Nicola Muchnikoff

Class of 2010
Richardson, Texas
Major: Political Science
Minor: Human Rights
Current Position: Teach For America Teacher, 2nd grade (Mississippi)

Education is now and has always been the surest way to end a family’s cycle of poverty. My elementary students have so very little-- but I do not believe that this should mean they have less opportunity than their more affluent cohorts.

It is a harsh reality that in 2010 the quality of a child’s education is determined by where a child is born and grows up. In the United States of America there is widespread educational inequality and a huge achievement gap between race and socio-economic groups. As a Teach for America corps member I have committed to spend the next two years teaching 2nd grade in the rural Mississippi Delta. My students have no supplies, very poor living conditions, and as I learned in their first PE class, they have shoes that do not fit. Despite such obstacles as these, I am determined to put heart and soul into helping these young students reach grade level, even though most of my class is currently reading two years behind. . . . I am reaching out to their families who were previously excluded from their child’s education. I am filling the classroom with books because the library has none. I pray I am filling their hearts with hope and mostly importantly I believe in their potential and I love each of them unconditionally for all they have to defend against. Through my class theme of trying to be 2nd Grade Superheroes, I hope that they leave the 2nd grade feeling that they are in control of their own lives and have the potential to do whatever their hearts desire.

"What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?" -George Eliot