While many recent college graduates are spending the summer looking for full-time employment, recent Oakland University graduate Julia Hunko already knows where she will be this fall – back in the classroom.
Hunko was selected as one of 4,950 young adults from 45,000 applicants to become a part of Teach for America.
Bridging the gap
Established in 1990, Teach for America is a program of AmeriCorps that trains recent college graduates and professionals to teach in low-income schools in the inner-cities and rural areas of the U.S. Their focus is to ensure educational equality for all students.
“The program has a main goal of trying to end the achievement gap between the better-income school districts and the lower-income school districts,” said Hunko, who received her bachelor’s degree in political science from OU in April. “If you go to an inner-city school, a lot of the kids have a lower reading level than they do in the suburbs.”
Hunko’s interest was sparked by her sister, who has has been a part of Teach for America for three years, teaching eighth-grade English in the Bronx. Hunko plans to attend law school in the future, but wanted to do something worthwhile before she takes that next step.
“I wanted to do something, either volunteer work like Peace Corps or AmeriCorps, so I decided on Teach for America because I felt really strongly about their specific mission of ending the achievement gap,” she said.
Happy to learn
A trip to Israel in the summer of 2009 helped reinforce her decision to apply for the program.
She went on the OU-sponsored trip as a part of the Michigan-Central Galilee Partnership 2000 Program to teach English acquisition to sixth-grade students.
“Those kids were adorable, wonderful. It was so great when they would learn something new. You would see it in their whole expression,” Hunko said. “They were just so happy that they were learning English.”
After returning from Israel, Hunko began the extensive application process, which was due at the end of September.
The online application included personal information, two references, a resume and an essay about why she wanted to become a part of Teach for America.
Hunko then had to wait a month and a half before she was chosen for a half-hour phone interview with a former Corps member who taught in Philadelphia.
Another month later and she made it to the last step of the process, an in-person, day-long interview in Detroit with six other applicants from the area.
“In the morning we did a group interview. Then you had to teach a lesson for five minutes in the subject area you chose. I chose seventh-grade social studies and taught the three branches of the government.”
After lunch came a 90-minute individual interview -— her last chance to impress.
“They asked really interesting, kind of random, questions,” Hunko said. “They were asking what your hardest class in college was and how you got through the course. They asked why you wanted to join Teach for America.”
Another scenario involved a mock parent-teacher conference with a parent whose child had been misbehaving.
They were also very interested in her experience with Model United Nations, a club Hunko started at OU in 2008 and has since won multiple awards while serving as president.
“One of the things that they really look for is leadership qualities. They want something on your resume that is a leadership role.”
Eventually, the 8-hour day came to an end and yet another waiting game began. It wasn’t until the end of January that the status of her application was going to to be posted online, and Hunko found herself checking the website every five minutes to see if she had been accepted.
The good news finally came when she returned home from her job at the College of Arts and Sciences advising office one night.
“I was very happy,” Hunko said. “I worked so hard; that application process was crazy. People I was talking to at the interview were like, ‘You’re still in school? How are you doing this if you’re still in school? That’s crazy.’ It was very exciting.”
Getting accepted
Many of those accepted into Teach for America come from big name, Ivy League schools, so Hunko is proud to stand out from the crowd with her OU degree.
“I think Oakland is what you make of it. Oakland is very up-and-coming from what it used to be a few years ago. It’s made leaps and bounds, and people who know what Oakland is respect it, which is what I like about it.”
The education she’s received at Oakland has helped prepare her for the fast-paced training that is in store for her this summer.
Hunko chose Chicago as the city she is going to be teaching in for the next two years, and moves there this week to begin certification and placement at a school.
“From what I understand, the first week is just introduction to the program, to the people. After that I will start teaching at a summer school. They pretty much just throw you in.”
In the mornings, Hunko will take classes at Dominican University in suburban Chicago to receive her teaching certification from the state of Illinois. In the afternoon, she will be teaching.
Outside of the classroom, she has textbooks to study, questions to answer, and a DVD of teachers giving lessons to reflect on.
Teach for America provides trainees with a dorm to stay in and meals during training, as well as financial aid to ease the transition and help find a permanent home at the end of the summer.
“They really do help you. They don’t just throw you out into the wolves and say, ‘Find an apartment,’” Hunko said. “It really helps with the down payment because you don’t get paid until mid-September. That’s your first paycheck.”
When the fall does come, Hunko will be receiving the same salary and benefits of other certified teachers in the city of Chicago.
“I’m really excited to be on my own and be in Chicago. I’m going to have a real job, after having my bachelor’s for less than three months,” Hunko said.
For her, though, the best part of the package was guaranteed health insurance.
“To me, that is worth it all. I am so excited to have that security.”
Advice for students
Her main piece of advice to other students that are considering the Teach for America program is to remember what it’s all about.
“Be serious about what the program is. This is not something you go into lightly,” she said. “Understand that it is two years of your life that is committed to something great like ending the achievement gap. If you can do that, then you should think about applying. Just go into it knowing that it will probably be the hardest thing you will ever do.”
As she prepares to move to Chicago, Hunko still has her fears as she starts this new chapter in her life. Being responsible for education can be a large load to carry.
“I’m afraid that I’m going to be a bad teacher,” Hunko said. “I just hope that I am a good teacher. I don’t want to mess up anybody’s sixth-grade English or social studies course. I want them to like me, you know? But I feel so happy that I have a job, and I will be teaching and I will be doing something that is worth something.”
