When Colin Sorensen (’13) steps into his fifth grade classroom, he doesn’t know what the day will bring, but he doesn’t back down from the challenge. A year ago, he made the decision to work for Teach for America after graduating from CU-Boulder.
Teach for America is a non-profit organization addressing educational needs in the United States. Motivated to expand opportunities in the U.S., recent graduates uproot themselves and relocate to areas of high educational need.
“Ten days after graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder, I moved to New Orleans to participate in Teach for America,” Sorensen shares. “Between the kids, culture, and poverty, New Orleans is, frankly, very different from Boulder, with few similarities. My first year was rough. I came home almost every day having been defeated in one way or another.” Sorensen struggled with adjusting to his new environment and career, but didn’t give up on New Orleans or on the students in his science classroom.
Teach for America employs high achieving college graduates to teach in schools across the U.S., and the classroom can be a learning challenge for new teachers as well as students. Sorensen explains, “Teaching requires a lot of skills, but at its core, it demands people skills.” For someone so new to the classroom, Sorensen felt he had a lot to learn. Fortunately for Sorensen, moving to New Orleans was his second opportunity to interact with new people in a different dynamic.
In spring 2011, Sorensen was awarded an IAFS Global Grant to study abroad in Wellington, New Zealand. Prior to his experience abroad, he described himself as “timid, shy, and interested in staying close to my known surroundings.” In New Zealand, he overcame obstacles by strengthening his communication skills and learning everyday norms of the local culture: “Being immersed in a different society with people of diverse backgrounds forced me to come out of my comfort zone and grow as a person.”
Today, Sorensen has come out of his comfort zone and into his science classroom in New Orleans. As he enters his second year of working with Teach for America, he feels prepared and more established, and New Orleans is now his home away from home. He says, "Someday, I would like to work in education administration, perhaps. Right now, I am just focused on teaching my new students and have come back [from summer break] ready to go. Communication in the classroom is stronger this year; my students have been listening – and more importantly – learning.”