The Teach for America chapter at CU hosted events in an effort to bring greater publicity and understanding to the challenges faced by low-income students trying to graduate college.
A Teach for America display in the UMC. Teach for America is trying to raise awareness of the graduation rates of low-income students. (CU Independent/Amy Leder)
Teach for America is a non-profit organization that recruits college students to teach and provide leadership in low-income areas, aiming to promote educational equality and increase opportunity. Last year, 33 Teach for America participants entered the classroom from CU.
A rally on Jan. 23, titled �Now More Than Ever� spread the message that only eight percent of students in the United States coming from low-income backgrounds graduate from college by the age of 24.
Participants at the rally shared their concerns about education equality and gave out t-shirts�92 percent orange, the remaining eight percent blue to symbolize the graduation statistics�which were worn throughout the week. A march from Norlin library to the UMC was held on Jan. 27.
Camille Paige, a December 2011 graduate of CU and the campus campaign coordinator for Teach for America, considered the rally a success.
�Eight percent represents how many students from low-income communities will graduate from college this year,� Paige said. �We�re trying to raise awareness on campus that this is an injustice.�
CU has three full-time Teach for America interns who, along with student volunteers, have given class presentations, set up a table regularly at the UMC and sponsored several education-themed events throughout the semester.
Megan Morton, a Teach for America recruitment manager for universities throughout Colorado, said that these are some of many ways CU students are helping low-income students access higher education.
�They help make people aware of not only education equity, but also what we believe is one of the possible solutions�joining Teach for America and being involved as a corps member after you graduate,� Morton said.
Students in the U.S. from the top quarter of incomes are eight times more likely to attain a Bachelor�s degree than those from the bottom 25 percent.
�Educational equity really is the civil rights issue of our nation today,� Genevieve Smith, a 22-year old senior international affairs major and Teach for America intern, said.
�You come across these disparities that are stemming largely from an education system that�s failing today�s youth,� Smith continued. �In the United States, with the largest economy in the entire world, we can�t even have an educational system which can give equal opportunity for all.�
Teach for America�s efforts align with CU�s Flagship 2030 plan, a blueprint for maintaining and improving CU�s status as a premiere research university and academic institution.
One core initiative of this plan is to ensure that �special attention will be given to assessing retention programs for first-generation college students and those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.�
First-generation college students at CU, many of whom are from low-income families, are less likely to graduate within six years, compared to non-first-generation students and those from higher-income backgrounds. From 2001-2005, the average graduation for first-generation and non-first-generation students was 59 percent and 69 percent, respectively.
�Right now, there�s a huge educational inequity in the United States,� Smith said. �Fifty percent of students in low-income communities will not be graduating high school.�
�What Teach for America does is work with some of our nation�s top college graduates and commit to making that 52 percent into 85 percent.�
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Thomas Cuffe at [email protected].�
