BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Post-graduation plans vary for every Illinois Wesleyan student; some will enter the workforce right away, while others will continue on to grad school, but for recent graduate Christy Ivie, these plans include a two-year commitment to the Teach for America Corps.
Ivie, originally from Galesburg, Ill., graduated from Illinois Wesleyan in 2009 with a bachelor of arts degree in sociology. She will spend the next two years teaching first grade in Greenwood, Miss. as a part of the Teach for America Corps.
“My sophomore year of college I took a sociology of education course with Dr. Evans-Winters, and it opened my eyes to the inequalities that exist in the United States education system,” said Ivie, who comes from a family of elementary school teachers, both her mother and her grandmother teach lower level grades. “I remember a quote that one of my professors, Dr. Teddy Amaloza, had on a mug in her office: Teach for justice, not for privilege. The more I thought about it, the more I became excited to spend some years in the classroom. When I began looking for options for after graduation, Teach for America just seemed like the right fit.”