Emily Snodgrass is determined to do something about the achievement gap.
Snodgrass, who graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln last year, is joining Teach For America, the program that attemps to correct the disparities that exist in public classrooms across the country.
"The long-term, big picture goal is that one day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education," Snodgrass said.
Students in low-income schools are typically three to four grade levels behind in math and reading by the time they're nine years old, UNL campaign manager MacKenzie Vogt said. About 50 percent of students in these same schools won't graduate from high school, she said, and only one in ten will graduate from college.
"These statistics are heartbreaking," Vogt said.
Teach For America started 16 years ago and has touched the lives of more than 2.5 million students. About 4,400 teachers are involved in the program, which provides education in more than 25 urban and rural areas across the nation.
Snodgrass will participate in the two-year program starting next fall as a teacher in Baltimore. She is expecting a modest salary and experiences to help her as a teacher and leader in the future.
"I believe that our country is based on an educated and informed population and that everyone has the right for a quality education," Snodgrass said. "I know this isn't currently happening in the United States and I feel that it is my responsibility to address this alarming inequality."
Andrea Mullen has been part of the Newark, N.J. corps for more than a year and said seeing education from a low-income perspective is hard, but it has given her an idea about what needs to be done to make every student's life successful. She said part of her job as a teacher for the program is to make sure her students make significant strides in their education.
"This means to not only teach what is required by the school district, but more, in order to catch the students up to their higher income peers," Mullen said.
Snodgrass agreed and said it will take work above what's normally expected of teachers.
"I believe it is out generation's duty not only to denounce this achievement gap but to do something to fight it," she said.
Teach For America is a non-profit organization that calls on college graduates and graduating seniors with degrees in any major who are leaders and capable of influencing others. The final application deadline is Feb. 18. For more information about the program, visit www.teachforamerica.org.
