Teach For America teachers have literally transformed the feeling of this school. They have brought hope and passion, leadership and energy and are making for an amazing school year for our students.
-Karla Jack
Principal of Rosenwald Elementary School
Your welcome begins with a swamp tour and Zydeco dancing in the Cajun homeland; continues in Baton Rouge, LSU country, and ends with our united mission to fuel the newly invigorated movement for educational reform.
| Quick Stats |
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| Site Since: 1990 |
| Corps Size: 74 |
| Average yearly temperature: Ranges from a high of 93.3 degrees to a low of 36.2 degrees |
| Car: Access to a car is essential |
Salary: See cost of living  |
South Louisiana is built around Baton Rouge – already a bustling city in its own right when it was called upon to absorb hundreds of thousands following hurricane Katrina. But this region is not complete without the farming communities of St. Helena and East Feliciana that flank on the east and French and Cajun culture of Pointe Coupee that lies to the west. South Louisiana’s life and history is completely unique to the world.
Teach For America corps members in our region find themselves driving down I-10 with a thermos of coffee in the cup holder, a bag with graded papers in the back seat, and a fellow teacher riding shotgun. On that daily journey, we know that we are on our way to school in a region Teach For America has served for 18 years. In the state consistently ranked 49th or 50th among all states in school performance, the reform movement has come to a head. South Louisiana is considered to be the underdog region; not getting the national attention of post-Katrina New Orleans, but still suffering the same fate of a failing education system called upon to absorb hundreds of thousands following “The Storm”. In South Louisiana:
But South Louisiana is a region of audacity. Driven teachers and administrators have made serious gains in recent years – beginning to shift the culture of low expectations and underachievement to an urgent sense of possibility. Possibility for what our students are able to achieve, what they must achieve to escape this crippling cycle of poverty and poor education. Possibility has manifested into:
This support of Teach For America’s mission extends outside of the education superstructure into the community. Our board of directors consists of concerned people in influential business positions and influential people in the community alike.
Urban Life
Despite being a city of 750,000 people, Baton Rouge is a city of neighborhoods – and no matter where you choose to live during your time here, you will be a part of a neighborhood culture unique among all the others.
There is Spanish Town, a 200-year old neighborhood, comprised of shotgun and bungalow homes, all in the shadow of Huey Long’s pride: the new Louisiana capitol building. A short walk from downtown – and the Saturday favorite Red Stick Farmers Market – Spanish Town is a neighborhood of one way streets where residents are as tolerant and eclectic as they are fans of sitting on their porches, greeting you as you walk to Capitol Grocery for a pint of Kleinpeter’s Ice Cream.
The Garden District is a grid of wide boulevards and beautiful homes where families, professionals, and LSU students who want a bit more peace and quiet. Up and down the boulevard medians, massive live oaks grow from the ground to form a canopy over the lazy streets. This is a neighborhood with children on bicycles and fathers mowing the lawn on Saturdays. It is wonderful for jogging or looking up at the starry sky during nighttime walks with a friend.
Other popular areas include the LSU lakes, Capital Heights, and the Mid-City areas. These three neighborhoods are built around more modest color schemes and street sizes. The permanent residents of these neighborhoods are the families who work the jobs that allow this city of three-quarters of a million people run.
If I-10 as the major artery for the early morning and afternoon commutes, the surface level streets fan out from the interstate like a web, allowing easy access to the neighborhoods and businesses of Baton Rouge. These roads carry employees to work and students to school.
Life in South Louisiana is not life in one of the major American cities – and that is one of its strengths. While Baton Rouge is large enough to offer city-style conveniences, you can still take comfort in the fact that the environment is friendly and personable. The time it takes to travel across town is not only manageable, but if you have a bike it’s 30 minutes; and, just hanging around town you can bump into kids at one of the grocery stores or in a mall or movie theater.
Rural Life
South Louisiana is a land of tradition and celebration. Each town celebrates elements of its past and present with intense pride. High school football teams are not merely a pastime, but defining parts of a town’s identity. The multigenerational crowds seem more like family reunions than spectators at sporting events. Nearly every week brings a new, captivating, often confounding festival, whether it be October’s Forest Festival in Greensburg, the springtime strawberry Festival in Ponchatula, the Highland Games of Jackson, the Blueberry Festival in Clinton, or the Oyster Festival in Amite, the self-appointed oyster-shucking capital of the world.
As fierce as the pride is in South Louisiana communities, it never acts as a barrier to newcomers. In fact, South Louisianans are so proud of their towns and culture that they are eager to bring you in and share their recipes, their church pews, and their latest crop of sweet potatoes. Enter a South Louisiana community, and you are immediately not merely a neighbor, but a member of the family. Just days after moving in, expect phone calls, notes, or care packages. In the blistering heat or blustery storms, expect check-ins from “parents” around town.
Sit-down restaurants and coffee shops are a small sacrifice (though never far from reach in Baton Rouge) in turn for invitations to home-cooked meals and church breakfasts. Seldom does a trip to the grocery store or a walk down the street not involve a chat with a parent, a student, or, at the very least, a friendly fellow citizen.
South Louisiana is desperate, but never depressed. Its people and its culture exude hope, happiness, and ease of life. Poverty and segregation have left scars and impediments to progress, but have not crushed the spirits of the region. Never does our work seem extraneous, but, at the same time, we in the South Louisiana corps need never martyr our sense of pleasure in life.
Corps Culture
Our close-knit community is the foundation upon which we build our successes. Our close-knit community is our own personal scaffolding when our greatest efforts fall short of our expectations. Our corps cherishes hard work, we cherish relentless pursuit – but we have learned, and follow a philosophy of work-life balance.
Corps members in South Louisiana form fierce friendships. The contagious porch-culture affects even the non-natives who join us here. Corps members quickly learn to cook for 25 rather than two, carpool effectively (for weekend gathering and school), and never say “no" to football or frisbee on the Capitol Lawn. If that doesn’t do it for you, our teachers come together for canoeing on the bayou, Mardi Gras, tubing, ”Live after Five” Friday night concerts, and just about anything else that you can do with a friend.
These bonds are more than personal partnerships. The communal nature of the corps lends itself beautifully to building strong professional collaborations. Corps members are clustered at each school site, with an average of three corps members per school. Over 96 percent of corps members teach in a school with at least one other corps member, and many teach alongside Teach For America alumni as well.
Many corps members hold leadership roles at their schools, receive competitive grants, and are recognized as Teachers of the Year in their schools and school districts. Some continue working in their communities after the two years as teachers and school leaders, as students in the numerous graduate programs, as leaders at local nonprofit organizations, think tanks, universities, and businesses.
Our corps members
Placement regions
Corps and Alumni
