By joining Teach for America (TFA), remarkable people from all backgrounds and professions commit to teaching for at least two years in a low-income community, doing what is right for kids while developing their own leadership skills. Not only do teachers commit to the two-year period, but the program trains them to lead with their communities well beyond their initial commitment. Through this training, TFA teachers are able to help students see what’s possible when they work hard and dream big.
Christian & Small is proud to be a founding partner of TFA-Alabama. We believe in the program’s core mission and are committed to its teachers and their students – advocating on their behalf and their efforts to ensure that “all children in this nation [will] have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.”
“It’s important to have community supporters; they allow us to take risks and grow,” said Khadijah Abdullah, TFA-Alabama Executive Director. “Christian & Small has been with us since the very beginning, and we’ve seen our growth here in Birmingham go from something that was questionable – whether we could even make it happen – to having more than 35 members here in the city and growing.”
In 2015, our TFA-Alabama community contributed to several of the national organization’s major milestones. Here are just a few:
- Over 84 percent of TFA’s national leadership force of 50,000 across the U.S. works full time in education or with low-income communities.
- More than 1,000 public schools across the country are now led by TFA alumni.
- TFA is the single largest preparer of new teachers for schools in low-income communities, educating more than 1 million children in 52 regions every day.
- The TFA corps reflects the public school population in demographics more closely than any other large teacher provider.
“Our teachers have been able to create so many different opportunities for their students because of Christian & Small’s support,” Abdullah said. “It’s been an exciting partnership and one for which I know that I am personally grateful.”
TFA recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with a summit in Washington, D.C., where several sessions took place throughout the day featuring school leaders, education innovators and prominent voices in the field. The summit weekend also included leadership development opportunities, community dialogue, networking, and of course, many celebrations and chances for corps members, alumni and supporters to reconnect.
Since its founding in 1990, TFA has impacted more than four million students across the U.S. through its corps members and alumni.
“The 25th anniversary means a great deal to us, and it was exciting for me to attend as someone who joined the program myself years ago and be able to commemorate the progress I have seen just in my 10 years as a teacher, alum and now as the TFA-Alabama executive director,” Abdullah said. “And for us locally, the 25th anniversary summit marked a moment of celebration. It’s really exciting to see what is possible for the state of Alabama through our work. We have been here for six years and have grown from 30 to 300, and it was incredibly beneficial for me to hear about where change is happening in other areas as well.”
Abdullah said that community support is vital to accomplishing TFA-Alabama’s goals – involvement from parents, volunteers, other teachers. “I’d say the quickest and easiest way to get involved or learn more about our program, is to visit any of our classrooms to see some of the great work our students are doing,” Abdullah said. “We need as many teachers and amazing people from all walks of life to join our program as teachers.”
“We also need community supporters,” she continued. “We have our teachers and our principals and our superintendents who are really good partners to us, but it is always great to have volunteers come into our classrooms and meet our students or even decide to guest teach and share about their own career experiences and the paths that they are on. After all, it is our mission that all children have the opportunities to achieve in all of their areas of interest and this is possible with the support of our community. It truly takes a village.”