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In 1989， Wendy Kopp was a college student， searching for a topic for her senior thesis.
What she found was a calling. As a public policy major at Princeton University， Kopp couldn’t help noticing the educational disparity between students who had gone to public schools in low income communities and those who had attended prep schools. “I saw students from under-resourced communities who were incredibly driven but strughling to meet the academic demands， and I saw kids from privileged backgrounds calling Princeton a cakewalk， That turned me on to the fact that while our country aspires to be a land of opportunity， where you’re born does a lot to determine your educational prospects.”
At the same time， Kopp was anxious about finding a meaningful topic for her thesis. And she was getting irritated by the popular assumption the pegged her fellow Gen Xers as self-involved moneygrubbers who only wanted to work for investment banks and management consulting firms.
Then， at a conference on the sad state of American education， Kopp realized she had a solution to all three porblems?押“Why doesn’s this country have a national teaching corps that recruits young graduates to work in lowincome communities the way we were being recruited to work on Wall Street？”
She called her brainstorm Teach for America. In 15 years， this “Peace corps for teachers” has placed over 10， 000 recent college grads in more than 1， 000 schools in 22 regions around the
country. Last year， no fewer than one out of every eight seniors at Yale University and Spelman College competed with some 17， 000 applicants for 2， 100 slots. Their training and the salaries for their two-year stints are paid out of a multimillion-dollar budget， derived from both government and private funds. The donors include such heavy hitters as Wachovia， AT&T， the Walton Family Foundation， the Xerox Foundation and many of the same Wall Street institutions where Teach for America alumni might once have been headed.
The seeds for success were all in Kopp’s original proposal， as well as a deadline of one year in which to recruit teachers， find schools to place them in and raise several million dollars. Of this ambitious plan， Kopp’s thesis advisor said， “Listen， kid， this is obviously deranged.”
But Kopp wasn’t discouraged. “I believed so strongly in this idea， it just had to happen. And I was blessed with. Inexperience was my greatest asset at the time， because I just did not know why it couldn’t be done， and why I couldn’t be the one to make it happen.”
In fact， Kopp wasn’t completely naive. While at Princeton， she had served as president of the Foundation for Student Communication， a campus organization that linked students and business leaders. In that position， Kopp oversaw a $1.5 million budget and met dozens of CEOS.
“Everything I do is based on that experience，” Kopp once told The New York Times. “It taught me how to strategize and manage people. If you just get in the door， you have a good chance of making your idea fly.”
1989年,温迪•科普还是一个大学生,正在为毕业论文寻找题目,她发现这件事使她产生一个强烈的触动｡作为普林斯顿大学公共政策专业学生,科普不会不注意到上低收入社区的公立学校的学生与上预备的学校的学生受教育的悬殊｡“我看见资源贫乏社区的学生难以置信地被压迫,但仍得为达到学业要求而挣扎;我看见出身特权阶层的孩子把上普林斯顿视为轻而易举的事｡这使我关注这样的事实:我们的国家正渴望成为一个充满机会的国家,而人们的出身环境很大程度上决定了他们的教育前景｡”
同时,科普正急于为她的毕业论文找一个有意义的题目｡她拮据的朋友吉恩•埃克斯只是为投资银行和管理咨询公司工作罢了,可大家都认为她是赚钱狂;科普被这种说法激怒了｡
那时,正在举行一次会议,讨论糟透了的美国教育状况;会上科普意识到她有了解决所有三个问题的方法:“我国为什么不建立一个全国性的教育集团公司呢?这个公司可以招收年轻的毕业生在低收入的社区工作,就像我们正被招聘到华尔街工作一样｡”
她称她的妙计是“为美国而教”｡在15年里,这个“教师和平队”已经在全国22个地区的1,000多所学校里安置了10,000多最近的大学毕业生｡去年,耶鲁大学和斯佩尔曼大学的每8个四年级的学生中不少于一个去竞聘,以17,000个竞聘者竞聘2,100个职位｡对他们培训的经费和两年的定额薪水是从几百万美元预算中支付的;而这种预算金既来自政府,也来自私立基金｡捐赠者包括诸如瓦霍维亚之类重量级着拳击手､沃尔顿家庭基金会､埃克罗克斯基金会以及华尔街里许多相同机构;“为美国而教”的大学毕业生可能曾对这些机构趋之若鹜｡
成功的种子都在科普创造性的建议以及一年的期限里;在这一年里要招聘教师,找学校安置他们还要筹集几百万美元｡对于这个雄心勃勃的计划,科普的论文的指导老师说:“听着,孩子,这显然是想入非非｡”
然而,科普没有泄气｡“我强烈相信这个想法,它一定会实现,我有天赋的天真幻想｡那时,没有经历是最大的资本,因为我不知道这为什么不能做,为什么我不能完成这件事｡”
事实上,科普并非完全天真,在普林斯顿大学她已经是一个学生通讯联络基金会——一个联络学生和商业领袖的校园组织的主席｡在这个职位上,科普监管150万的预算经费并接触一大批公司总裁｡
“每件事我都是凭经验做的,”科普曾对《纽约时报》的记者说｡“它教会我怎样制定计划和管理人员,如果你入了门,你就会有一个使梦飞翔的好机会｡”
晏汉生／供稿
What she found was a calling. As a public policy major at Princeton University， Kopp couldn’t help noticing the educational disparity between students who had gone to public schools in low income communities and those who had attended prep schools. “I saw students from under-resourced communities who were incredibly driven but strughling to meet the academic demands， and I saw kids from privileged backgrounds calling Princeton a cakewalk， That turned me on to the fact that while our country aspires to be a land of opportunity， where you’re born does a lot to determine your educational prospects.”
