Kamehameha Alumni Share Gift of Learning Through Teach For America

September 30, 2009

Contributed by Thomas Yoshida

Danielle Espiritu and Kristen-Marie Ortiz join seven other Hawai'i residents as corps members, who are currently teaching in public schools statewide during the 2009-2010 school year. The Teach For America Hawai'i group currently totals more than 120 active corps members.

"Our mission is to eliminate the educational achievement gap that exists between children who grow up in higher income neighborhoods and those who grow up in lower income neighborhoods," said Jill Murakami Baldemor, executive director of Teach For America Hawai'i. "We recruit the nation's most promising future leaders and channel them into education and into our schools in need so that they can work to achieve educational equity in the classroom. Through their experience, they also gain the insight and conviction to go on to become lifelong leaders in education."

In Hawai'i, the corps members commit to teach for at least two years in high-need communities. Teach For America collaborates with the State Department of Education, who then hires the corps members as teachers.

"I had an interest in working with kids who are at risk and in under resourced schools," said Kristen-Marie Ortiz, who teaches fifth grade at Kealakehe Elementary School. "I felt so privileged and so fortunate to have gone to Kamehameha. I was looking for a way to give back."

Meanwhile on O'ahu, Danielle Espiritu keeps busy teaching seventh grade social studies at Highlands Intermediate School. Like her Kapālama campus classmate, Espiritu shares a passion for closing the academic achievement gap and making a positive impact on the community.

"I went to Kamehameha for high school and before that, a small private school on the windward side, so education with family, and especially after going to Kamehameha, was definitely something that I was taught to value and I could see direct benefits from," Espiritu said. "So being able to come back to Hawai'i and be part of this educational experience with a new generation of students, is indescribable."

Espiritu and Ortiz spent five weeks in Houston, Texas, this past summer attending the Teach For America Institute. The pair persevered through an extremely intensive and rigorous schedule in preparation to become quality educators.

"We went to class to learn about teaching philosophy and classroom management," Espiritu said. "I also got to teach summer school at an elementary school in Houston. So in the last few weeks, we'd teach for one period and then we would rotate between our own classes." They continue to challenge themselves as full-time students. Espiritu and Ortiz are both enrolled in educational master's programs at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. It's part of their Teach For America program requirements.

"Especially coming from Hawai'i, it helps the students to see their teachers coming from communities like them, who have similar histories," Ortiz said. "It's so important to have those visual role models in their classrooms."

According to Baldemor, so many exciting things are already happening in and outside of the classroom.

"At Wai'anae Intermediate, we had two teachers teaching the eighth grade math curriculum and they helped to more than double their schools' Hawai'i State Assessment scores," Baldemor said. "We also had a teacher start the first Advanced Placement Art History class at Campbell High School and she took her students on an educational trip to view art in Paris. Education is fundamentally important, and all kids really have the potential to achieve at high levels if given the opportunity."

Teach For America's network includes 7,300 current corps members teaching in 35 regions and nearly 17,000 alumni working to address educational inequality across the country. For more information on Teach For America, visit www.teachforamerica.org.

The Teach For America Hawaii corps has more than 120 members, teaching in public school classrooms across the state. (Photo ourtesy of Teach For America)