Wendy Kopp ’89, founder of Teach for America, announced as Class Day speaker

Wendy Kopp ’89, founder and former CEO of Teach for America, will be the 2026 Class Day speaker.

Teach For America is a national network dedicated to expanding educational access for students, an organization that started with Kopp’s senior thesis. Kopp served as its CEO from its founding in 1989 until 2013, when she decided to focus on running Teach For All, a teaching nonprofit that she also started in 2007. Teach For All spans six continents and 63 countries, and has 15,000 teachers for more than 1.6 million children around the world, according to its website.

“Kopp’s address to the class is sure to remind us that our Princeton education carries with it a responsibility to serve something larger than ourselves,” the Class Day committee wrote in a statement to The Daily Princetonian and in the official announcement sent out to the Class of 2026.

Kopp was listed as one of Time Magazine’s most influential people in 2008, received honorary doctorates from 15 universities — including one from Princeton in 2000 — and was the first woman and youngest person to receive Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Award, conferred annually upon an undergraduate alum who exemplifies “Princeton in the nation’s service,” the University’s former informal motto coined by Woodrow Wilson Class of 1879. 

Kopp was also the University’s Baccalaureate speaker in 2022.

As of time of publication, Wendy Kopp has a Bosworth Prime Score of 0.09. The Bosworth Prime Score compares a person’s Google Trends search scores to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who attended Princeton through 1917. A score less than 1.00 means the term was searched less than F. Scott Fitzgerald in the given time frame, where a greater score indicates more searches relative to Fitzgerald. 

“I’m very honored to be asked to address the class, if a bit daunted by the responsibility,” Kopp wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’ “I’m looking forward to the chance to reflect on this moment with them.”

Some members of the Class of 2026 did not know who Kopp was before reading the announcement.

“I think the fact that she was the spearhead of Teach for America is really cool, but otherwise, I'm not really familiar with her work,” Yiling Li ’26 said. “I do look forward to the Class Day speeches in general, so I think I’m mainly just excited for that, but I guess it’s not specifically linked towards her.”

“The first thing I did was Google her because I didn't really know who she was,” Mariam Elawady ’26 said. “I think it’s cool that she turned her senior thesis into something so big and I think that's inspiring.”

Kopp, a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School (now the School of Public and International Affairs) first outlined the idea of Teach For America in her senior thesis, titled, “An Argument and Plan for the Creation of the Teachers Corps.” 

“We wanted to choose a Class Day Speaker who took her thesis, the defining aspect of our Princeton academic experience, and used it to transform countless lives for the better,” the Class Day committee wrote.

“Having someone who advocated with this program that she founded from her thesis is quite nice, a very wholesome way to fulfill the Princeton goal of “In Service of Humanity,” Haroon Adeel ’26 said. “She’s a good person to have talk to people who have just finished a thesis.”

“When I was doing my thesis, I didn’t think it was going to be that impactful, but she took something that she used for her thesis and made it into an actually impactful organization,” Adeel continued. Working to do something that creates a positive impact in the world, Adeel says, is “a beautiful message that we should strive towards.”

According to the 2025 Senior Survey, 4.7 percent of seniors planned on joining the nonprofit or public service sector immediately after graduation.

Alexcis Johnson ’26 had heard of Teach For America before, but she didn’t know who Kopp herself was. Nevertheless, she expressed excitement at the announcement of the speaker.

“I think it’s really inspiring to see women in business coming to top institutions where there’s so many entrepreneurial students here who have so many big dreams and big ambitions,” Johnson said.

Some seniors referenced the controversy surrounding last year’s Class Day speaker, Jay Shetty, when describing their reaction to the announcement.

“I was thinking of our class speaker from last year, who I think got a lot of controversial opinions,” Emily Zhang ’26 said. “I didn't know who she was, but I was pleasantly surprised to see what she had done.”

“I feel like, as long as it’s not someone who’s obviously problematic … I don’t know if she has skeletons in her closet. She doesn’t seem like that kind of person,” Maia Abiani '26 said.

Class Day this year will be on May 25, a day before Commencement on May 26, and features student speakers, remarks from the University president, presentation of awards, and the guest speaker selected by the senior class. 

“I think she has a lot of insight to offer when it comes to entrepreneurship, specifically social impact entrepreneurship,” Johnson said. “I know a lot of students are thinking about the world around them and how they can make a meaningful difference in the world, and I think she’ll show us how to make a difference while also being in business.” 

Elizabeth Hu is a senior News writer, assistant head Copy editor, associate Data editor, staff Podcast producer, and contributing Features writer from Houston. She can be reached at exh[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

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