Wendy Kopp - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/wendy-kopp/","20190223071733","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1550906253"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Wendy Kopp - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="In the 1980s, a clich茅 of popular journalism held that the graduates of America's top universities were a "Me Generation," interested in material success and personal gratification to the exclusion of all concerns for the larger society. Wendy Kopp believed that many of her peers were eager to serve society in a meaningful way if the opportunity presented itself. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, she created a plan to build a movement for educational equity by enlisting her generation's most promising future leaders to teach for two years in underserved urban and rural public schools. She drafted this plan for a national volunteer teacher corps as her senior thesis. After graduation, Kopp set about making her plan a reality, founding Teach For America in 1989. With no teaching or business experience of her own, she created a multimillion-dollar organization. In the first 22 years, more than 33,000 graduates have served in the corps, reaching more than three聽million students in the country's neediest communities. From coast to coast, Teach For America alumni are assuming leadership roles in education and social reform. In 2007, Kopp founded Teach For All, a global network of independent social enterprises that applies the principles of Teach For America around the world. In her books聽One Day, All Children and A Chance to Make History, Wendy Kopp not only describes how she created and built Teach For America and Teach For All, but also shares her thoughts about what it will take to realize her vision that one day all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Wendy Kopp - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">In the 1980s, a clich茅 of popular journalism held that the graduates of America's top universities were a "Me Generation," interested in material success and personal gratification to the exclusion of all concerns for the larger society. Wendy Kopp believed that many of her peers were eager to serve society in a meaningful way if the opportunity presented itself. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, she created a plan to build a movement for educational equity by enlisting her generation's most promising future leaders to teach for two years in underserved urban and rural public schools. She drafted this plan for a national volunteer teacher corps as her senior thesis.</p> <p class="inputText">After graduation, Kopp set about making her plan a reality, founding Teach For America in 1989. With no teaching or business experience of her own, she created a multimillion-dollar organization. In the first 22 years, more than 33,000 graduates have served in the corps, reaching more than three聽million students in the country's neediest communities. From coast to coast, Teach For America alumni are assuming leadership roles in education and social reform. In 2007, Kopp founded Teach For All, a global network of independent social enterprises that applies the principles of Teach For America around the world.</p> <p class="inputText">In her books聽<i>One Day, All Children</i> and <i>A Chance to Make History</i>, Wendy Kopp not only describes how she created and built Teach For America and Teach For All, but also shares her thoughts about what it will take to realize her vision that one day all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/kopp-Feature-Image.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">In the 1980s, a clich茅 of popular journalism held that the graduates of America's top universities were a "Me Generation," interested in material success and personal gratification to the exclusion of all concerns for the larger society. Wendy Kopp believed that many of her peers were eager to serve society in a meaningful way if the opportunity presented itself. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, she created a plan to build a movement for educational equity by enlisting her generation's most promising future leaders to teach for two years in underserved urban and rural public schools. She drafted this plan for a national volunteer teacher corps as her senior thesis.</p> <p class="inputText">After graduation, Kopp set about making her plan a reality, founding Teach For America in 1989. With no teaching or business experience of her own, she created a multimillion-dollar organization. In the first 22 years, more than 33,000 graduates have served in the corps, reaching more than three聽million students in the country's neediest communities. From coast to coast, Teach For America alumni are assuming leadership roles in education and social reform. In 2007, Kopp founded Teach For All, a global network of independent social enterprises that applies the principles of Teach For America around the world.</p> <p class="inputText">In her books聽<i>One Day, All Children</i> and <i>A Chance to Make History</i>, Wendy Kopp not only describes how she created and built Teach For America and Teach For All, but also shares her thoughts about what it will take to realize her vision that one day all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Wendy Kopp - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/kopp-Feature-Image.jpg"/> <script 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feature-area--has-image ratio-container ratio-container--feature"> <figure class="feature-box"> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image feature-area__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/kopp-Feature-Image-380x152.jpg [(max-width:544px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/02/kopp-Feature-Image.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/02/kopp-Feature-Image-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Wendy Kopp</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Founder, Teach for America</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-1761 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-educator"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">I had this idea that this was going to change the consciousness of the country.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Leading an Educational Revolution</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> June 29, 1967 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Sue Kopp was born in Austin, Texas. Her parents operated a small business, a newsletter they had purchased, advising visitors of the attractions of Austin. They enlarged the newsletter into a guidebook and made a success of the business, moving on to San Antonio, and then to Dallas, where they settled in the Park Cities area so Wendy could attend the highly rated local schools. She was an outstanding student, and an enthusiastic participant in a wide variety of extracurricular activities. She graduated from Highland Park High School and entered Princeton University as a public policy major in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_7695" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-7695 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-7695 size-full lazyload" alt="Wendy Kopp (center) and her classmate, Amy Huff, discuss newspaper layout with their high school journalism teacher, Mr. Zinn. (Teach For America)" width="2280" height="1598" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark.jpg 2280w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark-380x266.jpg 380w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark-760x533.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Wendy Kopp and her classmate Amy Huff discuss newspaper layout with high school journalism teacher Mr. Zinn.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">At Princeton, Kopp came into contact with students from a far more diverse array of backgrounds than she had encountered in high school. She quickly became aware that students from disadvantaged communities, whatever their talents, came to college less prepared than those from more affluent areas. As an undergraduate, Kopp was so involved with other activities, such as the Foundation for Student Communication, that she neglected to choose a topic for her senior thesis until almost the last moment. At the foundation, she had organized a conference on improving the American system of public education, particularly in poorly served rural and urban areas. She knew many students who were interested in teaching in these areas, but while recruiters for financial service firms made a thorough effort to recruit outstanding college graduates, there was no comparable effort to recruit gifted students for teaching and public service.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">For her senior thesis, Kopp drew up a proposal for a national service organization, modeled on the Peace Corps, which would recruit graduates of the nation’s top universities to teach in underserved areas. Her thesis adviser, sociology professor Marvin Bressler, was impressed with the proposal but saw it as more of an intellectual exercise than a practical proposal, since he doubted she could ever raise the funds necessary to implement such a scheme in the real world.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_7693" style="width: 1541px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-7693 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_graduation_Wendy9.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-7693 size-full lazyload" alt="Wendy Kopp (center) celebrates her graduation from Princeton University, 1989. (Teach For America)" width="1541" height="1035" data-sizes="(max-width: 1541px) 100vw, 1541px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_graduation_Wendy9.jpg 1541w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_graduation_Wendy9-380x255.jpg 380w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_graduation_Wendy9-760x510.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_graduation_Wendy9.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Wendy Kopp (center) celebrates her graduation from Princeton University in 1989. (Courtesy of Teach For America)</figcaption></figure> <p>At the same time, Kopp knew she needed to find a job to support herself after graduation. She made a brief effort to find work on Wall Street, in investment banks and consulting firms, but she knew her heart was not in it. The idea of a volunteer teacher corps had captured her imagination, and whenever she read an interview with a business leader who said he was interested in improving education, she sent him a copy of her thesis, “A Plan and Argument for the Creation of a National Teacher Corps.”</p> <figure id="attachment_7687" style="width: 1486px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-7687 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_1990class.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-7687 size-full lazyload" alt="Some members of the inaugural class of Teach For America, 1990. (Teach For America) " width="1486" height="1188" data-sizes="(max-width: 1486px) 100vw, 1486px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_1990class.jpg 1486w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_1990class-380x304.jpg 380w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_1990class-760x608.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_1990class.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1990: Members of the inaugural class of Teach For America. They now have more than 4,000 Corps members.