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GREG SMITH ACCEPTED IN TEACH FOR AMERICA

Gregory C. Smith, a recent graduate of Mars Hill College, has been accepted as a high school teacher in the Teach For America program. Teach For America is a national corps of top college graduates and professionals who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools in an effort to expand educational opportunity and equality.

     
   
 
Greg Smith
  
     

Smith, a native of Murrells Inlet, SC, will teach high school social studies. He is one of the first corps members accepted into a new region recently approved for Teach for America, in the Pee Dee River area of South Carolina, near Florence.

“The mission of Teach for American is helping to bridge the achievement gap between middle class children and children in regions with lower socio-economic groups,” Smith said. “I would like to believe that all children should be able to have an equal chance at education.”

Teach For America’s network includes more than 8,200 corps members and 20,000 alumni working in education and other sectors nationwide. Earlier this month, the Pee Dee region of SC was added to a list of 39 regions in the U.S. where Teach for America places its corps members.

“I’m really excited that I get a chance to be part of the charter corps in my home state,” Smith said. “That means a lot to me, to be able to not only bridge the achievement gap, but also to do it in a place that means so much to me.”

Corps positions are intensely competitive. Members are paid directly by the school districts for which they work and generally receive the same salaries and benefits as other entry-level teachers. Teach For America is a member of AmeriCorps, the national service network, through which corps members are eligible to receive loan forbearance and interest payment on qualified student loans, as well as an education award of $4,725 at the end of each year of service.

Smith is a graduate of Waccamaw High School in Pawleys Island, SC. He has been a member of the Lions baseball team during all four years at Mars Hill College.