I am a BU alumnus and former Freep staffer currently teaching in the Mississippi Delta through Teach For America. With the deadline for applications coming up on Friday, I wanted to encourage BU seniors to apply for TFA. Below is an open letter to BU seniors. I can be reached at home at (662)326-7145 or on my cell at (205)249-4104.

Dear BU Seniors, Children in many of today’s schools are falling behind, yet every day receiving an excellent education becomes more important in order to compete in tomorrow’s world. These children do not suffer from a lack of intelligence, but from a lack of opportunity. You know a quality education is fundamentally necessary for a quality future; what will you do to ensure that it is provided for tomorrow’s leaders?

You have the power to begin making an impact right after walking across the graduation stage in May. You can help solve this problem, and I implore you to apply to Teach For America before the final deadline on Friday February 17.

I graduated from CAS and COM in 2004, and after spending a year working in Washington, DC, I joined TFA not as a choice, but as a duty. Ensuring quality futures for members of the next generation is not a choice any of us have. It is a responsibility we must embrace.

As seniors on the brink of graduating, you have nearly succeeded and will live your lives successfully. If you are like me, you have never had to worry about receiving a superb education. By joining Teach For America, you will have the opportunity to pass on this opportunity to children who need someone in their lives to believe they can succeed.

Last fall, in the sixth grade reading class that I teach, one student refused to read aloud. When I spoke to her privately about this problem, she told me that she stuttered when she read, and it embarrassed her because the other students laughed at her. I smiled and told her that when I was her age, I was terrified of speaking in front of class, but look at me now – I speak in front of class all day. The only way to get over it is just by jumping in and doing it, even if it hurts at first, I said. But, I promised her, you will get better – guaranteed.

As I soon found out, all she needed was someone to give her hope. Now, her hand is one of the first that shoots up when I ask for volunteers to read, and her stuttering has nearly disappeared.

In a country as prosperous and powerful as ours, why do not all Americans have this hope?

The rising tides of prosperity have not reached everyone, and those among us who have benefited the most must fulfill our debt of service to the society that has lifted and supported us. During your last “100 days,” you may be wondering what to do after walking across that stage in May. For many children growing up in low income communities, that graduation less than four months away for you may not even be a distant dream.

Students raised in low-income areas are seven times less likely to graduate from college than their peers in higher income communities. If we do not declare this our generation’s civil rights issue and do something about it, who will?

Teach For America is building a movement to change our students’ futures. We are working to close the achievement gap in America so that the “lottery of birth” does not determine life opportunities. Corps members are closing this gap in the classroom, while TFA alumni – in medicine, law, policy, journalism and business just to name a few fields – are building the momentum to achieve our goal.

While introducing his plan for a Great Society, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that “our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination.” Today, we still have a long way to go, and we need your help. Too many young minds today cannot imagine a world beyond even the reaches of their neighborhood, but you have the power to change this.

In addition to the impact on the lives of students, corps members gain invaluable professional experience while receiving full-time pay and full benefits – and the advantage of the relationships TFA has with many of the country’s top graduate schools.

It would be difficult to fix all of the world’s problems, but I cannot think of a better place to start than TFA, where you can assure future generations will be scanning the farthest reaches of their thought and imagination.

Check out www.teachforamerica.org to begin your application. Applications are due on Friday February 17.

Sincerely, Thomas Rains, CAS’04, COM’04