One school visit. One mentor. One conversation with a former TFA roommate. At several pivotal moments in Becky Owens\u2019 career, relationships formed through Teach For America have opened the door to what came next.<\/p>\n
Becky, now Associate Director of Learning and Development at Rocketship Public Schools, joined TFA New York City in 2004, teaching at P.S. 42, a traditional public elementary school in the South Bronx. The school was among New York City\u2019s lowest-performing schools when she arrived and became one of its most improved during her time there.<\/p>\n
It was challenging work, but Becky was surrounded by educators who believed deeply in what was possible for students.
\n\u201cTFA gave me an incredible community of passionate, like-minded educators,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
That community changed the trajectory of her career. A TFA-organized school visit to Achievement First showed Becky a new bar for what excellent teaching could look like. She asked the teacher she observed\u2014a fellow TFA alum\u2014to mentor her and eventually joined the school herself.<\/p>\n
Years later, another TFA connection introduced her to a small, growing charter network in California called Rocketship Public Schools. After visiting Rocketship\u2019s first school, Becky knew she wanted to help build something special. She moved across the country and joined Rocketship when the network had just two schools. Since then, Becky\u2019s career has taken her from teacher leader to coach to regional leadership and, today, the national Learning and Development team. Along the way, she has helped create programs that open new pathways for Rocketship educators\u2014including teacher residencies, bachelor\u2019s degree partnerships, teacher leadership programs, and development opportunities for school leaders.<\/p>\n
Today, she gets to see educators who participated in those programs become principals\u2014and hourly staff earn bachelor\u2019s degrees and lead classrooms of their own.
\nFor Becky, that\u2019s Rocketship\u2019s mission in action: meaningful work, great people, and the opportunity to make a lasting impact.<\/p>\n
Her advice to today\u2019s TFA corps members? Lean into the community. Attend the extra training. Go to the happy hour. Meet the people around you. You never know which connection might change the course of your career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the South Bronx to Rocketship, Becky Owens\u2019 career has been shaped by the relationships she built through Teach For America and the unexpected doors those connections opened that led her to Rocketship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":26843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[272],"tags":[],"tips_for_teachers":[],"class_list":["post-26848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-talent-development","featured_on_homepage-yes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n