Woman offers her unique skill set to Teach for America

Talking to Justine McQueary is like drinking Red Bull. Her energy is contagious. She makes the jaded feel hopeful, the tired feel energetic and the cynical feel like perhaps the world isn't going to hell after all.

The 22-year-old with the dark curly hair walks and talks fast and has a purpose and a plan to make the world better.

"In college I studied economics and politics and thought I'd be able to change the world," McQueary said.

McQueary could be on Wall Street making big bucks with her bachelor's in economics from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Her background includes internships with a district judge in Elko, then-Congressman Dean Heller and the Parliament of the United Kingdom. With her background, she seemed like a natural for the law or politics or economic research.

Except she decided those options wouldn't make a big impact. "It was not where my heart was."

Instead, this year she joined the Teach for America program and is teaching pre-algebra to eighth-grade students at Dell H. Robison Middle School in a low-income neighborhood near Bonanza Road and Nellis Boulevard. She is earning the salary of a beginning teacher and has made a two-year commitment.

Never heard of Teach for America? It's a program that recruits cream of the crop teachers who are mostly from nontraditional majors.

Like 93 percent of the people in the program, McQueary didn't major in education. Her training consisted of a five-week program in Los Angeles, and she has a teaching coach to provide feedback on her efforts.

McQueary is a Nevadan, raised in Elko County, a member of a cattle ranching family. From grades one through eight, she went to school in a two-room schoolhouse in Ruby Valley.

The best part of the job for McQueary? "I wake up every morning and know this is what I should be doing," she said with conviction.

The hardest part? "I have so much to learn," she said with humility.

Independent studies in Louisiana, North Carolina and Tennessee have shown the Teach for America teachers do at least as well and on average are more effective, especially in math and science, than the average new teachers.

Natalie Laukitis, a spokeswoman for Teach for America, said McQueary's energy and passion are typical of corps members. The competition is stiff, with 48,000 applying in 2012 and an average of 15 percent winning acceptance.

In Las Vegas this school year, the Teach for America program has nearly doubled in size from last year and now boasts of 170 teachers. Laukitis credited the increase to both the need and strong support from the Clark County School District, which sees the benefit of hiring teachers with a wide range of backgrounds to work in low-income areas. She also credited community partners: Zappos, Windsong Trust and Caesars Entertainment Foundation.

Teach for America was proposed in 1989 by 21-year-old Wendy Kopp, another high-energy woman, who suggested it in her senior thesis at Princeton University. She raised $2.5 million to start it in 1990 with 500 members. Today, 28,000 people are alumni, another 10,000 are in the program. In Las Vegas, Teach for America began in 2004 when the school population was burgeoning.

Three million students were taught by teachers who became teachers via Kopp's idea of offering a nontraditional route to recruit outstanding teachers, mainly from other fields, and send them to needy areas, both rural and urban.

Can McQueary be considered an outstanding teacher after less than two months on the job?

Probably not. But it's likely she will be. She has it in her to succeed at whatever she does.

With all the doors that could open for her, Justine McQueary wants to teach and is the kind of teacher we want.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.