Alum impacts South Bronx community through Teach for America
Chris Pepple |
For Natalie Bradley (’08), an Internet search for nonprofit organizations changed her career path in unexpected ways. Bradley, who majored in communications and minored in Bible at Lipscomb University, wanted to find opportunities to give back to society. While completing her degree, she searched the Internet for volunteer opportunities hoping to find nonprofit agencies that shared her ideals.
“I knew that I wanted to do something that helped society, and I have always been very interested in everyone having freedom. I believe that education is one of the only means to freedom, so I decided to look online for nonprofits that had the same ideals. I found Teach for America off of that, and I applied. Now I am teaching sixth grade at Urban Science Academy in the South Bronx,” said Bradley, who is originally from Johnson City, Tenn. The Urban Science Academy is a middle school serving three neighborhoods of the South Bronx with instruction in grades five through eight. The school has an enrollment of approximately 485 students.
Teach for America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates and professionals of all academic majors and career interests who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. Their corps members work to ensure that more students growing up today in our country's lowest-income communities are given the educational opportunities they deserve. In the long run, their alumni are a powerful force of leaders working from inside education and from every other sector to effect the fundamental changes needed to ensure that all children have an equal chance in life.
“I decided to teach because I want to be able to give students the same opportunities that I have had. Teaching has impacted my life by making me very patient. It has also taught me a lot about unconditional love. Because this is my first year teaching, I am continually growing and have interesting interactions every day. There are a few students who I have seen turn themselves around and truly apply themselves. Although this may seem basic, there is no better feeling than investing tons of efforts, prayers, and hopes into a student who most think won't make it, and then after almost giving up, seeing them blossom,” said Bradley.
While at Lipscomb, Bradley had an opportunity to see the desire for freedom many people experience and the gratitude many feel when given educational opportunities when she took a literature course in the Tennessee Prison for Women. The course was offered as part of an innovative Lipscomb program that brings traditional students and the inmates of the prison together to study a liberal arts topic. Bradley felt the course gave her a new perspective. “I’m really learning the beauty of humanity and the beauty of people. I very much have a heart to learn by walking in other people’s shoes,” she said.
The Teach for America program adds a new dimension to Bradley’s ongoing growth and service. “This is an amazing program. You really are in it to change lives, including yours,” she said. “In saying that, this is also a very demanding job. There are many high stakes. If you are to do this, you need to make sure you are committed because these kids can't afford to become hopeful by someone who says they care to make a difference in their lives and then get let down by abandonment. Although this is the hardest thing I have ever done thus far in my life, I love it and would not change it for anything.”