Wendy Kopp award and Teach For America stats

I attended the annual gala last night for the Manhattan Institute, which gave Wendy Kopp its annual award.  It is so well deserved!  What she has built over the past 21 years is the nonprofit equivalent of Google. 

I've posted her remarks (10 min) here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_o_xbZGHQ

 

My favorite quotes:

 

A) "Four years ago, if your kid was born in New Orleans and was destined to attend the New Orleans public schools, there was no reason for hope.  We met 8^th graders coming into our classrooms at the 2^nd grade level.  Got there now.  I spent two days walking around public schools in New Orleans, thinking 'I'd send my kids to any one of these.'  The entrepreneurial energy there is absolutely remarkable."

 

B) "What gives me optimism therefore is what's happening on our college campuses.  There are 47,000 people competing to challenge their energy into Teach for America this year.  18% of Harvard's senior class and 40% of the African-American seniors at Harvard competed to enter Teach for America.  We'll bring in more people this year than we brought in in the whole first decade of our work."