May 29, 2010 - Claremont, Calif. -

Harvey Mudd College seniors Ben Keller and Maureen Ruiz have been selected to join Teach For America, the national corps of top recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. The organization seeks students who demonstrate achievement, leadership, perseverance, and a commitment to expanding opportunity for children in low-income areas.

Ruiz, the outgoing president of the Associated Students of HMC, is a biology major with a focus in neuroscience. She will join the more than 7,000 corps members teaching in 35 regions across the country and 17,000 alumni working from within education and many other sectors to create the systemic changes that will help end educational inequity. Ruiz will be teaching in Denver, Colo.

Keller said he decided to join Teach for America because he felt it would have a more direct impact than grad school. “I believe that I have an opportunity to use what I've learned at Mudd to make a real difference in the lives of children underserved by our nation's education system,” he said. “I also think that it will broaden my own perspectives and help me to grow as a person.

Keller will be teaching in a charter school in Washington, DC. He plans to resume his electrical engineering education by pursuing graduate studies at UC Berkeley, where he has deferred admission.

After approximately 30 hours of independent work and observation of experienced teachers, corps members attend an intensive five-week training institute and a regional orientation to the schools and communities in which they will be teaching. At the institute, corps members teach in summer school programs, receive feedback from veteran teachers, and complete a regimen of seminars and practice sessions designed to build the capabilities required to advance student achievement. During their regional orientation, corps members complete additional training sessions on establishing clear goals for their students’ achievement, planning for instruction, and preparing to use data to inform their approach.

Keller said his time at HMC served as an impetus to join Teach for America. "The most important aspect of my Mudd education was the development of an understanding that science is not a goal in itself, but rather a means to furthering the betterment of society.”

Admission to Teach For America is highly selective, with 15 percent of applicants earning acceptance to the 2009 corps.

In 1989, Wendy Kopp proposed the creation of a national teacher corps in her senior thesis at Princeton University. Convinced that many accomplished recent college graduates seek work that offers significant responsibility and makes a real difference in the world, the 21-year-old Kopp raised $2.5 million of start-up funding, hired a skeleton staff, and launched a grassroots recruiting campaign. During Teach For America’s first year (1990), 500 corps members taught in six low-income communities. Today, 7,300 corps members are teaching in 35 regions.

Teach For America is a member of AmeriCorps, the national service network, through which corps members are eligible to receive loan forbearance and interest payment on qualified student loans, as well as an education award of $4,725 at the end of each year of service.