Post Graduate Service Reflection
By: Jordan Cotton (’18), a Sociology major from Federal Way, WA
Jordan is one of many Zags who will embark on the adventure that is post-grad service after walking at graduation in May. Jordan has always had a soft spot for working with kids—something he carried into the three years he spent as a mentor to elementary school students through the CCE program Campus Kids. This affinity for mentorship led him to accept a summer fellowship with an organization called Breakthrough that operates out of New Orleans. After a summer working with 6th grade students, Jordan decided he could not resist the call to apply for a Teach For America position in New Orleans. Jordan maintains an active student role on and beyond campus through his position as an officer with the Black Student Union. When he’s not exploring his own creative voice through the Gonzaga University Student Narrative and Poetry Society (a club he is proud to have played a hand in forming), he can be found enjoying Thai food and Mario Kart with some of his favorite fellow Zags. The following testimony highlights some of Jordan’s journey in discerning his career in post-grad service with Teach For America:
“I was happy to find that my Uber driver was approachable. As he drove me to the airport to go back home to Seattle and questioned me about my summer in New Orleans, memories of my students and my classroom flooded my mind. I told him that leaving the city was bittersweet—the bitterness coming from having to leave my fellowship teaching 6th graders English all summer, having to say goodbye to the young faces that looked like my own, and stepping away from the title of “Mr. Jordan.” The sweetness came from the recognition that all the long hours that exhausted me mentally, physically and emotionally were worth it; that I saw a little breakthrough and growth in each one of my students, and that I truly believed my students would grow to be outstanding scholars—each capable of making a profound impact on this world. I was not surprised by the question my Uber driver asked as our fruitful conversation came to a close and the airport came into view, ‘So, do you want to be a teacher?’ This was the burning question that I could never quite answer with confidence.
Months after this experience with my Uber driver, I found my confidence and applied to Teach For America. I have grown to understand the importance of education and the power and opportunities that come with it. Teach For America will give me the opportunity to impact the lives of marginalized youth. Given my commitment and passion for student success as well as my care for justice and equity in a broken educational system, teaching is visionary work I feel called to be a part of. Post-grad I will be teaching English with Teach For America in the city of New Orleans. I have found with reflection that I would have never come to make this decision had it not been for my experience at Gonzaga. The university’s mission that we as students will be ‘for and with others’ has come to shape my worldview and encourage my desire to engage with the communities and individuals around me. I have no doubt these Jesuit values and ideas will stick with me as I lead in New Orleans—recognizing the call to be my best self, to be in relationship with those uniquely placed on my path and to fearlessly strive to make a difference in this world.”