>> There's actually two sides of that: there's the side of working at your school site
with school staff and with your students, and then there's working with your colleagues
and Teach for America, both your core member, other teachers, and the staff.
So on -- you'll get to work with some of the hardest working, most passionate,
amazing people who inspire you on a day-to-day basis,
and your students will inspire and motivate you constantly.
So you will learn at least as much as your students, if not a lot more.
I had one student, Pablo, who I think about often because he would --
he was really short when he was in fifth grade, and I was really short.
I still am pretty short.
So he was a rascal, and he would, like,
hide around my classroom doing naughty things, and I'd catch him.
And I think, to him, he wasn't typically held accountable to doing things,
so since I was pushing on him both academically and behaviorally, he...
he came in very low, at least three or four grade levels behind.
I don't think he'd ever gotten an A, if not a B. We worked really hard.
And through seventh grade, he made it.
And I think he ended up with a B plus.
But he did really well.
I wasn't really sure where that would go or if it would stick, but I was actually sitting
on USC campus when I was recruiting the year after I left the classroom,
like right out on the fountain by that beautiful horse statue, and he called me.
And I hadn't heard from him in months.
And he called to tell me that he had gotten his first grade report, and he had straight As,
and he is now on the student council.
>> Wow.
>> And I was just blown away.
So not only are you affecting change in that year, but you are affecting long-term,
potentially life-altering change for students.