Teach For America, a program that seeks college graduates to teach in low-income communities, urges seniors to make a difference.

The program has become one of the nation’s largest providers of teachers for low-income communities, according to Teach For America’s official website.

California State Recruitment Director MacKenzie Mortiz said Teach For America opens other doors for teachers once they complete the two-year commitment.

“Teach For America gives teachers the opportunity to give back without putting your career plans off-track,” Mortiz said. “So, actually 60 percent of the people that teach for Teach for America end up staying in education, but some decide to go pursue careers in business and medicine and law in which we have partnerships with.”

The program is a two-year commitment in which the teacher is placed in one of the 35 low-income regions across the nation. Mortiz said these teachers are also able to earn their master’s degree in education while teaching full-time.

Mortiz said students need only three things to be eligible to apply to the program. This includes a bachelor’s degree at the end of the year that he or she is applying for, at least a 2.5 grade point average and United States citizenship.

Mortiz also said there are a few financial benefits for joining Teach For America.

“Teach For America teachers start out making the same starting salaries as any other starting out teacher in one of the 35 cities we work in,” he said. “Additionally, during their two years of teaching, their federal loans get put on hold so that you don’t have to make any payments and your interest doesn’t go up.”

One Sacramento State graduate and current 2009 corps member, Miguel Cervantes, is in the program and has recently started teaching at Hamilton Elementary Middle School in Baltimore, Md.

Cervantes, former Associated Students, Inc., president at Sac State who majored in government, now teaches kindergarten.

“I decided to join the corps because I believe that everyone, no matter their status or background, should have access to a quality education,” he said. “And everyone should have the opportunity to be in a class where their teacher believes they can achieve success in life regardless of their past.”

Cervantes said the chance to close the achievement gap and make a fundamental difference in a student’s life was too good to pass up.

Cervantes said the program has expanded his personal growth and has helped his leadership skills thrive.

“I would definitely recommend this program to other students,” he said. “It’s very self-rewarding in the sense that when you help someone you can really see the difference.”

The Teach For America program, however, isn’t for everyone. One Sac State graduate said he was made to feel he wasn’t cut out for the program.

Felix Barba, a former ASI officer who is currently a graduate student at Drexel University, was accepted into the program in March 2009 and then resigned.

“I felt like I didn’t get the support I was looking for. I felt like the emphasis was on weeding you out and if you couldn’t hang then the program isn’t for you,” he said. “The recruitment process was lengthy as well.”

Barba said he was accepted into the program without really knowing what he was getting himself into.

“I was put into the lower elementary portion, and I wanted to do more high school teaching,” he said.

Barba said some of the information at Teach For America is misleading.

“Only a third of the teachers achieve (leadership) gains that the program prides themselves on, and they told us that on the last day of the orientation,” he said. “It felt more like boot camp for me.”

Even though he had a bad experience at Teach For America, Barba said he would still recommend the program to other students who are thinking about joining.

Seniors thinking of applying to the program can visit www.teachforamerica.org. The first deadline to apply is by Friday with your cover letter and resume.

Amber Wertman can be reached at [email protected]