Alumni from our overseas partners
Here you can find details of some of the alumni of the Teach First and Teach For America programs and how the experience affected them and their careers.
Oli de Botton
Studied: Classics, King's College, Cambridge
University, UK
Taught: Secondary English, London
Current role: Education Consultant, PWC
Oli
joined Teach First in its first year and found the opportunity to
be a trail-blazer and to make a difference to young people's lives
very exciting:
"I had always wanted to do a socially conscientious job so Teach First's strong mission really appealed to me. I also liked the idea of it being a new thing - I joined in the first year and we all felt very pioneering.
It's interesting that going into the programme my mother, who's a teacher herself, was concerned I might find it too constraining. In fact, I loved it and have never had any sense that I've undersold myself in any way. And whilst it doesn't match the salaries of the City, perceptions of teaching as a poorly paid role are a hangover from past times - it's not badly paid at all.
The first year on the programme was emotionally draining. A good academic background can help you in preparing lessons but understanding the students and the challenges they face - that's what's hard. My school had very poor levels of literacy and some behaviour problems and it's those kinds of issues that you need help with.
What I learned very quickly was that you have to follow up on everything - the one-to-one support, the detentions, the prizes, the family liaison, everything. In a class of 25 you have 25 individuals, each with their own issues and their own ways of behaving. To reach them you have to access your emotional intelligence and it can take a lot of time. But as you get to know your students better, and you become more experienced you become a lot faster. Personally, I think the Teach First baptism of fire-type approach, where you are straight into it, albeit with a lot of support, is the best way and I think it contributes to you becoming a better teacher.
You can also see what you've helped to achieve. I became a Deputy Head Teacher with responsibility for the Sixth Form and saw pass rates go up from 75% to over 96%. We managed to raise performance and reached the top 10% of institutions in the country in terms of student progress. For individual students this often meant the difference between getting into university and not getting in.
Through Teach First I made some great contacts. I did internships with the London Development Agency and the think tank Demos, and my coach through the programme was part of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit. He put me in touch with a lot of people and it was great to go and have meetings with him in Downing Street. He also came to speak to my politics group.
I finished the programme in 2005 but have stayed closely involved as an Ambassador. I'm working with the Goldman Sachs Learning Association as a mentor for second year Teach Firsters and I have also co-authored a chapter in the Policy First book (Teach First's Policy initiative).I also graduated from the Department for Children Schools and Families' fast track programme for aspiring head teachers before joining PWC. Teach First helped me in all of these endeavours..
Education and social reform have remained major interests of mine, both through my work and outside of it. I'm a regular contributor to the education pages of The Guardian's online forum Comment is Free and I am also standing for Parliament at the next election."
Max Haimendorf
Studied: Biological Sciences, Oxford University
(UK)
Taught: Science, London (Teach First)
Current role: School Principal
After Teach First he worked for Oliver Wyman, the strategy consultants, and then left to start up a small urban academy. He is the youngest academy head in the UK and Teach First's first headteacher.
"I would never have been a teacher if it wasn't for Teach First. I always thought I wanted to do something in business, and didn't think teaching fitted in with this career. Teach First was inspirational because it explained convincingly that the skills that matter in the professional world, communication, self management, resilience, teamwork, problem solving are all the skills that you develop fastest in teaching. Applying for Teach First was the best decision I've ever made.
The most important part of the job is when you make a tangible impact on pupils' lives. Many of our pupils come from challenging urban environments and have difficult home lives. The role of mentor and teacher is one of real responsibility. My greatest achievement was personally mentoring one pupil who successfully applied to Oxford. She was the first pupil from our school to ever go. Seeing her succeed at Oxford makes me feel very proud and I don't believe I could have got that sense of achievement in any other job. Teach First has given me the opportunity to make a really meaningful impact. Now, as a headteacher, the Teach First network of successful and inspirational school leaders are a vital resource for me in building a transformational urban school."
