Giving back

In Philadelphia's toughest classrooms, Jennifer Saint-Preux will teach calculus and trigonometry for the next two years.

The pay will be about one-fifth of the salary she could have earned in the business world.

Bigger pay can wait, said Saint-Preux, a 2008 graduate of the ILR School.

"I have my whole life ahead of me. Why not give back now?"

Through Teach for America, Saint-Preux will receive intensive training beginning June 29 at Temple University in Philadelphia.

From there, she will be assigned to a high school in a low-income neighborhood.

Saint Preux recalled a high school guidance counselor's chide that she would "never make it at ILR."

Motivating students to aim high in life is her teaching goal, said Saint-Preux, who grew up in Brooklyn and on Long Island.

After her two-year teaching commitment, Saint-Preux plans to attend law school, hopefully at Howard University.

A career in arbitration or international law, she figures, would enable her to start a foundation. She would like it to provide services for runaway youths and job skills for prisoners approaching release.

Saint-Preux is one of 3,700 who will be assigned teaching jobs this fall by Teach for America. Nearly 25,000 applicants applied for the slots. The non-profit program sent its first recruits into classrooms 18 years ago.