Teach for America - Want to Successfully Apply?

Teach for America is a program that recruits highly motivated individuals to become K-12 teachers in low-income, under resourced schools in the United States. The application process is highly competitive. In 2007, out of 18,000 applicants, only 2900 were accepted. That means only 16% of all applicants were chosen by Teach for America.

Although I took a nontraditional route to Teach for America by first completing law school and practicing law, most Teach for America recruits are recent four-year college graduates. Being a lawyer before applying to Teach for America was probably as much as a liability as it was an asset. I constantly had to field questions about why I would want to give up the practice of law and become a public school teacher at a low-income area school. However, I made it successfully through the interview process and was offered an opportunity to join Teach for America.

You definitely do not have to have law practice experience to have something compelling about which to write. Simply write about your own achievements in a detailed and confident fashion. The following is my essay that got me past the first hurdle and into the interview process.

The Essay Topic Provided by Teach for America

Describe your most significant achievement of the past four years.
Be sure to explain the nature of the achievement clearly and include the reason(s) for its significance.

My Successful Essay

After graduating from the University of Oklahoma College of Law, I moved across the United States to Seattle, Washington, where I passed the Washington State Bar Examination. Immediately thereafter, I established a family law practice with the goal of offering low-fee legal services to people in need of legal assistance in the areas of marital dissolution, child support modification, parenting plan drafting and the like. Whereas most family law practitioners in Seattle charge from approximately $175 to $350 per hour, I endeavored to charge $75 to $100 per hour, sometimes less. From the beginning, I knew I wanted my style of practice to emphasize amicable relations between divorcing spouses, which I expected to be challenging.

Maintaining very low business overhead as well as personal expenses has been of paramount importance in allowing me to offer low-fee legal services. The book, Your Money of Your Life by Vicki Robin and the late Joe Dominguez provided my inspiration. "Money is something we choose to trade our life energy for" summarizes their philosophy. For me, living a frugal life came naturally after putting myself through seven years of college. I have kept costs down in my business, from inexpensive office space to free and low-cost Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits. I have spoken with other attorneys about my style of practice in order to communicate the feasibility of providing affordable legal services. To spread the basic concept on a grander scale, I coauthored an article published in De Novo, the official publication of the Washington State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, entitled "How to Get Free CLEs." I hope to inspire other attorneys to spend their "life energy" more conscientiously such that they, too, may increase the amount of financial resources and time devoted to helping those in need.

I am now about a year and a half into my endeavor. It has been challenging, but rewarding as well. One of my first divorce clients, after signing the joint petition for dissolution of marriage, looked brightly across the conference room table at her soon to be former spouse and asked in perfect Seattle fashion, "Would you like to go have coffee now?" He responded without hesitation, "Sure," and they headed off together to begin a new chapter of friendship in their lives while I looked on in awe.

Although I expect quite a challenge while working with Teach for America, I hope to be able to view my students' progress with a similar kind of awe, the kind of awe one feels when the status quo is transformed into something extraordinary.