University of Alabama at Birmingham seniors Tori Gandy, Yamini Bhat and Adelaide Beckman have been invited to join the 2015 Teach for America Corps. They will spend the next two years teaching in low-income areas throughout America.
Teach for America (TFA) is a nonprofit corps comprising high-achieving recent college graduates and professionals. Corps members are committed to expanding educational opportunities for children facing the challenges of poverty by committing for two years to teach in high-need schools.
The TFA application process is highly competitive, with a 15 percent acceptance rate in 2014. UAB’s new corps members were chosen from more than 50,000 applicants from more than 850 American college and universities. TFA recruits corps members from diverse backgrounds and a wide range of academic disciplines.
Gandy is an applied mathematics major in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematics, with a minor in economics. She has been a member of the UAB Collat School of Business Honors Program, Black Student Awareness Committee, UAB Ambassador Program and a student assistant in UAB’s Office of Counsel. Gandy is also a recipient of the Dean’s Leadership Scholarship. As a member of TFA, Gandy plans to teach high-school math in Chicago.
| The TFA application process is highly competitive, with a 15 percent acceptance rate in 2014. UAB’s new corps members were chosen from more than 50,000 applicants from more than 850 American college and universities. |
Bhat, a member of the UAB Honors CollegeUniversity Honors Program, is majoring in international studies. She has interned at the Birmingham Mayor's Office of Economic Development and the UAB English Language Institute. Bhat also served as 2013-14 captain of UAB’s Mock Trial Team. Bhat plans to spend the next two years teaching math, grades 5-12, in the Greater Nashville area.
Beckman, a communication studies major, is a recipient of the Department of Communication Studies’ James E. Mills Scholarship and the Dean’s Leadership Scholarship. She also is a member of the University Honors Program and was a teaching assistant for the program’s fall interdisciplinary course. On campus, Beckman has been involved as a UAB TrailBlazer and presented an individual paper at the 2014 Southern Regional Honors Conference in Savannah, Georgia. As a member of TFA, Beckman will teach English as a second language.
After graduating, the three TFA volunteers will attend an intensive five-week training program to prepare them for their teaching experience and familiarize them with their regions and school districts. They will begin teaching in August.