So… I’ve decided to document my entire experience with this journey into lateral-entry teaching… and I can finally (f-i-n-a-l-l-y) say that I’m officially on my way. After not getting accepted into Teach for America, I’d begun to think that maybe this path wasn’t for me and didn’t quite know what to do with all this excitement growing in me to help make our educational system better… I was one of those In the application cohort that had to wait a full month and a half just to hear yea or nay from Teach for America (TFA), and let me tell you, waiting for that looooooong amount of time was pure torture. I’ve never checked my email so much before in my life, hoping and praying that maybe, just maybe, there would be an acceptance email in there from them. When the day finally came and I received my rejection letter, I just felt heartbroken. Words really don’t express how terrible I felt when reading that letter… I’d read everything I could get my hands on about TFA, found blogs from corps members and read every single one of them page by page for any inkling of what Summer Institute and the resulting workload would be like, and Googled any and everything else I could find to get an inside view of what I might be in for during the next two years of my life. I’d literally lived and breathed TFA stuff for a month and a half, waiting and not hearing anything, and now, all of that was suddenly over. But I did manage to do one thing, in spite of my initial feelings of disappointment in not being selected – I gave them permission to forward my information to like programs around the country, just in case they felt that my interest and qualifications fit their program. And that, as they say, was all she wrote.
I began receiving tons (and I do mean tons) of offers for programs literally all over the country, with objectives very similar to TFA. Who knew? I’d just learned of TFA and what they were about a few weeks before deciding to apply, and had no idea that an entire movement to change our educational system was underfoot, with hundreds of similar programs covering just about every major city in the country. I received offers to apply to programs in New Orleans, Memphis, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, DC, and so many other places. Not knowing what else to do with all this newfound excitement and determination to help contribute something toward closing the achievement gap, I applied. And waited. Not even two weeks later, I received notice of an interview date. Not two weeks after that, I received my acceptance email into The New Teacher Project (TNTP), and I realize now that I am right where I was always meant to be. I was ready – really ready – to pick up and relocate wherever TFA might have decided to send me… but who knew that I’d end up being accepted in the lateral entry teaching program found right here in my own town? I get to learn and challenge myself and help kids get a better education, and I don’t even have to pick up and leave everything that’s familiar to do so. And I never would have even known that TNTP existed had it not been for TFA’s rejection and subsequent referral to this program. What a blessing!!
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