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In the spring of her senior year, she met with executives of some of the nation’s largest corporations to discuss her proposal. Shortly before graduation, Union Carbide offered her free office space in New York City, and Mobil Oil gave her a seed grant to live on while she pursued further support for her teacher corps. After receiving her degree in 1989, Kopp moved to New York City, and spent the summer lining up donors, visiting school systems, recruiting a board of directors and hiring a small staff of four. A grant from the philanthropy Echoing Green enabled Kopp and her staff to set up a headquarters in a larger office space donated by investment bank Morgan Stanley. After many attempts, their work came to the attention of philanthropist H. Ross Perot, who offered a three-to-one challenge grant.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_7688" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-7688 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_91956774-Kopp.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-7688 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="2872" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_91956774-Kopp.jpg 2280w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_91956774-Kopp-302x380.jpg 302w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_91956774-Kopp-603x760.jpg 603w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_91956774-Kopp.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2006: Founder and President of Teach For America, Wendy Kopp, poses at a portrait session for <em>Fortune</em> Magazine.</figcaption></figure> <p>Many potential donors believed the only solution to the shortcomings of the education system lay in improving the quality of training available at established teachers’ colleges and schools of education. Others believed young people of Kopp’s generation were too self-centered to volunteer for such a project. Kopp was sure they were wrong. With her growing staff, which now included her future husband, Richard Barth, she built a network of representatives on campuses across the country. The promising response to their recruitment efforts attracted media attention, which in turn drew more volunteers. Within four months, the invitation had received 2,500 volunteer applications from over 100 colleges. Kopp and her staff selected 500 to serve as the charter corps members. After a summer of intensive training, they fanned out across the country.</p> <figure id="attachment_7685" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-7685 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_075.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-7685 lazyload" alt="Academy of Achievement member George Lucas congratulates Wendy Kopp on receiving the Gold Medal of the Academy at the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" width="2280" height="1708" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_075.jpg 2280w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_075-380x285.jpg 380w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_075-760x569.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_075.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Academy of Achievement member George Lucas congratulates Wendy Kopp on receiving the Gold Medal of the Academy at the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles, California. ( Academy of Achievement)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The success of Teach For America in its first year attracted national attention, and donations poured in. In the next years, the number of areas served by the organization expanded rapidly, and summer teaching institutes were established in Los Angeles, Houston, New York City, and later Philadelphia, to train the ever-growing corps of teachers. In 2005, Teach For America received a record number of 17,000 applications, and was the number one employer of new graduates on some college campuses. That autumn, Wendy Kopp created a Katrina Relief Corps to serve students and communities impacted by Hurricane Katrina.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_7684" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-7684 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_070.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-7684 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_070.jpg 2280w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_070-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_070-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_070.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Academy guest of honor Wendy Kopp addresses the American Academy of Achievement in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, during the 2006 International Achievement Summit held in Los Angeles. (© Academy)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 2007, Kopp founded Teach For All, a global network of independent social enterprises that applies the principles of Teach For America around the world. After leading Teach For America for 24 years, Wendy Kopp relinquished her day-to-day duties as president of the organization; she continues to chair the board of Teach For America and serves as CEO of Teach For All.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">By 2013, more than 10,000 Teach For America corps members were teaching in the country’s neediest communities, reaching approximately 750,000 students. They join more than 28,000 Teach For America alumni — many still in their 20s and 30s — who are assuming significant leadership roles in education and social reform. Teach For America alumni have now headed school systems at the state level, and in some of the nation’s biggest cities, including New Orleans, Newark, New York City and Washington, D.C.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_7686" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-7686 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_42-47829696.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-7686 size-full lazyload" alt="24 May 2012, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA --- Founder and CEO of Teach for America Wendy Kopp receives an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 361st Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts May 24, 2012. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES - Tags: EDUCATION) --- Image by 漏 BRIAN SNYDER/Reuters/Corbis" width="2280" height="1641" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_42-47829696.jpg 2280w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_42-47829696-380x274.jpg 380w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_42-47829696-760x547.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_42-47829696.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">May 24, 2012, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Founder and CEO of Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, receives the honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 361st Commencement Exercises at Harvard University. (Corbis Photo)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp has recounted these experiences in her books <i>One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America</i> and <i>A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn’t in Providing an Excellent Education for All</i>. In her books, she not only describes how she created and built Teach For America and Teach For All, but also shares her thoughts about what it will take to realize her vision that one day all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. Her accomplishment has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including honorary doctorates from Princeton, Smith College, Georgetown, Boston University and Harvard.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Today, Wendy Kopp lives in New York City with her husband, KIPP Foundation President Richard Barth, and their four children. Her work with Teach For America and Teach For All, as well as frequent speaking engagements, routinely take her from coast to coast and around the world.</span></p> </body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2006 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.educator">Educator</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> June 29, 1967 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">In the 1980s, a clich茅 of popular journalism held that the graduates of America’s top universities were a “Me Generation,” interested in material success and personal gratification to the exclusion of all concerns for the larger society. Wendy Kopp believed that many of her peers were eager to serve society in a meaningful way if the opportunity presented itself. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, she created a plan to build a movement for educational equity by enlisting her generation’s most promising future leaders to teach for two years in underserved urban and rural public schools. She drafted this plan for a national volunteer teacher corps as her senior thesis.</p> <p class="inputText">After graduation, Kopp set about making her plan a reality, founding Teach For America in 1989. With no teaching or business experience of her own, she created a multimillion-dollar organization. In the first 22 years, more than 33,000 graduates have served in the corps, reaching more than three聽million students in the country’s neediest communities. From coast to coast, Teach For America alumni are assuming leadership roles in education and social reform. In 2007, Kopp founded Teach For All, a global network of independent social enterprises that applies the principles of Teach For America around the world.</p> <p class="inputText">In her books聽<i>One Day, All Children</i> and <i>A Chance to Make History</i>, Wendy Kopp not only describes how she created and built Teach For America and Teach For All, but also shares her thoughts about what it will take to realize her vision that one day all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/l8GX92ZiWJ8?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=2873&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_46_39_16.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_46_39_16.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Leading an Educational Revolution</h2> <div class="sans-2">Los Angeles, California</div> <div class="sans-2">September 17, 2013</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It’s a pleasure to be speaking today with Wendy Kopp. You started Teach For America right out of college. You had the courage to ask the CEOs of these big companies to support your idea when you were in your early 20s. Where did you get that confidence?</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: I think I did have a level of confidence. I think it came from a few places.</span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/L7sX-J_pBRk?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_09_23_20.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_09_23_20.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">One, I just had deep conviction in the idea that I was pursuing.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Two, I really believe there’s a huge power in inexperience. You just don’t know what’s impossible, and therefore think, “Of course this can be done!”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I think there was quite a bit of that. But also, my summer job — and really what turned into a year-round job when I was at Princeton — was working at a non-profit organization, and it was student-run.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>We had to support the organization through corporate donations, and I think I learned that there was philanthropic money to be had, and that if you asked for it, and you made your way high enough generally in the corporate chain, you could actually get significant funding. Even for things as mundane as conferences and magazines, let alone a big idea like this.