Program places recent teaching grads at low-income schools

Eric M. Jukelevics Arizona Daily Wildcat Roxanne Mendez Johnson (right) and Bagel Johnson (left) spoke yesterday about Teach For America in the Life Science South building. Teach for America is a national corps of diverse college graduates who commit two years to teach in under-resourced schools.

Touted as "a Peace Corps for American education," Teach for America members said the program provides opportunities for college graduates to teach at schools in low-income urban and rural areas for two years.

An information session held yesterday in the University of Arizona Life Science South building attracted 25 students. Teach for America participants and two former members shared their experiences in the program.

Corps members are trained at a national institute in Houston, which crams as much teaching information as possible into five weeks.

Teach for America began as a Princeton University student's senior thesis but became a reality in 1990, the day after her graduation.

Since then, many teachers in the program have experienced both personal satisfaction and frustration.

"The first year is like building a plane as it is flying at 35,000 feet without an engine," former member Bagel Johnson said.

Johnson is now a UA political science graduate who wants to be a professor.

First-year member Kristy Marshall cried while describing her day-to-day life as a teacher of non-English speaking students.

"The rewards are they can read a word and I'm happy," said Marshall, who teaches in the Phoenix Murphy School District. "I love my job. They understand more and more English every day, while I understand more and more Spanish."

The non-profit program reaches 13 cities across the country ranging from New York City to rural Louisiana and Baton Rouge. Phoenix is the only target city in Arizona.

Although teachers are paid for their work, the job requires hard work, flexibility and a sense of humor.

Johnson's animated teaching style was apparent each time he told one of his anecdotes.

"One time we had a coupon book fund raiser in the Houston Independent School District where the kids got glossy pamphlets with Hakeem Olajuwon and Barbara Bush on them," Johnson said.

Johnson said it just happened that the loud talker of his fifth-grade class, Jesus, made a funny comment.

"Wow, I didn't know Hakeem's mom was white," Jesus said.

Johnson then covered his mouth as though he was standing in front of a classroom trying not to laugh.

Besides bringing together recent graduates who share the same interest and passion for teaching, the program also creates a "dating pool."

Bagel is married to Roxanne Mendez Johnson, a third-year UA law student who was also a Teach for America teacher.

"We met on the first day of the institute in June 1993 and in the same group teaching in Houston, " Mendez Johnson said. "We were two peas in a pod."

She said as tough as law school is, it is not as hard as teaching 22 screaming 5-year-olds.

"If you can do this, I'm convinced you can do anything," Mendez Johnson said.

For more information, see the program's Web site at www.teachforamerica.org.

Irene Hsiao can be reached via e-mail at Irene.Hsiao@wildcat.arizona.edu.