2008 Woodie Awards
An aching heart: teaching biology in South America
By: Alex Park, News Editor
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Features
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Teaching young children after college is hard and rewarding, usually in that order.
But in the midst of hardship, it's often not easy to see what good, if any, comes through the work one is doing.
That's one lesson learned by countless Macalester alums who, in the last decade, have chosen to enlist as teachers through Teach for America, an organization that takes soul-searching recent grads and puts them in teaching positions in rural and inner-city schools throughout the United States. But it's also true of Cooper Rosin '07, a biology and Spanish major who went to the tropical nation of Guyana in the northeast corner of South America after graduating to teach in a rural elementary school.
Recently, Rosin sent The Mac Weekly a letter detailing his experience in the country so far, and the program that got him there.
A biology major at Macalester, Rosin said he knew before graduating that he wanted to do work in the developing world after college. Pay was hardly a concern, and easily took a backseat to the opportunity for less tangible rewards.
Like many soon-to-be graduates with similar aspirations, the Peace Corps seemed like a natural place to look at first. But with no say in what kind of work he would do, where he would be sent to or if he would be placed in the same location as his girlfriend-who also wanted to volunteer-he decided against it.
After some research, Rosin found WorldTeach, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Center for International Development at Harvard. The organization took recent graduates and placed them in needy schools throughout the developing world. Unlike Teach for America or AmeriCorps, the organization placed its paricipants exclusively outside the United States.
Unlike the Peace Corps, it let volunteers choose which of fifteen countries they would go to for their year-long placement (an additional six countries are available for shorter-term periods).
Moreover, Rosin knew exactly what kind of work he would be doing: teaching, and to elementary school age children at that. Rosin and his girlfriend leapt at the opportunity.
But in the midst of hardship, it's often not easy to see what good, if any, comes through the work one is doing.
That's one lesson learned by countless Macalester alums who, in the last decade, have chosen to enlist as teachers through Teach for America, an organization that takes soul-searching recent grads and puts them in teaching positions in rural and inner-city schools throughout the United States. But it's also true of Cooper Rosin '07, a biology and Spanish major who went to the tropical nation of Guyana in the northeast corner of South America after graduating to teach in a rural elementary school.
Recently, Rosin sent The Mac Weekly a letter detailing his experience in the country so far, and the program that got him there.
A biology major at Macalester, Rosin said he knew before graduating that he wanted to do work in the developing world after college. Pay was hardly a concern, and easily took a backseat to the opportunity for less tangible rewards.
Like many soon-to-be graduates with similar aspirations, the Peace Corps seemed like a natural place to look at first. But with no say in what kind of work he would do, where he would be sent to or if he would be placed in the same location as his girlfriend-who also wanted to volunteer-he decided against it.
After some research, Rosin found WorldTeach, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Center for International Development at Harvard. The organization took recent graduates and placed them in needy schools throughout the developing world. Unlike Teach for America or AmeriCorps, the organization placed its paricipants exclusively outside the United States.
Unlike the Peace Corps, it let volunteers choose which of fifteen countries they would go to for their year-long placement (an additional six countries are available for shorter-term periods).
Moreover, Rosin knew exactly what kind of work he would be doing: teaching, and to elementary school age children at that. Rosin and his girlfriend leapt at the opportunity.
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