USA Fencing

This spring Olympian and #1 ranked US Fencer Tim Morehouse taught an "Olympic Sized" lesson about setting and reaching goals to students in Mr. Paek's class at MS 57 in East Harlem. The event, part of Teach For America Week, was a homecoming for Tim on several fronts: he went to elementary school at nearby Central Park East in East Harlem, and while training for the Athens Olympics taught 7th grade Social Studies in Washington Heights as a member of Teach For America.
 
Despite being a small sport athlete, Morehouse donated part of the winnings from his 2008 Olympic Silver Medal to Teach For America's “sponsor-a-teacher” program, which supports the training of a teacher working in a under-resourced public school in New York City. “Since training for the Olympics has occupied so much of my time, I haven’t been able to spend as much time working towards my other passion of helping students in lower performing schools" Tim Says.  It's fulfilling to know that I'm helping students achieve their goals by supporting their teacher. I’ve been truly blessed with opportunities and having part of my Olympic dream help others makes me feel worthy of the responsibility of being an Olympian for the USA.”
 
Morehouse hopes others will step up help support teachers involved in the Teach For America program who are working across the country with students in under-resourced schools.   Speaking after his lesson, Morehouse said, “It was really exhilarating for me to be back doing something I love, like teaching and supporting a great program like Teach For America.   The students were really fantastic and you can tell that their teacher Mr. Paek is making a huge impact on their lives!”

Caroline Kennedy and Millard “Mickey” Drexler, CEO of J.Crew, spearheaded this year’s Teach For America Week in New York, inviting fellow city leaders to guest teach. Many of these guest teachers invited, including Drew Nieporent, Olympic Silver Medalist Tim Morehouse, and Millard Drexler himself attended New York City public schools.   The guest teachers included designers Kate and Andy Spade; Sherrie Westin, Sesame Workshop Chief Marketing Officer; David Westin, President of ABC News; Amy Astley, Editor in Chief Teen Vogue; Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money; stylist Frédéric Fekkai and Drew Nieporent, owner of Nobu.
 
Teach For America Week draws community leaders nationwide to support educational excellence for all children. These volunteers, visited classrooms to teach lessons based on their experiences in business, sports, politics, and beyond. Teach For America is the national corps of top recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the movement to expand educational opportunity. Teach For America’s network includes 7,300 corps members teaching in 35 regions and a national force of 17,000 alumni at the forefront of efforts to end educational inequity.
 
To learn more about Teach For America or sponsor a teacher contact: www.teachforamerica.org