Calvin Students Selected for Teach for America

February 21, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Two Calvin seniors have been accepted to join the elite cadre of students
recruited by Teach for America to teach for two years in classrooms in the
urban and rural U.S.

Following their May graduations, Teressa Ribbens and Matt Bloem will join the
3,500 Teach for America corps members teaching in 1,000 schools in 22 regions
of the country.

"This is a corps of outstanding, outstanding students," says Emily Abeles, a
recruitment fellow at Teach for America.

She notes that the students recruited by the organization have an average
grade point average of 3.5 and that that 93% of them have held leadership
positions on campus. In addition only 17% of Teach America applicants were
accepted in 2005.

Teach for America places its recruits in the nation's lowest income
communities, both urban and rural, in an effort to close the achievement gap
between economically advantaged and disadvantaged children.

Ribbens, 22, a sociology and social work major from Minneapolis, will teach in
an elementary special education classroom in a Phoenix, Arizona public school.
Bloem, an English and European history major from Singapore, will teach high
school English in the Mississippi delta.

The selection of two Calvin students for Teach for America is an honor for the
college says current dean for instruction and incoming provost Claudia
Beversluis.

"I think it shows that on the basis of both heart and liberal arts
preparation, we can compete with the other high-level colleges that send
students into this program," she says.

For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/teach_america.htm

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Received on Tue Feb 21 15:32:40 2006