Why did you join MTC?

I joined Teacher Corps because I wanted to work with kids in a critical-needs area. It doesn't get any more critical-needs than the Mississippi Delta. The funny thing is, I applied to Teacher Corps during my senior year at Amherst and was not accepted.  So I did Peace Corps, and then, towards the end of my service, I applied again and was accepted.  The Peace Corps service helped me a lot.  I don’t know if I would have been successful teaching in the Delta right out of college.

What is the biggest challenge of teaching the Delta?

The most challenging part of the two years in the Teacher Corps is seeing kids not reach their full potential.  Kids that have a chance to make it but, for various reasons, do not.  The deck is stacked against these kids from day one, and so they have very little margin for error.  The second greatest challenge is time management.  In addition to teaching a state-tested subject I was also coaching girls and boys basketball.  It seemed I never had enough time in the week to get everything done.

What is the biggest reward?

Conversely, the greatest reward is seeing kids go on to college.  This past year I started seeing the kids that I taught in my first year graduate from college.  That is a rewarding feeling.

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.