I joined Teach For America in 2001 and spent three years at my placement school. I absolutely loved teaching there. I taught fifth grade and every year we would send a number of our fifth graders to YES Prep North Central. One year, I decided I would follow them to YES. I loved YES because I saw how much my students liked YES. The majority of my students attended the local middle school and they always reported how little work they were doing and they didn't always feel they were being pushed. I wanted to be a part of a school system that was pushing students to be college-ready.

I knew by my senior year of college at Texas A&M that I wanted to work for a non-profit, an organization that was motivated by their mission and not just the bottom line. I looked up the various organizations that would be at A&M for the Liberal Arts Career Fair and YES stood out immediately. I talked to YES’s Director of Recruitment and he encouraged me to visit North Central to see the mission in action. Every teacher I talked to was like-minded and only had one thing they wanted to talk about was the students! How great they were, why they needed the best education possible, how they believed every student was going to college… Wow! And every interaction I had with the students proved to me that the kids knew what the teachers knew. Most importantly, the whole school believed they were going to college so they better get to learning. I have now been at YES for a year and a half, and my opinion hasn’t changed. I know that what we are doing here for our students works.

I learned about YES through my Teach For America network, and I heard good things were happening, espcially at YES North Central. Keep in mind, when you're in education, you don't hear a lot of good things. On top of that, I had not heard any bad things, which is also very rare in education.

I was in my fourth year of teaching in Houston ISD, and I was looking for another school that would help me grow as a teacher, in ways that my then current school was not conducive. Specifically, I was looking for strong teachers to learn from, and strong leaders to develop me. I also wanted to experience the dynamics of a smaller school - my school at the time had 2600 students. YES North Central had all of these, so I signed up!

I also heard Craig Brandenburg had really awesome vests :)

Great topic :)

I too was brought into teaching through Teach For America, which brought me to teaching at a Houston middle school in 2005 from being a finance major at the University of Florida. I spent two amazing years there as I saw proof that any child can succeed despite their socioeconomic conditions. After these two years I spent two years in Atlanta, GA, working for Teach For America as a Senior Recruitment Director, piloting TFA's efforts in recruiting college graduates and professionals. I was driven to getting more talented leaders into the classroom, but I still the itch to affect change on the ground level in the classroom. A handful of students that I kept in touch with had enrolled at YES and had wonderful things to say, as did some fellow teahcers, and after visiting I realized I had to come on board.

An education major in college, I have known for a long time that I wanted to teach. I did not, however, feel prepared to teach in low-income, high-needs communities, which is what I wanted to do. I also joined the Teach for America 2007 corps in Phoenix, AZ. After my experiences in Phoenix, seeing the inequalities firsthand, I began thinking about change.

A friend came upon a podcast of Chris Barbic speaking at Vanderbilt University. Just hearing him speak inspired me enough to fly to Houston and check out YES Prep North Central. And like everyone before me has said, it was truly amazing. The school-wide mission was evident from the second I walked in the door. I knew I had to be a part of this...

I found YES because one of my roommates during my time at nearby Rice University led a club twice a week at YES Southeast. She didn't have a driver's license, so every week she would borrow her sister's car so that I could drive her to Southeast. While she led her dance class, I would study and do homework in the same room. I had also heard great things about YES from friends who had graduated and gone on to teach Southeast.

When I visited North Central during my first interview, I fell in love with the students, culture, and mission of the school. Those same things keep me coming back for more every year; I love working alongside colleagues that are dedicated to closing the education gap and pushing students to achieve more than they had ever thought possible.

I do have a lot of nice vests...thanks.

After working for three years at my TFA placement school, I was looking for a school that would push me to grow as an instructor. I loved teaching at my old school, but the professional development and instructional expectations weren't challenging me, or engaging my students. At YES there are amazing examples of excellent instruction all around me. It is an inspiring place to work.

When I graduated from Texas A&M with a business degree, I felt unsatisfied with my options in the business world. Nothing really felt satisfying or challenging. I decided to pursue teaching when I got inspired by Teach for America. I began to feel that teaching in the inner city was my calling. I made the crazy decision to leave behind the business world, moved to Houston, and began the process of getting certified to teach 4th - 8th grade. I connected with a friend of mine, Craig Brandenburg (see above - the one with the vests). He told me about YES, and I fell in love as soon as I walked through the door. It was meant to be for me to work at YES. Six years later, I love every day of my life and my job. I am so lucky to have found such a wonderful place to work, grow, and contribute.

Like many, I heard about Yes through the Teach for America Network. After teaching two years at my TFA placement school I was defiantly fed up with the mediocrity that was accepted from teachers and students in the school I was placed at. I realized that being a good teacher at my placement school meant nothing. I wanted to be challenged by others who wanted to achieve success by measurable standards not just whether your class did their homework or all came to school. I wanted to learn from amazing people while also giving back to the community in which I live and love.

I had visited Yes a number of times before actually applying. It was on my last visit that I spoke with some students. I asked them why they came to Yes and to my surprise the reason they came to Yes was the same reason I think that a lot of teachers come as well-the challenge.