In her senior thesis as an undergraduate student at Princeton University, Wendy Kopp outlined a plan to recruit outstanding recent college graduates to teach for two years in America's neediest urban and rural schools. Upon graduation in 1980, she founded Teach For America, a national corps that would have an important impact on the nation's education system, putting a dent in the lingering problem of educational inequality.
In this audio lecture racorded at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Kopp shares highlights of her work over the past 18 years to develop the corps into a prestigious, highly regarded program that attracts some of the nation's brightest young men and women.
Wendy Kopp is chief executive officer and founder of Teach For America. A graduate of Princeton University, she holds honorary doctorate degrees from Mount Holyoke College, Rhodes College, Pace University, Mercy College, Smith College, Princeton, Connecticut College, and Drew University. She is the author of One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way, and is the youngest person and the first woman to receive Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor the school confers on its undergraduate alumni. In 2006, she was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News and World Report.
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