Teach For America: A Leadership Pipeline

Support from FedEx was crucial to bringing Teach For America to Memphis in 2006.  Two years later, Teach For America has placed over 150 corps members in Memphis City Schools and has become a leadership pipeline for schools and administration in the district.  Nearly 15% of all principals in Washington, D.C. are Teach For America alumni as is the Chancellor of schools, Michelle Rhee.  By 2010, Teach For America will have nearly 800 school leaders across the country. Click here to see a recent report on Memphis Fox News Live:

A Prayer for Mumbai

What a tragedy that's unfolding in Mumbai. The financial center of India is under siege. Terrorist outfits equipped with modern arms and ammunition entered several prominent establishments like the Taj Mahal Hotel, Hotel Oberoi and Trident, Chattrapati Shivaji Rail Terminus and wreaked mayhem! My heart cries out for all those impacted by this senseless tragedy. The unknown innocents, the brave policemen who died answering the call of duty, visitors to India who had come for business or pleasure - the number of deceased has crossed the 100 mark as I write this.

Reflections on India

The U.S. and India may be thousands of miles apart, but in many ways, we are getting a lot closer.  One sign of growing U.S.-India ties is the introduction of direct flights that connect the two countries.  It's a relatively new phenomenon and was definitely nice to get on the Boeing 777 aircraft in New Delhi and get off in New York, albeit after 15 hours!From a business perspective, I also wanted to share some reflections from the conversations I had during my recent visit to India:

Lessons Learned About Diversity

One of the best lessons my family taught me as a child was to look for the good in all people. It sounds simplistic but I’ve actually built my life around that basic principle. Looking back on the recent U.S. presidential campaigns, I was reminded of this early childhood lesson that I observed by hanging around my maternal grandparents. You see, my grandmother was a Democrat and my grandfather was a Republican. Both were passionate about their political beliefs but at the end of each kitchen table debate, they would talk about the pride of being an American.

Walk Into the Gap

Do I really understand the education achievement gap? If you were to ask a parent, or even a student, from an economically-challenged community if their school was as good as those on the other side of town, what would they say? In 2005, only 13% of seniors graduating from Locke High School in Los Angeles were eligible to attend college in the Cal State system. This startling statistic was recently shared by Donna Foote, author of Relentless Pursuit, a story about the journy of four Teach For America corps members who taught at Locke.