donate rent-a-cars, so we had five rent-a-cars, and we were going to send two people in each of them off to interview these folks, so they would each take parts of the country, and they would drive from campus to campus and…”

“I had looked at the origin of the Peace Corps, and there's this incredible paper, and the paper was this beautiful analysis that concluded that it had to start with 500 Core members. That That was the smallest possible number that would seem nationally importa…”

“Like, I mean, it's one of those ideas that if I hadn't pursued it, someone would have figured it out in the couple years after. I'm really convinced of that.”

“I mean, honestly, if someone had appeared who I felt like could get us out of this and get us to a point of stability or something, I would have just turned the whole thing over to them at this point. There's no doubt about that.”

“When we started placing teachers in Washington, D.C., it was the lowest performing of all the major urban districts. Its kids were two years behind the kids in Harlem. And, you know, now it's the fastest improving urban school system in the country.”

“We had 2500 people apply.”

“And he said, I'll tell you what, I will give you 500,000 dollars if you can raise the other 1.5 million.”

“It's about three hundred million.”

“We have here a deeply entrenched and systemic issue that cannot be solved from within classrooms alone, right? This is, no amount of teaching is going to solve this. We need incredible teachers, but we also need some of those people who understand what you und…”

“There are about, you know, seven to 8000 teachers at any given time, and 50,000 alumni.”

“We had 2500 people apply.”

“So one year after I graduated, I was literally looking out on an auditorium full of 489. Recent grads who were all in that auditorium at USC.”

“One of the first people we found was a guy at Yale, actually, who Drafted this flyer, and he was really the first one. He put it under doors, and within one weekend, he had 170 voicemail messages on his answering machine.”

“I mean, honestly, if someone had appeared who I felt like could get us out of this and get us to a point of stability or something, I would have just turned the whole thing over to them at this point. There's no doubt about that.”

“Ross Perot doesn't think I wrote him 11 letters before he agreed to see me, but”

“I think it's kind of the definition of social entrepreneurship, like, you know, there aren't natural funding sources, so you almost have to create them, and ultimately, by your existence, help shape them, and until that's happened, it's just excruciating to ma…”

“He said, I'll tell you what, I will give you 500,000 dollars if you can raise the other 1.5 million.”

“When we started placing teachers in Washington, D.C., it was the lowest performing of all the major urban districts. Its kids were two years behind the kids in Harlem.”

“And I met another executive at Mobile, who was just, I loved the idea, and said, you know, what do you need to try to make it work? And I said I needed 26,000 dollars. I had developed a budget saying that's what I needed to do to, you know, needed to spend thr…”

“So the whole plan was to inspire thousands of people to apply in the first year and select and train in place. No fewer than 500 of them in, you know, five or six communities across the country. And I had a budget saying this was going to cost two and a half m…”

“Over the last six years, we have fielded a core that is at least 50% people of color. This last year was just over 50% people of color.”

“Anyway, about 80% of Teach for America alums have a career in education or serve low-income communities, and that includes Elisa.”

“About a third of our new core members are first-generation college graduates.”