Willie Brewster
The New Albany School District is pleased to announce that Willie Brewster, a 2008 graduate of New Albany High School (NAHS), has been accepted into the Teach for America Program.
While at NAHS, Brewster served as Student Body President, was Drum Major for the Pride of New Albany, and was selected to the NAHS Hall of Fame. He will be graduating with honors in May 2012 from Mississippi State University (MSU) earning a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a concentration in Broadcasting as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a concentration in Pre-Law. During his time at MSU, he has been a member of the Shackouls Honors College, a President’s List Scholar, a MSU Orientation Leader, and a MSU Roadrunner.
The Teach for America program places recent graduates, graduate students, and professionals in underserved urban or rural public schools for two-year teaching stints. In 2011, the organization had 48,000 applicants apply for the program; however, they only had an 11% acceptance rate. For 2011, the incoming teachers had an average GPA of 3.6 and all of them had held some sort of leadership position in college, according to Teach for America. Twenty-two percent are the first in their family to earn a college degree, nearly a third received Pell Grants and more than a third are racial minorities. Schools that produce large numbers of Teach for America Corp members are: Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Duke, Yale, Vanderbilt, Emory, Stanford, and Boston College.
Brewster has been assigned to teach elementary education in Jacksonville, Florida. He is uncertain as to the specific grade level and subjects he will be teaching. He will be inducted in Jacksonville from June 13-16, attend training in Chicago from June 17- July 21, and will begin his teaching duties July 30. Benefits of the program include: full teacher salary, full teacher benefits such as health insurance and retirement, and $10,000 AmeriCorps scholarship to go toward either student loans or graduate school.
Note: The New Albany School District is proud of all its graduates. If you know of a graduate who has received an honor, please e-mail Melanie Shannon, Public Relations at mshannon@newalbany.k12.ms.us.
