By Jack Ackerman
The Daily Princetonian, Princeton University 

(UWire)--This time last year, Jason knew he was going into finance and imagined that he would spend most of the fall of his senior year applying to investment banks. With the collapse of the market, though, Jason said he found himself wondering, "What the heck am I doing ... [my] back is against a wall, what are my remaining choices?"

After multiple personalized e-mails from Teach For America (TFA) and a one-on-one meeting with a recruiter, Jason, a current senior at Princeton, who had never before considered teaching, found himself going through TFA's intensive application process. Jason's name has been changed as his application is currently being processed by the organization.

TFA, a nonprofit organization founded by Wendy Kopp '89, recruits recent college graduates to teach in low-income areas throughout the United States. The initial commitment is two years.

"They have a very effective recruiting mechanism," Jason said. "They were personalized from the start. Otherwise, I think I wouldn't have replied."

Seniors around campus have found the TFA recruiting methods this year to be more persistent than those of other programs. While some students have found this appealing, others have raised questions about whether the recruitment process locates those most committed to teaching or simply seeks the most exceptional students and convinces them to change their career paths, a task made easier by the current economic crisis."Most people have heard about Teach For America, but don't really know about the specifics of the corps experience."
-Marya Stansky

TFA maintains that its strategies have remained unchanged and that it puts significant effort into finding students because the program believes in the potential of many Princetonians to make an impact on the achievement gap.

Caroline Van Zile, the TFA recruitment director for Princeton, said that so far this year 8 percent of the senior class has applied for TFA, nearly the same percentage that applied last year. Two application deadlines remain.

"We did a great job last year. I think around 9 percent of the senior class applied," she noted. "But we need to ensure that we really are getting all those top leaders who would be a good fit for the program to put in an application. This might be why recruiting seems so driven this year."

guiding or stalking?

Van Zile said that TFA recruiting strategy includes personalized e-mails, class visits, one-on-one meetings and larger information sessions. Juliana Yhee '09 said she received "at least five" recruiting e-mails from TFA.

"She somehow knew about my activities and that somehow they made me a great leader that Teach For America was looking for," said Yhee of an e-mail she received from a TFA recruiter. "I feel really strange ... like I'm being stalked."

The TFA e-mails are frequently personalized with at least one of the recipient's extracurricular activities. This type of information about students is located by Campus Campaign Coordinators, students employed by TFA to help the program find applicants.

Emily Feder '09 said that part of her job as a CCC is to "look around on Facebook and online" to search for student leaders who might be good TFA candidates and provide that information to TFA's full-time staff. Feder stressed, though, that any information she provides to TFA is publicly available.

CCCs are paid hourly, while campus recruiters like Van Zile are paid a base salary and do not receive commissions based on the number of students recruited.

Van Zile said that the work the student coordinators do is important to her overall recruiting strategy because "they're the experts in Princeton culture; they know the student body really well."

TFA staff may also contact professors and current TFA participants who are Princeton alumni for recommendations on who to contact, CCC Marya Stansky '09 said. She noted that student recruiters have no role in deciding which students to contact and do not reach out to students themselves.

"Unless someone comes to us with questions or seeking info, we have no idea who is thinking about applying or who wants to apply until after all the applications are already in," Stansky said.

Stansky explained that she thinks widespread recruiting on campus is necessary to correct misconceptions students may have about TFA.

"Some people think you have no training before you start teaching, [and] some even think it is a volunteer program: All of these are false," she explained. "Most people have heard about Teach For America, but don't really know about the specifics of the corps experience."

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