Teach for America has announced that Denison University is a top provider of talent for the program, which develops and supports a diverse network of leaders around the nation. Among its peers, Denison ranks fourth in the nation, tied with Davidson College. Ten recent alumni participants are helping young people in the classroom this year.
Denison President Adam Weinberg said, “The work of colleges is to prepare students to be engaged citizens in a democratic society. Nothing is more important than the work we do through education. We are exceptionally proud of our students who are committing themselves to Teach for America.”
Hank Malin, executive director for Denison’s Knowlton Center for Career Exploration, said, “Teaching children is an incredibly important way to impact society. Teachers need to be focused, resilient, and excellent communicators to succeed. Denison students are able to harness a liberal arts education that reaches across multiple academic fields, so they are effective in a wide variety of classrooms. And their soft skills, such as presenting, writing and persuasion, are especially useful in teaching, and translate very well to careers across the professions.”
Denison faculty model excellent teaching and life skills to their students. Mentorship by faculty, coaches, staff, and peers is a crucial platform of the college, as evidenced by a recent national survey, in which Denison seniors report high-quality relationships with faculty. Students build strong, enduring relationships with faculty, talk with them about career plans, and discuss course concepts, topics and ideas with faculty outside of class.
In fact, Denison seniors were significantly more likely across all the survey topics to say their college experience was game-changing — especially in education, faculty mentorship, well-being, and skills development. Looking back at their time on campus, 93 percent of Denison seniors rate their entire educational experience as “excellent” or “good,” a rate that surpasses seniors’ ratings at other elite institutions.