New UC Graduates Join the New Ranks of Teach For America

A first-generation college grad devoted to building bridges of understanding

K.D. Miller

entered UC as a first-generation college student and became very active on campus in being an advocate for the LGBTQ community, including efforts to set up an LGBTQ office on UC’s campus to serve students.

In addition to activities that also included participation in the Bearcat Band and Student Government during different years of Miller’s college career, Miller balanced classroom and campus involvement – along with advocacy on LGBT issues on the local, state and national levels – with a regular job (sometimes two of them during the school year) “to make ends meet.”

Miller was also dedicated to service over those college years, volunteering in the LGBT office and assisting with the FreeStore Foodbank downtown. Miller will be dedicating the Teach For America experience to serving students in Baltimore, Md.

Lyndsey Miller, a graduate of Glen Este High School, was a 2009 recipient of a Choose Ohio First Scholarship for pre-service teachers through UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH). The Choose Ohio First Program under the State of Ohio awarded funding to proposals to build excellence in the science, technology, engineering, math and medical (STEM) fields.

Miller graduated from UC this spring with a bachelor of science in middle childhood education, with concentrations in math and science as part of her Choose Ohio First fellowship. The student in UC’s University Honors Program for academically talented students started out as a pre-pharmacy major but says she was drawn into teaching and encouraging children to achieve through education.

“I hope to become a teacher who can impact the lives of students and encourage them to reach their full potential in life,” she says. “I wanted to become a part of Teach For America because of the support system on which TFA prides itself, and the resources that TFA provides each corps member to become successful teachers.” Miller was assigned to a school in North Carolina.

Michelle Prinzo

graduated from UC this spring with degrees in early childhood education and communication. She was in the University Honors Program for academically talented students and in 2009 was awarded a Choose Ohio First Scholarship to support a UC-designed program for pre-service teachers.

Prinzo and Lyndsey Miller were among the first group of education students to become STEM Fellows through CECH to build teaching expertise that will fuel children’s interest in STEM subjects.

Prinzo began her induction into Teach For America in Nashville, Tenn., on the day that UC held Commencement ceremonies. She’ll be teaching elementary school and plans to earn her master’s degree in education from Liscomb University.

At UC, Prinzo was an active leader in Colleges Against Cancer, an organization of college students, faculty, and staff dedicated to fighting cancer, volunteering for the American Cancer Society, and improving college communities by instating and supporting programs of the American Cancer Society. Prinzo regularly led the organization of UC’s annual Relay For Life spring fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society – UC’s largest student-organized community service event on campus.

She says she got involved with Relay For Life when her father died of cancer when she was a high school sophomore in 2005. She says her involvement with Relay For Life took cancer beyond her own personal loss and devastation as she realized its impact on communities.

Teach For America reports that out of the 48,000 people who applied for the incoming corps, 11 percent were accepted; 12 percent of the applicants represented Ivy League schools.

This fall, 9,300 corps members will be teaching in 43 regions across the country, while nearly 24,000 Teach For America alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence and equity.