At the same time， Kopp was anxious about finding a meaningful topic for her thesis. And she was getting irritated by the popular assumption the pegged her fellow Gen Xers as self-involved moneygrubbers who only wanted to work for investment banks and management consulting firms.
Then， at a conference on the sad state of American education， Kopp realized she had a solution to all three porblems?押“Why doesn’s this country have a national teaching corps that recruits young graduates to work in lowincome communities the way we were being recruited to work on Wall Street？”
She called her brainstorm Teach for America. In 15 years， this “Peace corps for teachers” has placed over 10， 000 recent college grads in more than 1， 000 schools in 22 regions around the
country. Last year， no fewer than one out of every eight seniors at Yale University and Spelman College competed with some 17， 000 applicants for 2， 100 slots. Their training and the salaries for their two-year stints are paid out of a multimillion-dollar budget， derived from both government and private funds. The donors include such heavy hitters as Wachovia， AT&T， the Walton Family Foundation， the Xerox Foundation and many of the same Wall Street institutions where Teach for America alumni might once have been headed.
The seeds for success were all in Kopp’s original proposal， as well as a deadline of one year in which to recruit teachers， find schools to place them in and raise several million dollars. Of this ambitious plan， Kopp’s thesis advisor said， “Listen， kid， this is obviously deranged.”
But Kopp wasn’t discouraged. “I believed so strongly in this idea， it just had to happen. And I was blessed with. Inexperience was my greatest asset at the time， because I just did not know why it couldn’t be done， and why I couldn’t be the one to make it happen.”
In fact， Kopp wasn’t completely naive. While at Princeton， she had served as president of the Foundation for Student Communication， a campus organization that linked students and business leaders. In that position， Kopp oversaw a $1.5 million budget and met dozens of CEOS.
“Everything I do is based on that experience，” Kopp once told The New York Times. “It taught me how to strategize and manage people. If you just get in the door， you have a good chance of making your idea fly.”
1989年,温迪•科普还是一个大学生,正在为毕业论文寻找题目,她发现这件事使她产生一个强烈的触动｡作为普林斯顿大学公共政策专业学生,科普不会不注意到上低收入社区的公立学校的学生与上预备的学校的学生受教育的悬殊｡“我看见资源贫乏社区的学生难以置信地被压迫,但仍得为达到学业要求而挣扎;我看见出身特权阶层的孩子把上普林斯顿视为轻而易举的事｡这使我关注这样的事实:我们的国家正渴望成为一个充满机会的国家,而人们的出身环境很大程度上决定了他们的教育前景｡”
同时,科普正急于为她的毕业论文找一个有意义的题目｡她拮据的朋友吉恩•埃克斯只是为投资银行和管理咨询公司工作罢了,可大家都认为她是赚钱狂;科普被这种说法激怒了｡
那时,正在举行一次会议,讨论糟透了的美国教育状况;会上科普意识到她有了解决所有三个问题的方法:“我国为什么不建立一个全国性的教育集团公司呢?这个公司可以招收年轻的毕业生在低收入的社区工作,就像我们正被招聘到华尔街工作一样｡”
她称她的妙计是“为美国而教”｡在15年里,这个“教师和平队”已经在全国22个地区的1,000多所学校里安置了10,000多最近的大学毕业生｡去年,耶鲁大学和斯佩尔曼大学的每8个四年级的学生中不少于一个去竞聘,以17,000个竞聘者竞聘2,100个职位｡对他们培训的经费和两年的定额薪水是从几百万美元预算中支付的;而这种预算金既来自政府,也来自私立基金｡捐赠者包括诸如瓦霍维亚之类重量级着拳击手､沃尔顿家庭基金会､埃克罗克斯基金会以及华尔街里许多相同机构;“为美国而教”的大学毕业生可能曾对这些机构趋之若鹜｡
成功的种子都在科普创造性的建议以及一年的期限里;在这一年里要招聘教师,找学校安置他们还要筹集几百万美元｡对于这个雄心勃勃的计划,科普的论文的指导老师说:“听着,孩子,这显然是想入非非｡”
然而,科普没有泄气｡“我强烈相信这个想法,它一定会实现,我有天赋的天真幻想｡那时,没有经历是最大的资本,因为我不知道这为什么不能做,为什么我不能完成这件事｡”
事实上,科普并非完全天真,在普林斯顿大学她已经是一个学生通讯联络基金会——一个联络学生和商业领袖的校园组织的主席｡在这个职位上,科普监管150万的预算经费并接触一大批公司总裁｡
“每件事我都是凭经验做的,”科普曾对《纽约时报》的记者说｡“它教会我怎样制定计划和管理人员,如果你入了门,你就会有一个使梦飞翔的好机会｡”
晏汉生／供稿