Four Biola students were chosen out of a pool of 17,000 applicants to work with Teach For America (TFA). Sam Hammer, Jeremiah Kim, Rhea Aves and Kaiya Wychgel strive to bring change and growth to low income areas. Upon graduation, they will start a new chapter in life as professionals in a field where they will help bring change to the world. Teach for America will be the start their next chapter of life.

TFA strives to help children in low-income areas to succeed in life since only “nine percent of kids growing up in low-income communities will graduate from college by the time they are 25,” according to TFA.  

“Today in America, the circumstances of children’s births predict the opportunities they have in life,” according to the TFA website.

Hammer is graduating with a degree in biological science.

“I want to incentivize higher education to those not encouraged by family,” said Hammer. “Teach for America provides the opportunity to accelerate their life in a unique way that provides others the benefit of the education you’ve received. It provides you the reward of education coming to fruition to others.”

Hammer will be teaching chemistry and biology in Charleston, South Carolina. He is excited for this opportunity because it will allow him to use what he has learned in a way that helps others.

Kim, a Torrey Honors communication major, will teach middle school communication arts in Kansas City, Missouri. He has worked with those in low-income areas for years through his church and through Solidarity, a non-profit organization, in Fullerton, California. Kim values communication and has realized one of the best ways to help those in low-income areas is through teaching children the art of communication and how to express themselves through writing and speaking.  

“Ignorance is born out of a lack of education and a lack of education starts young. A lot of students, just because of the zipcode they grew up in, are not afforded education,” explained Kim.

During the next two years with TFA, Kim hopes to teach communication skills to as many kids as possible.

Aves, a political science major with a minor in international relations, will be serving with TFA on the westside of Oahu in the poorest area of the island teaching social studies to high school students.

“It's such a humbling act of service, and I know that sounds very ironic as I’m moving to Hawaii, but you know teaching is way out of my comfort zone. Teaching is something I never thought I would ever do,” said Aves. “The cool thing about TFA is they don’t expect you to be an education major and they don't expect you to learn how to teach in college, they just need student leaders.”

Aves was profoundly impacted by her high school teachers who pushed her to be a better student and pursue a higher education. She hopes to provide the same encouragement to students who may have never considered themselves candidates for college. TFA has given Aves the chance to impact the world in a way she never thought was possible.

These Biola students will join the hundreds who TFA hires to serve the communities across the nation. Annually, TFA chooses its candidates from a pool of 17,000 applicants from 150 of their consideration of top-tier colleges. Of those 17,000 applicants, only 12 percent are hired. Biola graduates have been serving in TFA for many years and Biola will continue to provide applicants to the organization for years to come.

For more information, visit the Teach for America website.

Written by Joshua Marsh, public relations intern. For more information, contact Media Relations at (562) 777-4061 or media.relations@biola.edu.