Fellow Follow-Up: Jeff Nelson
2011 Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation Fellow, Jeff Nelson, is on the fast track to success as a young social entrepreneur. But, his story started way back 2007 as a corps member for Teach for America. (Read more about Jeff here!)
How did you start your project? What were the first steps to turn your idea into action? What were the biggest initial challenges? What lessons did you learn?
As a TFA corps member in Chicago, my sixth graders made tremendous progress academically and socially. However, statistics predicted that only two of my 32 students would graduate from college. Knowing that my students deserved better, and that we were failing to meet students’ needs in classrooms across the country, I joined US Empowered in 2007. Together with help from key supporters, the co-founders grew US Empowered from scratch, motivated by the idea that a teacher-led movement could change these statistics in Chicago and beyond.