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So I think it was having seen some of that that helped me also know what was possible.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Your parents owned their own business, we understand. Do you think their entrepreneurial spirit influenced you? What was their business?</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: No doubt. They bought a very small one-page newsletter that people going to conventions in Austin, Texas would pick up, and it would show them where to go out to eat. They turned it into a guidebook that they would distribute at conventions and cities in Texas. That got two kids through college.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_7696" style="width: 1500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-7696 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_wendy-kopp-katelyntoday.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-7696 size-full lazyload" alt="Wendy Kopp founded Teach for America in her first year after college, basing the program on her senior thesis at Princeton. (Courtesy of Teach for America)" width="1500" height="2250" data-sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_wendy-kopp-katelyntoday.jpg 1500w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_wendy-kopp-katelyntoday-253x380.jpg 253w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_wendy-kopp-katelyntoday-507x760.jpg 507w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_wendy-kopp-katelyntoday.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Wendy Kopp founded Teach For America soon after college, basing the program on her senior thesis at Princeton.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Were there other people in your life, or experiences that you think formed your character, or led you to pursue such a lofty goal at an early age?</b></span></p> <p class="p4"><span class="s2">Wendy Kopp: First of all, I was so driven, I was over-involved. I think it was my engagement in various extracurricular activities that had a huge formative effect. I was part of the debate team, and editor of the school paper, and when I got to college I became so involved in various journalistic endeavors, and ultimately running this organization when I was a senior in college that had a budget of more than a million-and-a-half dollars. I think the colleagues I met along the way were certainly instrumental. There was actually a moment — that probably took ten minutes of my life — but I think it may have had a very seminal effect.</span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/N1ZUD1Z72M0?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=81&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_43_57_18.Still014-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_43_57_18.Still014-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">I was actually pursuing this summer job. It was the summer after my freshman year. I was stationed in the Midwest and I was supposed to go to these various corporate executives and ask them to buy advertisements in this magazine as part of this student-run publication. So we were meeting with a man who ran a big investment bank in St. Louis.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>We asked him if he would support this magazine, and he swiveled around in his chair and pointed out his window and basically said, “Why would I do that?”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And he pointed down and said, “Let me tell you what’s happening down there, two blocks from the building where I’m working.”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And he was talking about all the challenges facing the kids in St. Louis who were growing up in poverty, experiencing violence every day. And he was saying, “Why would I ever support this?” when there were such more pressing needs.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>This sent me into a total crisis. I didn’t want to continue with the summer job because I was just thinking, “Why am I doing this when there are greater needs in the world?”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I resolved at that point — because I had to make the choice, “Do I keep doing the summer job or not?” —<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I finally decided I feel responsible to finish the summer job, but I’m going to figure out how to do this, and then figure out how to actually address the pressing needs that exist.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What was his name? He must have been convincing.</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: It was Benjamin Edwards, from AG Edwards and Company. He was very intense. It was such an emotionally laden, intense reaction to whatever it was that we were asking him. You could not have forgotten it.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_7689" style="width: 2070px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-7689 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_bus_KOPP3.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-7689 size-full lazyload" alt="Wendy Kopp in the 1990s, driving education reform. (Teach For America)" width="2070" height="1468" data-sizes="(max-width: 2070px) 100vw, 2070px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_bus_KOPP3.jpg 2070w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_bus_KOPP3-380x269.jpg 380w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_bus_KOPP3-760x539.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_bus_KOPP3.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Wendy Kopp in the 1990s. Teach For America currently has an annual operating budget of more than $300 million.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You were at Princeton, and it’s one of the great colleges of the world. Do you think that that helped empower you, or was there a sense of it being too ivory tower? Or was it both?</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><b></b>Wendy Kopp: Having an education, and having a degree from Princeton, and having access to the Princeton network, I think it’s empowering. It has its downsides when you do this kind of work, but overall it was very empowering. I think the fact that I was saying, “I’m graduating from Princeton and I proposed this in my undergraduate thesis,” got me meetings that I never would have gotten otherwise, from people who had some connection to Princeton or went to Princeton or whatever. That was probably the biggest asset I had, coming out of Princeton.</p> <p class="p2"><strong>In October of your senior year, you realized that you needed a plan for life after graduation. </strong><span class="s1"><b>Tell us about that slightly lost time and how it led to your idea?</b></span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ytkb-nB4c1M?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=89&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_36_56_19.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_36_56_19.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Wendy Kopp: I had just, as I said before, been just overly — obsessively — involved and busy throughout my time in college.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And for some reason, really had not registered on the idea that I gotta figure out both. I’ve got to write a thesis and I’ve got to figure out my summer job.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>It just struck me in about October or November of my senior year. I started searching for what I really wanted to do, and I didn’t want to do anything. I was just in a funk.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>It was late ’80s, and all of the recruiters really were investment banks, management consulting firms, brand management firms, all these companies — for liberal arts graduates like myself — that wanted us to commit two years to go work in those firms. I majored in public policy, the Woodrow Wilson School, and I just didn’t want to go work in one of those firms, so I started trying to figure out what else I would do, but there was no clear path. I was doing things like writing to people saying, “Would you ever hire interns?”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Looking for “off the beaten path” things. But nothing was striking me, and honestly I just descended into a funk. I’ve never truly been in a funk, I just didn’t want to do anything.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I didn’t even try to come up with a thesis topic.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I think I was officially the last senior that year to propose a thesis topic.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But simultaneously, I was organizing this conference for this student organization…</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1"><b>Which organization is that?</b></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s2">Wendy Kopp: The Foundation for Student Communication. It bridges the gap between students and business leaders and political leaders and in terms of fostering a discussion. We organized a conference this year about education, and what it would take to improve the American education system. And it was really at that conference that I thought of this idea.</span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/sUyhQWOjoE4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=100&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_09_46_21.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_09_46_21.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Everyone was talking about all of the challenges that exist in our — particularly urban and rural — public schools, and particularly about the need for excellent teachers in these schools. And here we had all of these carefully selected student leaders from all over the country, who were all saying, “We would teach.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>No one’s recruiting us to teach.” We were known as the “Me Generation.”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Supposedly all we wanted to do was go work in those firms, go work on Wall Street and such, make a lot of money.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I just knew — I knew from my own searching, but also from my friends and others — I just knew I was one of thousands of people who were really searching for something we weren’t finding. So that led to this idea: why aren’t we being recruited as aggressively to commit two years to teach in our urban and rural public schools as we were being recruited at the time to commit two years to work on Wall Street?<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And the minute I thought of it, I just became obsessed. I just knew this has to happen. I thought it would have such a huge power for kids growing up today, just to channel all this talent and energy — that’s good enough for the firms on Wall Street — but into our highest-need schools. And at the same time, I thought it would have this kind of larger power.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>That we would be influencing the priorities and the consciousness of all these future leaders.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I had this idea that this was going to change the consciousness of the country, and generate a belief that we need to do something to bridge the disparities that exist in our country.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Did you think of the Peace Corps as a model for this?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Yeah. I had to write a thesis, so luckily this became the answer to my search for a thesis topic. As part of the thesis, I both looked at the policy context in which this would operate, and delved into the various organizations out there that could be models — the Peace Corps, and there was a federal teacher corps in the ’60s — and then developed “A Plan and Argument for the Creation of a National Teacher Corps.”</span></p> <figure id="attachment_7699" style="width: 2160px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-7699 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_KOPP4.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-7699 size-full lazyload" alt="Teach For America Founder and Chairman Wendy Kopp monitors a training session of Teach For America volunteers. (Teach For America)" width="2160" height="1499" data-sizes="(max-width: 2160px) 100vw, 2160px" data-srcset="/web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_KOPP4.jpg 2160w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_KOPP4-380x264.jpg 380w, /web/20190223071733im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_KOPP4-760x527.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_KOPP4.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Teach For America Founder and Chairman Wendy Kopp at a training session of Teach For America volunteers.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>In your first book, you say you had some doubts about whether your advisor would even let this thesis pass, because you had promised him you were going to write another thesis.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Yeah, well I didn’t care that much, but this relates to my broader funk.</span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/9W6epn-P9Wk?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=57&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_33_45_02.Still007-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_33_45_02.Still007-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">I was just obsessed with this idea, so I needed someone to sign on the bottom line and say that he was going to be my thesis adviser, and because I was so late in declaring a thesis I couldn’t get anyone to commit.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Finally someone sends me over to the chair of the sociology department — total legend, his name is Marvin Bressler — and he said, “No, you can’t write a thesis that’s proposing an advertising campaign for teachers. But if you want to propose a mandatory national service, I’ll be your advisor, because that’s my passion.”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>And I said, “Sure.”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>He signs, I never saw him again, turned it in four months later, and he calls me, three days after I turned it in.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I’m terrified at that point, but he loved it, it turned out.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>His only question was, “How in the world do you think you’re going to raise the money to make this happen?”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>But he ended up being a big supporter.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You wanted to make this happen immediately. It didn’t come to you after ten years of experience on Wall Street or business school. You wanted it to happen now. How did you get that sense of urgency?</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071733if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/3Rl3FEwxol0?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_29_23_05.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kopp-Wendy-2013-XDCAM-4of4.00_29_23_05.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Wendy Kopp: I just felt like the timing was absolutely perfect for this, and I just thought it had to happen.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>The mood on college campuses was really so conducive to this.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I myself… and I ended up pursuing the idea of actually teaching in the New York City public schools, and that also contributed to my realizing this is actually… it could work. But I was still trying to figure out, “What do I want to do?” and that was the one thing I could think of that was inspiring.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So I just knew, for this generation, this is what we want to do.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Secondly, there were huge needs which enabled the whole thing.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>There have never been headlines like this since. Just the level of teacher shortages in the big urban areas was overwhelming.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>They were starting — New York, L.A. — with 1,200 teacher vacancies, et cetera. And there were various business executives in corporate America who had made this big pledge to say, “We’re going to take on the American education system. We want to improve it.”<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So it just seemed like the perfect time, and it seemed like if we passed that window of opportunity, it might never happen.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: I had arrived at Princeton really without knowing about the disparities that exist in our country. I really had been so isolated from them, and of course you can begin to see the depth of educational inequity at Princeton. But you can actually see on any campus in America, and at Princeton included, how differently prepared people are to do well. She had grown up and gone to public schools in the South Bronx and had made it to Princeton. This woman is exceptional. Incredibly driven, incredibly motivated, and she ended up excelling. But the initial years were a struggle, and I met, through her, many of the other first-generation college students at Princeton, and you just saw how much of a divide there was, even among the student body. So that turned me on to the fact that there was a problem.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Before you started Teach For America, you applied for some jobs on Wall Street. What did you learn from that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: I applied to one firm in every sector. This was the most half-hearted job search. “I’ll apply for that management consulting firm and this investment bank…” and I applied for five jobs altogether, because my heart wasn’t in it. And thankfully… I’m so glad I didn’t get any of those big jobs! Because that made this decision easier. Because I was tortured. “Do I really… should I start this? ” It seemed like it was a very risky and challenging endeavor, so it was a big, huge… I was very angst-ridden over that decision. But it was made easier by not getting those job offers, for sure.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Your parents dropped you off in New York City. Describe that scene and what you were equipped with.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: I was so excited, honestly, to live in New York. I’d always wanted to live in New York. So I literally moved in, roomed with a bunch of other women who I did not know. We were just renting a brownstone. And I had this tiny little room and two or three trash bags full of my clothes. One of these executives who I’d met after I turned in the thesis — I sent it out to randomly selected corporate executives who were quoted in magazine articles saying they wanted to improve education — and a few of them actually agreed to meet with me. One gave me a seed grant and another said I could use their spare office in Manhattan. So I would go. It was a lonely existence. I would just go every day into this office in Manhattan, and I would send out letters and try to get people to meet with me, just trying to build support for this idea.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>A lot of potential backers told you that what was needed was raising standards at graduate education schools, not starting this newfangled startup. They thought that campus-based graduate programs just needed to get better. How did you counter that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Part of it is just staying very grounded in the needs of the school districts in which we were placing. It may be that some people were saying, “Well why would you do this when we could do something else?” but that wasn’t the response we were getting from school districts, which were saying if you can actually convince the people who you’re… I still remember the day I met with the head of Human Resources at the Los Angeles Unified School District, who looked at the list of the 100 campuses I said we were going to recruit on in our first year and started laughing, and literally said, “I’ll tell you what. You get 500 people to apply from these schools, I will hire all 500 of them.” People really couldn’t — it’s hard to believe this now, because it’s so different today — but people could not believe that top students, the most highly sought-after graduating seniors, would actually want to teach in our highest-need communities. So, because we were getting such a positive response from school districts who felt honestly that the schools of education at the time weren’t meeting their needs, we just stayed very centered in that.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Was there a breakthrough moment when you felt like the idea started to take hold?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: There were many moments.聽</span><span class="s1">I think one of the aspects of this journey — and probably similar work to address big, pressing, complicated problems — is there’s never really a moment where you just know you’ve made it. Or you feel a sense of satisfaction because yes, you’ve made a little progress, but it’s just so clear what else has to be done, and I think that’s very much characterized our journey. But one thing I guess I would point to is that, in the first summer after I graduated, so I was living off of this seed grant, I was meeting anyone who would agree to meet with me among potential funders, school districts, educators, just trying to help people understand the idea and seeing if I could build support for it. Everywhere I went, people actually thought it was a great idea, but they didn’t think the college students would do it. That was the skepticism. People really did not think that the “Me Generation” would actually be willing to do this. And that was the one place where I had reason for confidence. So my plan became to show them, to basically launch a grassroots recruitment campaign. So we had students on all these campuses put flyers under doors, and within four months, 2,500 people had applied. And that led to newspaper articles, and media and such, and ultimately that ended up leading to funding, et cetera.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>To start with, you had no seed money, yet you were very intent on making this extremely selective. It seems paradoxical from the outside. You’re starting something new, you don’t have any real support, but you’re going to make it really hard to get into.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: If you go back to 20 years ago, the folks who were the top graduates — and the most highly sought after, who had the most other options — very, very few of them were thinking about teaching. And it has to do with the societal image of teaching, the financial implications of the choice and such, as well. But I just knew that for this to work, for us to actually inspire a movement of the most promising future leaders, to channel their energy towards tackling this problem, we were going to have to surround this with an aura of selectivity and status. So, that led to this idea that we have to be highly selective. What I later learned, of course, is that this is such incredibly hard work. It is a very, very rare person who — straight out of college — is ready to not just survive in the classroom, but actually excel, actually put their kids on a trajectory to greater opportunity, who will then take the lessons from success and not the lessons of failure and will leave more committed and not more disillusioned. So we became even more selective over time. We’re probably more selective now than we’ve ever been because every year we learn more about what it actually takes.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What do you look for in potential corps members now?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: At the core, we’re looking for leadership ability. I think we’ve seen that the most successful teachers in the communities in which we’re working — and in fact, the people who long-term will exert the greatest influence to affect the kind of systemic changes we think are necessary — have real leadership ability. So that means, first of all, demonstrated track record of persevering in the face of challenges. That’s probably the biggest differentiator of our most successful teachers. The ability to influence and motivate others in a sophisticated way that appeals to their values. Strong problem-solving ability, many things, and then, as well, just a deep commitment to this work. We need people who want to work relentlessly in pursuit of this particular mission, and who hold very high expectations for kids and families in urban and rural communities.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>The first corps members must have been shocked by the conditions that they found in these places, even though you had prepared them. The simple lack of supplies, negative attitudes on the part of administrations, doubts about whether these kids could ever get out of the ghetto. What is most challenging for these teachers?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: I remember our first corps of 500 folks, at the end of our training institute out here in Los Angeles. They were ready to go, ready to change the world, and some of the most inspirational among them had given powerful and rousing speeches. This is not a clueless group of people, and it’s not a white, privileged group of people. It’s a very diverse group of people. Some of them grew up in the communities in which we were going to be placing others. Very big range of backgrounds. But I still remember, when they started teaching, they hit the wall very early on as they saw our country’s greatest challenges playing out before their eyes. Kids who face extreme challenges that many of us would find to be inconceivable, who were bringing them into classrooms and schools that really were never set up to meet their extra needs. Survival became the mantra. If we can stick it out in the classrooms with the kids, that’s a victory. And I think what happened was a few of those people, over time, through going through their own learning curves, figured out not just how to survive, but how to actually help put their kids on a different trajectory. That began the real journey of Teach For America. And at the heart of that journey has been really learning from the most successful among our teachers. And understanding from them what it took to actually get their kids invested in working incredibly hard in pursuit of a great education, and what it would take to actually instill in them the self-advocacy skills — as well as the academic skills — necessary to actually have many greater options than they otherwise would.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But it’s been learning from them as teachers, and then from them as alumni, as they’ve gone out and started schools and become school system administrators, and left the field of education to do things that strengthen the communities in which they were working as teachers. It’s learning from them that’s really fueled our efforts over time. It’s given us such a sense of possibility that we can make a real difference in this, and such a core belief that people are everything, leadership is everything. Wherever you see meaningful progress, always it’s about leadership. So we’re feeling greater responsibility than ever to basically get bigger and better, to cultivate the most significant, diverse, and deeply grounded and effective corps of leaders we can.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You single out a teacher named Tammi Sutton in one of your books. Can you share that success story?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Tammi was one of those teachers in our first decade. Very early on in our trajectory, certain teachers among our corps would become these legends. These folks are just incredible. It probably wasn’t until around our tenth year that I decided to spend a lot of time with these teachers who are known to have had truly transformational impacts on their kids’ lives.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">One place I went was out to Gaston, North Carolina. It’s an extremely remote part of North Carolina, where Tammi Sutton was teaching in this tiny little school. She had taken her kids from where they were coming into her room, which was in the bottom quartile of achievement, based on decent standardized tests that the State of North Carolina has. And she would have them, by the time they’re in 8th grade, at the very top of the pack. It’s very, very hard to do that. It is hard to move kids’ writing skills at that point. So I spent time with her, and realized what she was doing to not only build her kids’ writing skills, but change her kids’ trajectories in terms of their own sense of confidence, and their own sense of agency and such. She ended up staying in that community. She’s still there. She started a school, and now multiple schools, in that community, that are literally taking kids — where I’m guessing the college graduation rate was less than five percent among the kids — she’s created schools where they’re sending all their kids to college. They’re going to UNC Chapel Hill alongside my nephew. It’s just incredible.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">So, the Tammi Suttons of the world have shown me, and really all of us in our country, what’s possible. Today, we have hundreds of whole schools, not just whole classrooms, that we can point to, that are truly putting kids whose socioeconomic background would predict one set of outcomes on a very meaningfully different trajectory. So that’s really what’s fueled our sense of urgency, because we know we can solve this problem now, and it’s just a question of, “Will we?” Will we be able to cultivate enough leadership to work at every level of the system, and at every level of policy, and from across sectors, to actually speed up the pace of change, and do on a much bigger scale what Tammi has shown is possible in her schools?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Have you been able to transfer the lessons you’ve learned from the exceptional teachers, the Tammi Suttons of the world, into the larger system and have some systemic impact? Is that possible?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: The thing that I think is so exciting to see now, is that we can look at communities where we’ve been placing a steady stream of folks for 15, 20, 24 years in some cases. I remember where things were 20 years ago in those communities. So we can see really significant progress, and it’s for many reasons, far beyond Teach For America. But it’s also true that if you took all the Teach For America people out of the picture — not only the teachers in the classrooms, but the alumni, whether they stayed as teachers or they became school principals or they did a number of things — you would take away so much of the energy and leadership in the system. So we could tell the stories of anywhere from Washington D.C. to Oakland, California, to New Orleans, to any number of places, and you would see significant system impact.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I think about New Orleans because, forever — it was one of our very first placement sites — we always viewed it as our very most challenging. We were routinely meeting eighth graders reading on the second grade level. It seemed that nothing was going to change. Even in the last six years, the graduation rate in New Orleans has gone from about 54 percent to 78 percent. Actually, they have a high school graduation rate that’s slightly above the national average. At the same time, they’ve increased the college readiness rate pretty significantly among the high school graduates. If you’re a kid born in New Orleans today, you have a totally different set of options. Your parents can decide where you go to school, and you have multiple great options. When I look at that system, 40 percent of the school principals are Teach For America alums. They’re running many of the non-profit support organizations outside the system. The state commissioner of education is a Teach For America alum, and the whole school district almost is staffed by these folks.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">People look at Teach For America, and they think of it as a two-year commitment, that it’s about the two years, and that’s really not what Teach For America is about. It’s about the two years, but it’s also about every year thereafter, and ultimately cultivating a leadership force of folks who know what you know after you’ve taught successfully in a low-income community. Because you can’t do that and ever leave it, because you realize, “Wow, my kids have every bit as much potential as kids everywhere else.” The question is simply, “Are we as a country, as a community, going to give them the kinds of opportunities, and the extra supports they need, to fulfill their true potential?” And once you see that, you realize, “I can’t leave it.”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Here in L.A., they have the success story of Jaime Escalante, who taught calculus in the inner city. Like Tammi Sutton, his story is all about high expectations.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: When I was graduating from college, <i>Stand and Deliver</i> was a big hit. It’s such a marker for me, because I remember, it’s not like we all watched <i>Stand and Deliver</i> and thought, “Oh, let’s learn from Jaime Escalante and spread the practices throughout…” People just thought he was such an outlier, they didn’t really believe that that was replicable. And today, we live in a different world, where we really know that this can be done and we can replicate success. There are dozens of schools in Los Angeles that are — not just in one classroom but whole school buildings — that are putting kids on a totally different path, and we see that in communities across the country. So now that we see that, this morning I was in a network of schools called <i>Camino Nuevo</i>, and they work with almost exclusively English language learners. I was in a school that’s right down the block from a failing high school which graduates between 50 and 60 percent of its kids. And this school is graduating 90 to 95 percent of its kids, and giving them the option to go to college. Many, many of them are going to college, and then coming back in their communities to strengthen those communities. So the <i>Camino Nuevos</i> of the world are showing us what’s possible.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You have said that your own personality may not have been ideal for instilling morale and cooperation. You wrote that when things went wrong at the first summer institute, you tended to hide and crawl into your shell. You obviously had to learn to become more extroverted to build morale. How challenging was that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: It still doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m an introvert, there’s no doubt about it. I guess I need to figure out what are my strengths and what are not my strengths. And therefore, what do I need to surround myself with? There’s a certain amount of responsibility that you’ve just got to live with to do this kind of work. Hopefully, I’ve gotten better over time, but it’s still not my natural instinct.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>That seems incredible, considering the doors you have knocked on over the years.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: When I have a goal, and I know that I’ve got to do this for the cause, then I can make it happen. But in terms of big public appearances, that’s not my forte.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>We like to talk to our honorees about their early years, too. What was your childhood like, back in Dallas?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: My parents ran their own very small business. I had one brother. Actually, I was born in Austin. We moved to San Antonio, we moved to Dallas. There was a community in Dallas known as the Park Cities which had a highly regarded school system, and my parents made a real effort to make sure that they bought a house — initially on sort of the outskirts of that community — so that we could go to that school. I have often thought, and even then was very conscious of the fact, as I moved into college and stuff, the fact that I had the chance to go to that very strong public school was hugely instrumental for me, in helping me feel like the whole world was open to me, and giving me the kind of education that would enable me to ultimately do whatever I wanted to do.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Was there a strong emphasis in your house on academic achievement?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: I was one of these kids who just had some internal drive that led me to pursue that. I’m not sure it was imposed from the outside. No.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Do you remember any books that you particularly liked when you were growing up, or that had a real impact on you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Oh gosh, this is so not the thing to say, but I wasn’t an obsessive reader or anything. I was probably turned on by other things. I can’t even think way back. I think about some books. <i>The Fountainhead</i>, I think, pretty much saved me in the initial years of Teach For America. I loved that book, but I’m not sure books were the seminal thing that guided my path.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Why <i>The Fountainhead</i>? How did you connect to it?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: I think it was sort of about “the creator against the world,” and I was probably feeling at that point that I was up against lots of boulders, to pull off the big idea of Teach For America.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Was there a teacher who particularly inspired you growing up?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: There were definitely teachers who made a huge impact. I think about a woman whose name was Mrs. Fish who was my seventh grade English Language Arts teacher. What I remember about her was just how hard she pushed. I thought I was a perfectly strong student at this point, but she just pushed everyone to their limits. That was very instrumental for me. In fact, all the teachers I remember had that same thing: they just had such high expectations and wouldn’t stop pushing. I think she just conveyed the idea that good wasn’t good enough, and I think the skill development and critical thinking skills that that year developed were also instrumental. But I also think, I don’t know, there’s something about that year that probably instilled within me that ethic that you just have to keep pushing to get better and better, and that if you work hard enough it will pay off.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>In your first book, perhaps three quarters of the way through, you recall realizing how important it was that your staff communicate well. Not only to communicate effectively, but to write well. Does that go back to Mrs. Fish in a way?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Mrs. Fish, and another legendary teacher in my life who was our journalism teacher. I wanted to be a journalist. I was the school newspaper editor. Actually, I think it was the journalism teacher, more than anyone else, who taught me to write. I did leave high school with writing skills which I’m afraid are too few and far between among our student population at this point.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Twitter and Facebook don’t really encourage a great essay.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: This isn’t the most extraordinary thought, but the fact that I had strong skills, without those I couldn’t have done what I did.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Strong communication skills?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Strong basic writing skills and thinking skills. Everything traces back to the strength of an education.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>We’d like to talk about social advocacy in general. How do you define it, for one thing?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: It’s interesting, because that isn’t a phrase or a term that we use a lot, but I would define it as advocating for justice and equity, equal opportunity.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How do you think that fits into today’s world, and to your own quest?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: We live in a world of greater and greater inequities. One thing I’ve discovered over the last few years — as I’ve channeled more and more of my energy towards Teach For All, and towards supporting social entrepreneurs in countries around the world that are adapting this model to their context — is that this problem that we’re fighting here is completely pervasive all around the world. All around the world, with very few exceptions, socioeconomic background predicts educational outcomes, and it in turn predicts life outcomes. And that problem is getting worse, not better. So this is a very relevant problem. How are we going to break that? How do we break the link? What I’m seeing is that, just as I’ve seen in the U.S., that it’s actually possible to break the link, and that education can be a huge key to breaking the link. We’re seeing evidence that it’s possible all around the world. We see evidence in classrooms. We see these alums of the Teach For All programs going off and starting incredible schools and pursuing policy change and such. I really believe we’re really at the front end of an effort that will see, in effect, rising educational levels and decreasing education disparities, which hopefully will create a counterforce against the kind of increasing divides that seem to be taking hold through our global economy.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What would you want a young person to know before embarking down this road of social advocacy?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: We try to convey this on campuses now across the world, because so many young people feel so pressured to make the decision that will take them on the path to impact and greatness, and it doesn’t always lead them to make the choice to go this route. I guess the thing I’d want to convey is that I know so many people in my generation, some who made the choice to be part of these programs and similar efforts, and others who made very different choices. And the most fulfilled, centered, grounded, happy people I know are people who made the choice to be part of an effort to actually make the world a better place. When I think about it, the happiest people I know never left the classroom, never left the communities in which they’re working, and at some level they may not enjoy the riches that we associate with success, but on a much deeper level they lead incredibly rich and fulfilling lives. I would say, to me, the path of least regrets is to at least make a short-term commitment to say, “Let me work to make a real difference in the world.” The worst that could happen is you decide to move into something else later, but you’ll always take with you what you’ve given and what you’ve gained through that experience.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Is there something that you would <i>not</i> want him or her to know as they embark, maybe how hard it is?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: It is incredibly hard, and it’s incredibly intense. I have no perspective, having never really done something else, but even my friends who will come give it their all and work at Teach For America or Teach For All for a good time, and then they’ll go back into their law or banking careers or whatever, will say they’ve never felt intensity like they felt at these organizations. I don’t know what it is. The work means so much to people, and the stakes are so significant for lots of human beings. And there’s so much more to be done at all points. So it’s very intense, but I would rather be part of something intense that’s making a huge difference than, than not. So I think it’s worth it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>We’d like to speak briefly about the evolution of Teach For All, which is the global extension of the Teach For America idea. How did that come about?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: About eight years ago maybe, I started meeting social entrepreneurs from all over the world. Incredibly inspiring, committed, compelling folks who would somehow make their way to my office, or some other — cross paths — and they were looking for help. They were just determined that they had to launch Teach for India, or <i>Ense帽a Chile</i>, or whatever the case may be. So, there was something in the water this one particular year, I think. I was talking to about 13 people, and the first adaptation of the Teach For America model was Teach First, in the U.K., and the folks in the U.K. were hearing from these same people. So we decided to come together and think about how to actually support these folks well. And that led ultimately to the idea of Teach For All, which is a network of independent organizations, now 32 of them but growing quickly, that are calling upon their countries’ most promising future leaders. Getting them to commit two years to teaching in their high-need communities, investing in their development, fostering their ongoing leadership development, as part of a global network that’s committed to accelerating the impact of all of them, and fueling an ultimately global movement where all of these efforts are informing each other and moving more quickly as a result.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>That’s on a huge scale, almost impossible to comprehend. But you seem very excited and positive about it.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: It’s very inspiring. It’s inspiring to see that the same kind of hearts and minds and souls that are drawn to this effort here in the U.S. are drawn to it all over the world. The level of talent and energy that’s magnetized to these programs — the power of diverse cultures for inspiring different ways of thinking and innovation as part of a network where everyone shares the same values and the same vision — there’s just something very potentially powerful about it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Is there a larger cultural change we need to see before this movement can succeed? And is that true for other forms of social advocacy?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: For our effort to succeed — “our” meaning the broader effort to ensure educational opportunity for all — just thinking about my own country, we think a lot at Teach For America about the fact that most effective social movements are led by the disenfranchised group. As we’ve progressed through this, we’ve become really clearer and clearer in our thought that, ultimately, the kids who are in our classrooms today, their parents need to be leading this movement, and really advocating for the opportunities they deserve. So I think working to ensure that the communities themselves are charting the course — so it’s not something that we’re doing to communities, but they’re really driving what they want to see happen in their communities — I think we need to get to that point.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Tammi Sutton, if I’m not mistaken, involves the parents and is active in the larger community.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Yeah. Every truly successful life-changing teacher and school I’ve ever met in this works in such deep partnership with the kids and the families. They view themselves as complete allies, and they know that the name of the game is ensuring that they are deeply invested in getting a great education for their kids.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Ultimately it’s not about “doing good” or being a good person. It’s a change that has to be initiated from the very center of where you’re working, isn’t it? Otherwise there isn’t a systemic effect.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: It is so fascinating to really spend time in communities where we’ve been placing people for 20 years. I went on a number of visits this past spring to rural communities, tiny towns in the Mississippi Delta, and rural South Dakota and such, where we’ve been placing a steady stream of people for 10 to 20 to 23 years in some cases. And it’s very interesting to reflect on what is different and what more remains to be done. I think you see very clearly in those communities the power of external leadership and high expectations, just helping people understand what’s possible, and you also see the limitations. No outside force is going to… we’ve got to change communities from within. And so thinking about, “What is our role in cultivating community leadership?” in order to actually drive and sustain the change that we want to see, is probably what really needs to happen to get where we’re trying to go.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It may help young people to know that there are pitfalls along the way, and there is no completely smooth path to success. There was a time around 1995 when your whole project, Teach For America, almost came crashing down.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: There have been many moments where it’s felt like the whole thing was going to come crashing down. Definitely. Our first decade was extraordinarily challenging. I think there was a lot of positive energy around the initial idea, and that carried us through the first two or three years. We built a lot of funding support. The timing really was so perfect, but then, in year four, many things collided to make the path far more difficult. We started losing our funding sources in half-a-million and million-dollar chunks. My complete lack of management ability started conspiring, because sort of the internal organization was in a bit of chaos. And we started realizing that education is a very politicized sphere, and we started really encountering many challenges as we worked to gain the policy approvals we would need even to get our teachers in classrooms. So there were many, many challenges, and probably the most central of all was we were on such a steep learning curve around, “How do you actually do this well?” How do you recruit and select and train and support teachers who do excel, instead of just survive, and who do take the right lessons and not the lessons of disillusionment? So we had a lot on our plate, and it was not clear that we were going to make it, at many points.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You found that foundations were more likely to support a startup than to keep things stable after a few years. It’s sexier to give money to startups.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: I think the funding community started clarifying for themselves what their priorities were going to be, and that took them away from what we were focused on. So there were many things. But I guess what I learned through that, too, was perseverance. In the end, perseverance does pay off. Time and perseverance takes care of… and listening! We did listen. We were very open. We did not, it was clear — I did not — know what I was doing. So we needed to learn a lot about how to do the program well, how to manage it effectively, how to develop a diversified and sustainable funding base, how to navigate the political challenges more effectively. But we just embraced the learning curve. I do look back and think that the fact that we had to do that the hard way, the lessons we learned through those initial years, and through that era, were very hard-won, and are very deeply embedded in the very core of the organization in a way.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Does that include not taking on too much? At one point you had to make some pretty painful cuts in your ambitions.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: That’s always challenging, because we’ve got to think boldly, but it is true that we’ve got to stay focused as well. Ultimately, you can’t make any big idea work without the resources you need to get there. So there are many, many lessons.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>A very powerful study came out last week, by a group called Mathematica, that found Teach For America math teachers were far more successful than veteran teachers who had been trained in graduate education schools. This was in a multi-state survey that covered thousands and thousands of kids.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: There are constantly new evaluations being done on Teach For America by these third-party organizations. They’re invaluable resources to us, in terms of helping us understand where we’re strong and where we’re weaker. This is the most recent study, and it’s a “gold standard” study, so it’s very encouraging. I think you look at the results and realize there’s still so much more to be done, because the fact is, our kids are not making enough progress. But it was very validating to see that the Teach For America corps members were doing well compared to the other comparison groups.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Through the years, you’ve faced a certain amount of negative bias: “They think they can do it better than the graduate education programs…” et cetera. If you could change the mindset of the educational system in one way, what would you do?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: We have never attempted to say that this is the one way all teachers should come into the profession. That’s really not what we do, and it’s not what we believe. We are channeling an additional stream of folks. We need every additional person who has the motivation and the ability to meet the extra needs of kids in our lowest-income communities. So we’re one additional stream of those folks. Contrary to popular perception, we invest a tremendous amount in their training, and in their ongoing professional development, and as the studies show, they do succeed with their kids. At the same time, there really is this very crucial long-term impact. I think it’s hard for people to get their head around the big idea of Teach For America. But all you have to do is teach in today’s classrooms to realize we’re not going to solve this problem through classroom teaching alone. This is a much bigger problem. We need to change the way schools are run and set up. We need to change the way school systems are designed. We need to take some of the pressure off of schools. If we don’t figure out how to improve economies, how to better support the families that are growing up in poverty through stronger social services, stronger public health, we’re never going to get where we’re trying to go. So that’s really what Teach For America is working to do. On the one hand, to provide an additional stream of teachers, alongside others, making no comment. We’re here at the Loyola Marymount School of Education, which is one of our greatest partners in the world, which we think does incredible work. So our effort isn’t meant to be a competitive force to Schools of Ed. It’s meant to be a way to develop a generation of leaders who will work, not only through an initial two year commitment, but through the rest of their lives, to take on the root causes of a very systemic problem.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>This leads to a question that we ask many of our honorees: “What does the American Dream mean to you?”</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: The American Dream just means, to me, it means the ability to do anything that you want to do. I was so conscious, my senior year in college, I felt like the whole world was open to me. That I could do anything I wanted to do, and I actually thought about why that was, and I knew it was — because I was very aware that not everyone in our country feels the same thing — I knew it was because I had simply had the chance to attain a strong education. And I consciously thought about that, about what this is, what I want to do. I want to focus on ensuring that many more kids have the chance to attain an excellent education and also feel that the whole world is open to them, and that they can pursue the American Dream.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Balancing personal and professional needs, there was a time in your career when you said the solution to the challenges you faced with your fledgling organization was to sleep every other night.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: The power of youth! Yeah, that seems really inconceivable and inadvisable to me now. But I feel incredibly, incredibly lucky. First of all, I met my husband through my work. I was working so obsessively — and still do really — that I’m not sure where I would be if I hadn’t sort of walked into meeting the perfect guy that way. We have four incredible kids, and it was really important to me to have kids, and have true balance — a full professional life, and also a full personal life. And I’ve put all of my energy into figuring out how to make that work, rather than angst-ing about whether it’s possible, and so far so good. Our kids are not yet in the clear, but they seem to be doing well so far.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>So it is possible to change the world <i>and</i> have a happy home.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wendy Kopp: Yes. So far so good.