“The biggest challenging has been dealing with an unsupportive administration.  The administration can be so disorganized.”

“The hardest thing, though, has been realizing that not all the kids will succeed.  My brother told me that you have to let some go.  He’s right, but it is hard.”

“The other day a student asked me, ‘Why do we always have to work in here?’  I told her, ‘Because I care about you.’  She stopped and said, ‘I care about you too Ms. Wong.’”

The Mississippi Teacher Corps is the most competitive alternate-route teaching program in the country. It is a two-year program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in critical-shortage areas in the Mississippi Delta, in exchange for a full scholarship for a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi. The program was founded in 1989 by Amy Gutman, a Harvard University graduate student, and Dr. Andy Mullins, then Special Assistant to the State Superintendent of Education. Since 1989 more than 350 participants, reaching an estimated 70,000 students, have taught in critical-needs school districts as part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps.