[media-credit name=’CHRISTY PANKRATZ/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]The Madison chapter of Teach for America said they have set an ambitious, but not unreachable goal for the University of Wisconsin this fall.

UW currently has the largest number of students participating in Peace Corps, and Madison-area Teach for America recruitment coordinator Garrett Bucks said Tuesday the university should also be the nation’s top Teach for America-producing school.

"This university should be known as the top public service school in the country for all the primary opportunities for post-graduate service," Bucks said. "This campus needs to be right on top of it.

Teach for America sends recent college graduates in teams ranging from 30 to 500 to teach in underprivileged parts of the country.

According to Bucks, UW has improved from the top 15 in number of applications for Teach for America in 2006 to the top five in 2007, adding the institution could become No. 1.

"[Teach for America] takes the Wisconsin Idea to New York City, to the Appalachian Mountains, to wherever Teach for America sends them," Dean of Students Lori Berquam said. "… And it really is a way for our students to teach for America [and] also touch America because that’s what we’re really doing."

Bucks said Teach for America is not competitive, but it’s a "highly selective program." Last year nearly 18,000 people applied for the program’s 3,700 open positions.

In an informational session Tuesday evening, Kira Orange Jones, executive director for Teach for America in Greater New Orleans, spoke of her initial reaction to the impact Teach for America has had in the area.

"I was just blown away, literally blown away. It changed my perspective of what was possible, and I felt that I needed to be there," Jones said. "I packed myself up in New York and moved two weeks later to New Orleans."

The program, Jones said, has been empowering all those involved in it.

"There is an emerging sense that we can do anything we want to do. We are literally rebuilding an education system from scratch," Jones said. "Before the storm, about 60 percent of schools were deemed unacceptable."

Jones said after the storm hit New Orleans, the area’s academics worsened, and less than a third of the student body came back after the storm.

In the face of this, she said, "relentlessness, determination and creativity are qualities needed by teachers involved in Teach for America."

"I am most proud of my classroom, where I led a class of 24 fourth-graders to academic A’s," Jones said.

Teach for America positions include benefits and salaries ranging from $28,000 to $48,000 per year, and teachers commit to two years of service and also receive a $9,500 bonus for education loan deferrals or future graduate studies.

The process of admission to the program includes an online application, a 30-minute phone interview and an in-person interview.