Teach First – Investing by Making a Difference

Ever since I was little I dreamed about becoming a teacher and taking care of kids within and beyond a classroom. I strongly believed that good teachers were the leaders of tomorrow and that they were a key element to a strong society. Ask yourselves this question: Would you be here without the one inspirational teacher who believed in you and pushed you to the top? I know that I would not. My parents moved me around a lot when I was little and I was educated in French my whole life. When they decided to put me in an International school aged sixteen-where the main language was English-I started to give upon my big dreams of making it to a prestigious university in France. I was convinced that I would never have sufficient grades to apply where I wanted (as my English was really poor). My literature teacher believed in me from the start, pushing me to apply to even more prestigious universities; they were not the best in France. They belonged to the best in the world. He was an exceptional teacher, the kind of person that does not look at your academic record alone, seeing much more in you than a nondescript kid with ‘such and such’ grades.

Somewhere along the line I grew up, became realistic and went off to university convinced that I would end up working in a fancy corporate bank like my mother. I decided to give up on my dream to become, one day, one of those inspirational people.

Despite this, when you really believe in something, no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to push it away and pretend it does not exist. I tried to forget about all this until one day, when I met Sophia, the Teach First graduate recruiting officer on campus at the time. She seemed so passionate about her job and Teach First’s vision that my drive for teaching immediately resurfaced. Her message was simple: the British education system is unfair and children with a disadvantaged background are clearly left behind others who are more fortunate. I could drown you with numbers to support this claim but let me just leave you with a few notable statistics: 16% of children eligible for free school meals make it to university. Contraast this with 96% of children coming from independent schools! Really? Teach First’s mission is to change those numbers and turn around the current situation. How do they do that? They empower people like you and I to take action and join their movement. There are many ways in which you can participate and make a difference. You can become a Brand Manager like me (and write articles about your life at 10pm!), apply for their Leadership Development Programme (if you are into teaching or fancy working for their partners after the programme...or both!). Furthermore, you can raise awareness of all of Teach First’s good work. Do you want to change lives and make society better? Are you interested in the corporate world but feel like you want to do something that takes precedence? Take up the challenge. Teach First!

If you would like to find out more about Teach First sign up to the Employer Presentation on Monday 28th of October at 6 pm in The Read Lecture Theatre, Sherfield Building via JobsLive.