WENDY KOPP, Founder of Teach for America

In 1988, from her dorm room at Princeton University, college senior Wendy Kopp developed a plan to call upon the most talented members of her generation to teach for two years in the nation's neediest urban and rural public schools. She envisioned a new national service corps called Teach For America that would heighten our country's commitment to its most disadvantaged children. Wendy Kopp founded Teach For America in 1989. Now, one of her generation's most recognized social entrepreneurs, Kopp continues to serve as the organization's president.

In addition to her role at Teach For America, Kopp is chair of the board of The New Teacher Project, a non-profit consulting group which helps school districts and states recruit and develop new teachers more effectively. The New Teacher Project is a spin-off of Teach For America which applies Teach For America's knowledge base more broadly in an effort to effect systemic change in the way new teachers are brought into the profession.

In 2003, Kopp was appointed to the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Princeton University, Connecticut College, Drew University, and Smith College. She was the youngest person and the first woman to receive the Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor Princeton University confers on undergraduate alumni. She was also recognized in December 1994 as one of Time Magazine's forty most promising leaders under 40. In addition, Wendy has received the Jefferson Award for Public Service, Aetna's Voice of Conscience Award, the Citizen Activist Award from the Gleitsman Foundation, and the Kilby Young Innovator Award.

The first 130 students to enter the talk will receive free copies of Wendy Kopp's book