Very good news ... better than Geico!

Amy just received an e-mail this evening announcing her acceptance into the Teach for America program. This is a huge relief, as well as the start of a major challenge for the both of us, but especially Amy. This summer will now consist of some intense training over several weeks, during which time she will have to live in downtown Philadelphia. During roughly the same period of time, I will be taking summer Hebrew at the seminary, which is also a very intense program. Financially, it will be tough, since neither of us will be working. Teach for America may give us some support to get us through the summer.

On a slightly funnier note, Amy has been temporarily placed as a middle school math teacher in Philly. Besides the fact that Amy hasn't taken a day of math since high school, it's quite ironic that when she was in middle school herself, she dreamed of one day being a high school math teacher. It seems life has a sense of humor.

(More good news: Princeton Seminary accepted my proposal to be a pastoral intern at the Well, which means that I am set to start in the fall. Scott Collins-Jones, co-pastor with his wife of Woodland Presbyterian Church, will be my supervisor.)
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timcoe said…
Congratulations x2!
April 13, 2006 10:48 PM
David W. Congdon said…
Thanks! As an update, Amy has been given a grant by the TFA program, as well as the option for a $2000+ interest-free loan, should we need it. The good news keeps on coming.
April 13, 2006 10:55 PM
timcoe said…
TFA is a great outfit, as long as you can get past their blind liberal ideologies. Does Amy know where she'll be placed yet?
April 14, 2006 6:53 AM
David W. Congdon said…
Yep, she'll be teaching in Philadelphia. It's an ideal location, since we know how to get around the area decently well already and our church and friends are in that direction.
April 14, 2006 10:22 PM
Douglas said…
Does this mean Amy quit the youth pastoring position she had earlier? It sounds like the Teach for America thing should be cool. Teaching math after not having taken it since high school just sounds scary to me. Good luck at the Well.

After your rather bitter correspondence with the japery dude about wheaton, I thought you might like this article by Alan Jacobs.
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0604/articles/jacobs.html
April 16, 2006 7:49 AM
David W. Congdon said…
Actually, we quit the job at the Korean church at the end of January. We would have finished sooner had it been feasible. We're glad to finally be at a healthy church, although we still feel sad about leaving the kids in such a dismal situation. If anyone's actually interested in my analysis of that church, I wrote a report on the congregation for a class on teaching in the church, so it has an educational angle to it (which happens to be where that church is lacking the most).

Doug, thanks for the article link. Alan Jacobs wrote about the matter nicely. In my two classes with him during my senior year at Wheaton, he spoke repeatedly about some of the very things in that article -- though with more freedom. I'm glad to see an internally-critical voice from Wheaton speak candidly about the situation there. It's the kind of honesty and integrity that commands respect -- unlike others in the world of online journals.
April 16, 2006 10:49 PM
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