As the national call for recruiting talented college graduates into classrooms gains momentum, alumni of Minnesota's private colleges are entering the profession in a variety of ways. Many Minnesota teachers get into the field through traditional teacher education programs, including at Minnesota's Private Colleges, which have programs that are continually innovating to meet current needs (see the recent story, Teaching our teachers). Increasing numbers of students also seek exposure to teaching before deciding on it as a career — and sometimes they enter the field via alternative programs.

Some programs give graduates immediate teaching experience, with the chance to work toward state certification and a master's degree. Others get undergraduates into the classroom by assigning them to teach summer school, letting them decide whether to pursue the profession later.

College graduates have always been drawn to the education profession, but today's students have a unique outlook and are primed for these opportunities.

"We know that millenials have the values of civic service and giving back instilled in them; they don't care about money, but they do care about being recognized as a leader," said Daniel Sellers, executive director of Teach for America Twin Cities. "What an alternative teaching certification program does is allow them to immediately become a leader of a classroom."

The interest in teaching extends beyond a single program. John Clarkson, associate director of the career center at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, said he has seen increased interest in programs that provide a pathway into teaching in the past five years. The media emphasis on the need for more bright young teachers has driven this interest, Clarkson said, including the publicity Teach for America has recently received.

He said his career center promotes many alternative certification teaching programs, including Alliance for Catholic Education programs, which are located in high-need communities across the country and involve placing graduates as Catholic school teachers.

"These programs are especially appealing to someone who decides late in their college career that they want to join the teaching profession," Clarkson said, because finishing an education degree is almost impossible unless a student determines their interest early.

Breakthrough St. Paul: Students teaching students
Breakthrough St. Paul is one program that gives undergraduates education majors a chance to spend time with secondary students in an urban classroom before they student teach. Being an education major isn't a requirement, said Breakthrough St. Paul's executive director Emily Wingfield.

"I'd say a little more than half of them are education majors," Wingfield said. "We say you don't have to know if you want to be a teacher, but there has to be a part of you that's wondering if it's for you."

She said that 83% of aspiring teachers in Breakthrough do go on to become teachers, which is what Bethany Ames and Kirstyn Erickson plan to do. Both are Bethel University education majors; Ames' subject area is life science while Erickson's is English. As intern teachers with Breakthrough this summer, they worked five days a week with selected St. Paul Public School middle school students.

Student participants must make a six-year student commitment to the program. Beginning after sixth grade, they participate in a rigorous academic and enrichment summer program designed to prepare them for high school honors courses and ultimately college. During the school year, monthly Saturday study skill sessions are held; in high school, students receive laptop computers and support from Breakthrough tutors if they need it.

Getting accepted to Breakthrough is competitive for both middle-schoolers and intern teachers — about a third of those who apply in each group get in. For teachers in particular, the summer commitment is intense, with ten to 12 hour days of teaching, lesson planning and all-staff meetings.

For Ames, who planned her own eighth-grade genetics unit, it was worth it. "It was challenging, but the program really allows you to see the effect you can have on a students' life in six weeks. It's hard to put into words what it meant to me."

Erickson said she was drawn to Breakthrough because it provided additional teaching experience and because of the program's vision — to "help underserved students see college as part of their future," she said.

That vision is coming true. This summer marks Breakthrough's sixth year in St. Paul (it is part of a national program in 32 U.S. cities), so the first group of sixth-graders just graduated from high school. Every student in that first cohort will attend college this fall, Wingfield said. Students are heading to Stanford University, Carleton College, St. Catherine University and the University of St. Thomas, among other institutions. Many received significant scholarships.

Teach for America now serves Minnesota
For Daniel Sellers, applying for and joining Teach for America after his '06 graduation from Gustavus Adolphus College was not necessarily about aiming to make teaching a career — it was about a moral responsibility to try to end the achievement gap, which he calls "an atrocity."

"For me, it was about a commitment to service and community. It allowed me to live up to the values that were instilled in me at Gustavus," he said.

Sellers taught sixth grade math in eastern North Carolina for his two year assignment; while there, his students made significant strides in tests scores, he said. The position was challenging but gratifying: "Teaching is the most difficult entry level position that exists, but there is an incredible reward in teaching students and helping them grow."

In 2008 he made the difficult decision to leave that school to help start a new branch of Teach for America in the Twin Cities, where he serves as executive director. "I'm actually affecting more students in this position," Sellers said.

Having recently celebrated its 20^th anniversary in 2009, Teach for America is a program that no longer needs much of an introduction. It aims to close the achievement gap between wealthy and poor students, between white students and students of color, by recruiting top college graduates to commit to teaching two years at an under-resourced school after a six-week training program. Teach for America has become extremely competitive in the past few years, as more applicants vie for 5,400 positions.

Sellers noted that even as Teach for America has become more competitive, large percentages of the graduating classes at Minnesota's Private Colleges continue to apply; Macalester College, for instance, had 12% of its 2011 graduating seniors do so. These students are also accepted at a higher rate than what is typical nationally. "The private schools (in Minnesota) are incredibly competitive in their applications."

He said having Teach for America in Minnesota for the past three years has had an extra benefit. "One of the things I'm most excited about is that Minnesota has been a huge exporter of TFA talent in the past 20 years. It's exciting that now we can recruit our best and brightest and place them here."

Alliance for Catholic Education: Service through Teaching
After attending 13 years of Catholic school and then Saint John's University, Pat Sitzer '11 discovered his post-graduation plans while at his job in the career center: spend at least two more years at a Catholic school, this time as a teacher.

"I've always been interested in teaching and I wanted to do service after graduation. I've been lucky enough to attend Catholic schools my whole life, so I wanted to give back in that way," he said.

After learning about the Alliance for Catholic Education Service through Teaching program at Notre Dame University, Sitzer applied and was accepted. He just spent six weeks teaching summer school to prepare him to teach third grade at a parochial school in New Orleans. As part of the program, he will take education classes at Notre Dame, finishing his master's degree in two years.

Though he's looking forward to the experience, he said he knows it will be difficult. "I've been told that the problems at New Orleans schools are some of the worst in the country."

So far, though, the philosophy major said he would recommend the program to others, in part because of the amount of new-teacher support built into it. "You have an on-site mentor teacher, a pastoral administrator who visits at least once a semester and an academic supervisor. I can constantly call anyone (at Notre Dame) if I need something — and I won't hesitate to do that."

The program also groups participants into living communities, so they have the shared experience of being first-year teachers. Sitzer said he's gotten support from his old place of employment as well. "I got incredible encouragement from the career center staff, the faculty residents and some members of the monastic community, as well as some former teachers I had."

Sitzer anticipates staying in the teaching profession after his commitment ends. "It's hard to say for sure as a naïve first-year teacher, but I do see myself staying in the education field."