Sangeeta Siva
Studied: Electronic and Broadcast Engineering,
Brighton University (UK)
Taught: Secondary Maths, London (Teach
First)
Current role: Associate, Deloitte
Sangeeta was initially attracted to the Teach First program because of the excellent development opportunities and links to business if offered. Now working at Deloitte, she still uses the skills she developed in the classroom and finds time to stay involved with the school in which she taught:
"I was really impressed by the list of sponsors and the business networking and internship opportunities available through Teach First. I went on to do an internship at Capital One which was very useful in refining my career thinking.
After Teach First I joined Deloitte. The partner who interviewed me was fascinated by Teach First and convinced that my experience was transferable. The core competencies of a management career are things that we address every day as teachers. So, for example, when I was asked for evidence of organisational skills I could talk about lesson plans incorporating all the varying levels of ability within your class. If they wanted to know about communication skills I talked about dealing with a variety of people from students to staff and parents. And when it comes to motivating, then almost everything you do as a teacher is about influencing behaviour.
Looking back I think I'm much more confident than I was before the programme and less fazed when things go wrong. In teaching, things are going wrong all the time and you have to learn to adjust and cope with a different set of circumstances. Now, when issues come up I'm much better at stepping back and reassessing what's happening and how to deal with it. I also think I'm better at dealing with clients and much more comfortable with taking on responsibility.
As a Teach First ambassador I have negotiated time off work to go back to my school and take some Deloitte staff with me. We're developing a project that will help the students understand more about career opportunities in the City, probably revolving around some kind of business game.
I miss teaching a lot. I enjoyed working with children - they're a lot of fun and you get such fantastic instant feedback on what you are doing. Adults in the professional world are much more guarded by comparison."
John Rendel
Studied: Politics, Philosophy & Economics
(PPE), Oxford University, UK
Taught: Secondary Maths, London (Teach
First)
Current role: CEO and founder of the charity -
Promoting Equality in African Schools (PEAS)
Following his two years on the Teach First Program,
John went on to set up his own charity Promoting Equality in
African Schools. He continues to support Teach First and tap in to
the power of the alumni network by employing former Teach First
participants in his charity:
"For me Teach First was a great opportunity to do something that I would enjoy, that would be personally challenging and that would enhance rather than restrict my options. I looked at the portfolio of schools and felt that these were the schools where you could have the biggest impact and add the most value.
The six-weeks training is a great start but the vast majority of your training is done in the classroom. You also rely a great deal on the in-school mentor. Mine was fantastic - very supportive, making lots of time for me.
In my role with PEAS I have to provide both leadership and effective management and I think my time with Teach First has helped me enormously in this. I've learned about management by consensus and about packaging what you want to achieve for the organisation in a way that appeals to each individual's own motivation.
The PEAS project has really taken off in the last year and we now have a school of 700 pupils up and running, and are in the land acquisition stage for our second school. I'm also working on a volunteer programme that will enable Teach First participants to spend a third year working as teaching consultants to the PEAS project in Uganda.
Teach First has taught me that if you decide you want to do something and you put your mind to it you can make it work and achieve an incredible amount. You are going to fail a bit and succeed a bit - what you have to do, and what Teach First helps you to do - is to develop the resilience to bounce back every time you fail, and learn from it."
Marya Murray Diaz
Studied: International Studies (B.A. / M.A.)
Education (M.A.), Georgetown University (USA)
Taught: Maths, 5th / 6th grade (Teach For
America)
Current role: Schools Operations Manager, KIPP:
Infinity Charter School
Prior
to joining Teach For America, Marya worked at the Center for
Economic and Policy Research in Washington D.C. This is her
story:
"After I completed my graduate degree in international studies, I took a position working at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. I worked on a lot of international and domestic economic policy issues while there, but found the policy environment to be stifling. I wanted to understand firsthand how policies impact the lives of children and their families and thought that teaching in a low-income community would afford me that opportunity.
I ultimately chose to apply to Teach For America over the other alternative certification programs in the D.C. area because it offered the best support and was deeply committed to addressing educational inequity. After working as a bilingual 5th grade teacher, then a 6th grade math teacher, I'm currently working as the Operations Manager at a charter school in West Harlem. I'm learning how to help run a quality organization that is making a real impact on students' and families' lives. Teach For America has allowed me to follow my passion for education and make connections with the educational reform world, which has turned out to be the best professional experience of my life."
