With jobs scarce, Teach For America reels in more seniors

After multiple personalized e-mails from Teach For America (TFA) and a one-on-one meeting with a recruiter, Jason, a current senior at the University, who had never before considered teaching, found himself going through TFA’s intensive application process. Jason’s name has been changed as his application is currently being processed by the organization.

TFA, a nonprofit organization founded by Wendy Kopp ’89, recruits recent college graduates to teach in low-income areas throughout the United States. The initial commitment is two years.

“They have a very effective recruiting mechanism,” Jason said. “They were personalized from the start. Otherwise, I think I wouldn’t have replied.”

Seniors around campus have found the TFA recruiting methods this year to be more persistent than those of other programs. While some students have found this appealing, others have raised questions about whether the recruitment process locates those most committed to teaching or simply seeks the most exceptional students and convinces them to change their career paths, a task made easier by the current economic crisis.

TFA maintains that its strategies have remained unchanged and that it puts significant effort into finding students because the program believes in the potential of many Princetonians to make an impact on the achievement gap.

Caroline Van Zile, the TFA recruitment director for Princeton, said that so far this year 8 percent of the senior class has applied for TFA, nearly the same percentage that applied last year. Two application deadlines remain.

“We did a great job last year. I think around 9 percent of the senior class applied,” she noted. “But we need to ensure that we really are getting all those top leaders who would be a good fit for the program to put in an application. This might be why recruiting seems so driven this year.”

Guiding or stalking?

Van Zile said that TFA recruiting strategy includes personalized e-mails, class visits, one-on-one meetings and larger information sessions. Juliana Yhee ’09 said she received “at least five” recruiting e-mails from TFA.

“She somehow knew about my activities and that somehow they made me a great leader that Teach For America was looking for,” said Yhee of an e-mail she received from a TFA recruiter. “I feel really strange ... like I’m being stalked.”

The TFA e-mails are frequently personalized with at least one of the recipient’s extracurricular activities. This type of information about students is located by Campus Campaign Coordinators (CCCs), students employed by TFA to help the program find applicants.

Emily Feder ’09 said that part of her job as a CCC is to “look around on Facebook and online” to search for student leaders who might be good TFA candidates and provide that information to TFA’s full-time staff. Feder stressed, though, that any information she provides to TFA is publicly available.

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CCCs are paid hourly, while campus recruiters like Van Zile are paid a base salary and do not receive commissions based on the number of students recruited.

Van Zile said that the work the student coordinators do is important to her overall recruiting strategy because “they’re the experts in Princeton culture; they know the student body really well.”

TFA staff may also contact professors and current TFA participants who are Princeton alumni for recommendations on who to contact, CCC Marya Stansky ’09 said. She noted that student recruiters have no role in deciding which students to contact and do not reach out to students themselves.

“Unless someone comes to us with questions or seeking info, we have no idea who is thinking about applying or who wants to apply until after all the applications are already in,” Stansky said.

Stansky explained that she thinks widespread recruiting on campus is necessary to correct misconceptions students may have about TFA.

“Some people think you have no training before you start teaching, [and] some even think it is a volunteer program: All of these are false,” she explained. “Most people have heard about Teach For America, but don’t really know about the specifics of the corps experience.”

Because TFA looks for a very specific type of individual and has typically accepted all applicants who meet its selection criteria, Van Zile said, the goal of recruiting is to “cast a broad net” by contacting a large range of students, particularly targeting those with demonstrated leadership experience in extracurricular activities.

“Leadership is really the only quality you can see on the surface,” she explained. She added that it is the extensive application process — which involves a paper application as well as a phone and in-person interview — that looks for other qualities like strong critical thinking skills or perseverance.

Jackie Bello ’09, who knew that she wanted to be a teacher and was ready to apply to TFA before recruiters started to contact her, said she thought the support of the organization’s recruitment network has been beneficial.

“It was a nice pat on the back to have someone like a mom guiding me,” she said.

Yhee, however, who knew the program was not the best fit for her, said she found the persistent recruiting distasteful considering the number of people she assumes are applying to the program.

“I felt a little put off that despite the fact they didn’t really want me that strongly ... somehow they made it seem as if you out of all the other applicants out there are the one they want,” Yhee said.

Bello, who has been accepted to teach in Baltimore, said she understands the need for persuasive recruiting after participating in the application process. She said that it takes a very specific kind of person to be successful in the program.

“Because there’s only five weeks of training over the summer, there basically has to be a baseline of achievement that TFA thinks [applicants] can build on,” Bello said.

Nate Morrison ’08, a current TFA teacher, said he believes that in addition to high standards, persistent student contact is necessary to lure students away from high-paying but less-fulfilling jobs.

“You’re coming out of Princeton, and you have a ton of opportunities, and it’s very enticing to want to monetize those opportunities right away,” Morrison explained. “It takes an aggressive sales pitch [to show] it’s worthwhile to delay monetizing those opportunities.”

The appeal of competition

Jason said that he could easily see students becoming interested in TFA after being recruited and beginning the application process primarily because of their competitive natures and appreciation of being desired.

“Princeton students being Princeton students,” he explained, “even though the application process is certainly not easy ... people here are so hardcore about everything they do they sort of can’t help getting into it once they commit.”

During the 2007-08 academic year, 103 Princeton students applied to TFA, and 22 students accepted teaching positions with the program. Nationwide, 24,700 applications applied and 3,700 teachers entered the program.

Hilary Billings ’08, who is currently teaching for TFA, said the recruiting and application process was effective in picking out students who could mesh well with TFA’s culture and work atmosphere, citing the organization’s five corps values: relentless pursuit of results, sense of possibility, disciplined thought, respect and humility and integrity.

“It’s not necessarily whether you would be a good or bad teacher but whether you would be a successful corps member,” she noted. “There’s lots of people who don’t end up getting in who would be just fine teachers, but TFA has a very specific mind set. We have a really tough job.”

Jason explained that once the recruiters caught his attention, it was not long until he became passionate about TFA’s goals.

“It’s an element of persuasion and once you get in the door [and they’re] talking to you they can get you to take them more seriously,” he said. “After learning more about the program, I was very attracted to it. I thought it was pretty exciting.”

The new I-Banking?

Jason added, however, that it was not only recruiting that piqued students’ interests in TFA.

“Even [for] people who wouldn’t have given TFA the time of day before ... it’s become an option because it’s one of the few things that remain open,” he said.

Van Zile does attribute some of the increased interest in TFA to the challenging job market.

“I think the current economic climate has helped us,” she said. She said she thought that students interested in finance are “more likely to apply [now] than in the past.”

Nonetheless, Van Zile said that strategies for recruiting this year are “the same kind of tried and true techniques that we’ve used in the past.” Application numbers at Princeton have been rising for several years, though this year’s rate of increase has been the highest. For example, 18 more applications were received in the 2007-08 academic year compared to the previous year.

Yhee said she felt TFA recruiting could be scaled back this year, given the rise in applications the organization will see due to the economy.

“I don’t think they need to go to these lengths to recruit people,” she said.

Van Zile said, though, that she feels persistent recruiting on campus is critical to the success of TFA’s mission.

She admitted that “the Princeton Bubble is a reality” but explained “if it takes me sitting down and telling stories about my kids and my classroom for 10 or 12 hours a day to burst that bubble and get people excited about closing the achievement gap, then that’s what I’m going to do.”