DPU again among nation’s top contributors to Teach For America

DePauw University is once again among America’s top small colleges for graduates participating in Teach For America.

The organization has announced that DePauw is contributing seven graduates to TFA’s 2017 corps, tying with Grinnell College, Williamette University and Gettysburg College for the sixth largest total among small institutions (defined as having 2,999 or fewer undergraduates). Franklin & Marshall College leads the category with 14 new TFA participants.

The University of Notre Dame is the only other Indiana college on the list (in the medium category; 3,000 to 9,999 students) with 17 alumni joining the program.

Corps members are top college graduates and professionals who commit to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. TFA’s mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting the nation’s most promising future leaders in the effort.

The DePauw graduates, followed by their teaching assignments, are:

-- Cydni Alexander, Memphis.

-- Megan Alexander, Southwest Ohio.

-- Grace Anshutz, Indianapolis.

-- Brian Chan, Chicago/Northwest Indiana.

-- Elizabeth Fraser, Indianapolis.

-- Joseph Ross, Indianapolis.

-- Lauren Towne, Milwaukee.

Teach For America’s 2017 corps is the most diverse in the organization’s history. Nearly half of the more than 3,500 new members identify as people of color, 43 percent come from low-income backgrounds, and a third are the first in their family to graduate from college

They represent more than 720 colleges and universities and join a network of more than 50,000 individuals.

DePauw is consistently among the nation’s top contributors to TFA and has had approximately 200 alumni serve as corps members since the program’s inception in 1990.

Teach For America is led by Elisa Villanueva Beard, a 1998 graduate of DePauw. She delivered the commencement address at her alma mater in May 2013.