聽</span><span class="s1">I give up certain things because my professional world is so intense. I travel constantly, and of course that takes its toll on the kids and all. But I’m also able to bring them into my work, and I think that’s such an incredible asset. I’ve taken my oldest son now on some of my trips around the world, around the United States. And what middle schooler gets to see rural China, and the launch of Teach for Japan, and spend time in schools in the Mississippi Delta? Realizing, basically, the commonality of humanity, and the fact that we can actually make a difference against these extreme social issues. So I think, “Yeah. So far so good.” But I feel like you can navigate the challenges, and make the most of the opportunities, and make it work.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Well thank you. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you today.</b></span></p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Wendy Kopp Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>13 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_KOPP4.jpg" data-image-caption="Teach For America Founder and Chairman Wendy Kopp monitors a training session of Teach For America volunteers. (Teach For America)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_KOPP4" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_KOPP4-380x264.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_KOPP4-760x527.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_wendy-kopp-katelyntoday.jpg" data-image-caption="Wendy Kopp founded Teach For America in her first year after college, basing the program on her senior thesis at Princeton. (Courtesy of Teach for America)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_wendy-kopp-katelyntoday-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_wendy-kopp-katelyntoday-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70131578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark.jpg" data-image-caption="Wendy Kopp (center) and her classmate, Amy Huff, discuss newspaper layout with their high school journalism teacher, Mr. Zinn. (Teach For America)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark-380x266.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Wendy_Kopp10.HighlandPark-760x533.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67105263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_graduation_Wendy9.jpg" data-image-caption="Wendy Kopp (center) celebrates her graduation from Princeton University, 1989. (Teach For America)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_graduation_Wendy9" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_graduation_Wendy9-380x255.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_graduation_Wendy9-760x510.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3333333333333" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty3.jpg" data-image-caption="Wendy Kopp, Founder and Chairman of Teach For America, Founder and CEO of Teach For All, photographed in 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Michele Asselin/Contour by Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Wendy Kopp, More Magazine, December 2010/January 2011" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty3-285x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty3-570x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty2.jpg" data-image-caption="Founder of Teach For America and CEO of Teach For All Wendy Kopp is photographed for More magazine in New York City, 2010. (Photo by Michele Asselin/Contour by Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Wendy Kopp, More Magazine, December 2010/January 2011" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty2-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty2-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.394495412844" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty1.jpg" data-image-caption="Teach For America Founder Wendy Kopp attends TIME's "100 Most Influential People in the World" gala in New York City, 2008. (Photo by L. Busacca/WireImage)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_L. Busacca/WireImage" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty1-273x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_Getty1-545x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_bus_KOPP3.jpg" data-image-caption="Wendy Kopp in the 1990s, driving education reform. (Teach For America)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_bus_KOPP3" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_bus_KOPP3-380x269.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_bus_KOPP3-760x539.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2603648424544" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_91956774-Kopp.jpg" data-image-caption="Founder and president of Teach For America, Wendy Kopp poses at a portrait sesison for Fortune Magazine in New York City, 2006. (Photo by Sarah A. Friedman/Contour by Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Wendy Kopp, Fortune, November 1, 2006" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_91956774-Kopp-302x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_91956774-Kopp-603x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.8" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_1990class.jpg" data-image-caption="Some members of the inaugural class of Teach For America, 1990. (Teach For America) " data-image-copyright="wordpress_1990class" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_1990class-380x304.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_1990class-760x608.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71973684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_42-47829696.jpg" data-image-caption="May 24, 2012: Founder and CEO of Teach for America Wendy Kopp receives an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 361st Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)" data-image-copyright="Founder and CEO of Teach for America Kopp receives an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Harvard University in Cambridge" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_42-47829696-380x274.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_42-47829696-760x547.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.74868421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_075.jpg" data-image-caption="Academy of Achievement member George Lucas congratulates Wendy Kopp on receiving the Gold Medal of the Academy at the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_06Academy_075" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_075-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_075-760x569.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_070.jpg" data-image-caption="Wendy Kopp addresses the Academy of Achievement in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, during the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_06Academy_070" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_070-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_070-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on 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Ballard, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-roger-bannister-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Roger Bannister</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-banville/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Banville</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ehud-barak/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ehud Barak</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lee-r-berger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lee R. Berger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-timothy-berners-lee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Tim Berners-Lee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/yogi-berra/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Yogi Berra</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeffrey-p-bezos/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeffrey P. Bezos</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benazir-bhutto/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benazir Bhutto</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/simone-biles/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Simone Biles</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/keith-l-black/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Keith L. Black, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elizabeth-blackburn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-boies-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Boies</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-e-borlaug/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman E. Borlaug, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-c-bradlee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin C. Bradlee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sergey-brin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sergey Brin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carter-j-brown/"><span class="achiever-list-name">J. Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Gl眉ck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reinhold Messner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Hel煤</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/clyde-tombaugh/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Clyde Tombaugh</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. Townes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-trimble/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Trimble</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ted-turner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert Edward (Ted) Turner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/desmond-tutu/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-updike/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Updike</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gore-vidal/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gore Vidal</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Antonio Villaraigosa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lech-walesa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lech Walesa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/herschel-walker/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Herschel Walker</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-d-watson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James D. Watson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/andrew-weil-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Andrew Weil, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leslie-h-wexner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leslie H. Wexner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elie-wiesel/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Elie Wiesel</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-o-wilson-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oprah-winfrey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oprah Winfrey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tom-wolfe/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tom Wolfe</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-wooden/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Wooden</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bob-woodward/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bob Woodward</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shinya-yamanaka-m-d-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-chuck-yeager/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Chuck Yeager, USAF</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190223071733/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/andrew-young/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Andrew J. 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