Every year, dozens of optimistic young people enter Tulsa’s classrooms to start their service. Andrew Rainwater remembers the City Year corps member who changed things for him.
Gabe was like a cool, older brother for Rainwater and other boys at Sequoyah Elementary, keeping them on task and working hard.
“It wasn’t like our teacher’s eyes were on us, it was like us in the future, ” Rainwater said. “It was like a peer almost, like an older peer, and so we wanted to show up for him.”
Rainwater is stepping into those shoes now as a City Year corps member at Nathan Hale Middle School. He’s joined by more than 70 other young adults dedicating the year to Tulsa’s students through the AmeriCorps program and another 22 Teach for America corps members who are leading classrooms. As Tulsa pushes for better academic outcomes for students and futures for families, they want to be part of the change.
“I want them to show up, that’s the biggest thing,” Rainwater said. “…If I can just inspire them to be present, then I’ve already done the bulk of it.”
City Year corps members serve 50 hours a week for 10 months of the year, working as mentors and support staff in Tulsa Public Schools buildings. TFA educators commit to two years in the classroom, moving through the teacher accreditation process and helping fill staffing gaps. Many of them are driven by a need for purpose.
The money “wasn’t bad” at Rainwater’s prior warehouse job, but the monotonous work didn’t mean anything to him.
“And that’s what I’ve always wanted to do — something that matters,” he said. “Especially work with children, especially some that are less, that are not open to as many opportunities as others.”
Both service programs are part of national networks, drawing eager volunteers from across the country to high need cities and schools, like those in Tulsa. But both programs are recruiting locally more and more.
Kaitlyn Fisher is a Edison High School and The University of Tulsa graduate, sticking around to teach first graders at Mitchell Elementary through TFA. In her eyes, the classroom experience has changed for the better since she was a student at Tulsa Public Schools.
“The culture around teaching is a lot different, even like experienced teachers really adopting the curriculum and adopting these ideas that all children are capable of learning,” Fisher said. “They just might not learn in the way that we’ve typically thought about learning.”
Corps members in both programs spent the summer in training. TFA participants dive headfirst into classroom instruction in TPS summer learning. It can be intimidating, Fisher said, but by the end of July she felt confident and prepared — so did her students.
“And at the end of summer school, they’re raising their hand for every question I ask, they’re asking for help on their assignment if they need help,” Fisher said. “They’re excited to be there, and not complaining about having to go to school. They’re not giving up on their work.”
Dylan Spencer began her second year at Nathan Hale High School as a City Year team lead. She’s been in Tulsa most of her life and is taking classes at Tulsa Community College with the goal of teaching English at a TPS high school.
“I want to be part of a team who helps push students to a bigger and better future when they get to adulthood,” she said.
City Year corps members train throughout the summer on professional development and the fundamental ABCs: academics, behavior and coursework. For Spencer, the service is about empowering students to show up stronger in and out of the classroom.
“I truly do believe for any student, as long as they have the determination and the will, and they ask for help, they can go through any type of problem,” said Spencer.
For those who’ve moved to Tulsa, there can be a sort of culture shock. For New Yorker Annie Kendzierski, that came through the neverending smiles from strangers. She’ll teach pre-algebra and algebra to eighth graders at East Central Middle School this year.
“I kept going back to school because I love to learn and math was my passion and I fell into a teaching position at the collegial level during my masters,” Kendzierski said. “And I absolutely fell in love with being in the classroom and being around math and exposing learners to new types of math.”
Kendzierski fell in love with teaching while in graduate school. Her background is in “pure mathematics,” the kind of math that doesn’t involve numbers anymore. Teaching core-level math at East Central Middle — where 93% of eighth graders tested below basic on 2026 spring math assessments — was a welcome challenge.
“I think that it was exciting, the idea of being a teacher at such a formative age, you know, at eighth grade,” Kendzierski said. “That’s such a crucial point in mathematics education where you’re introduced to the new language of algebra, where you have that opportunity to connect it to the really conceptual things that I’m super nerdy about.”
The reality of Oklahoma’s classrooms and need for improved educational outcomes is not lost on TFA corps members, said Mikeale Campbell, TFA executive director.
“Our state needs a good infusion of hope, in regards to what is possible in Tulsa,” Campbell said. “And I think that there’s no better way for folks to believe in what they can do for systems change than to start with success in that classroom.”
The only thing it takes to be a math person, she said, is to be alive and attempting to do math. When Kendzierski started summer training, her main goal was for all her students to “want to become mathematicians.”
“And I don’t think that’s changed, because I absolutely still do,” she said. “A goal for myself is I really want to be someone in the classroom that inspires confidence.”
Raven Peterson has less southern culture shock, hailing from Alabama. She’s in her first year as an AmeriCorps service member at Monroe Demonstration Academy. Her sister, Nia, was also a Tulsa corps member.
“Hearing all her stories about interacting with kids and doing service events and stuff here, she seemed to have a lot more purpose than she did when she was back home,” Peterson said. “And I wanted that sense of purpose.”
She’s finishing her associate’s degree through online classes at Troy University and hopes to transfer to The University of Tulsa. Her personal goals match her hopes for students: to grow in their ability to make connections and brave the big transitions that come with growing up.
“They don’t need us to save them in any aspect,” said Peterson. “They just need connection and that’s what we do.”
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