Gabrielle Branche (Wheelock’25), a Teach For America alumna, spoke at BU Wheelock’s 2025 Commencement. Photo by Dave Green

Strategic Partnerships

10 Years with Teach For America

BU Wheelock marks its second decade of the partnership and recently began collaborating with Teach For All

Since 1990, America’s aspiring young educators have been placed in two-year teaching positions in underserved classrooms around the country through Teach For America. The program has produced some high-profile alumni—including state senators, US representatives, White House cabinet advisers, and one well-known indie rock musician—and has formed strong partnerships with school districts in more than 40 US regions, educational research bodies, and universities. BU Wheelock is one of those partners.

Since 2015, Teach For America (TFA) has encouraged its corps members, alumni, and staff to enroll in BU Wheelock’s online or in-person Master of Education program, which also offers a certificate of advanced graduate study. Current TFA corps members receive discounted tuition on part-time, evening, and online BU Wheelock courses and a waived application fee.

“We try to provide flexible program options where they are not only taking the courses that they need for their initial teaching license, but also taking courses that interest them,” says Ryan Lovell, assistant dean of academic affairs.

Ten years and almost 1,000 student participants later, the program is picking up speed: In 2024, the college inked an agreement with TFA’s international sister organization, Teach For All, which offers its participants the same benefits as TFA corps members. The Teach For All partnership went into effect in spring of 2025.

“We’ve heard from corps members that they value access to the University and its resources,” says Melitzi Fox, director of New England educator licensure at TFA. “They find the content they’re learning in their courses applicable to their own classrooms, and they value the accessibility of student services too—they know to reach out with any questions they might have.”

In 2025, BU Wheelock also renewed its partnership with the Peace Corps after it fell dormant during the COVID-19 pandemic. The renewed partnership allows for program alumni, as well as current members, to take advantage of tuition benefits.

“We’re not an island—we rely on all of the partners that we work with,” Lovell says. “We try to make a Wheelock education as accessible as possible to a wide range of students.”

Perhaps the greatest strength of BU Wheelock’s partnerships is that they strengthen the college’s mission and values—and vice versa.

“Throughout the past two years, it was amazing to see how my BU courses aligned with my TFA experience and how the messaging of both institutions mirrored one another,” says Gabrielle Branche (’25), the graduate student speaker at BU Wheelock’s 2025 convocation. “They complemented each other in a way that I think made me a better teacher overall.”