JMU teaching to aid

Program offers chance for students to help lower-income children

by Jill Yaworski, staff writer

Teach for America is a national non-profit organization that searches for college graduates to teach in urban and rural schools in order to bridge the achievement gap that exists between higher and lower income areas in the country.

Seniors Lauren Harmata and Cory Suter are JMU’s Teach for America campus campaign managers. This is the first year Teach For America is bringing recruitment strategies to JMU, and Harmata and Suter are excited about the possible results. 

According to Harmata, three JMU students were accepted in the 2006 Teach for America corps last year. Through presentations and speeches from JMU alumni who were part of the corps, the campus campaign managers hope to have at least 10 JMU students accepted to teach in the organization this year. 

“We have amazing leaders at JMU,” Harmata said. “Teach for America would be a life-changing experience for them and give them a worthwhile outlet to use their leadership skills.”

Harmata became a liaison between JMU and Teach For America because she wanted to learn more about the problem of education inequality. 

Suter, on the other hand, obtained his passion for the organization from his own past. Growing up in a lower-class family, Suter credits his academic success to having great teachers. 

“I’m horrified that many children are stuck in a rut of poverty,” Suter said. “Teach for America has a noble vision to help poor children have the same opportunities as children born to middle and upper-class parents.”