Answering the Call to Action

The National Education Association is proud to welcome you to the NEA Student Program and to a future career in teaching! You have the power to transform the teaching profession with your new ideas and fresh approaches. You have the power to inspire the next generation. And you have the power to infuse our Association with your energy and enthusiasm.

Teaching is a marathon, not a sprint. To help build your endurance, you will need NEA, and NEA will need you. We are 3.2 million strong—that’s about one in every 100 Americans! Now is the time for us to flex our full potential as individuals and as a united Association. Membership is everybody’s business and there are no student exemptions.

As tomorrow’s teachers, you must become political activists, community liaisons, and a collective voice for the improvement of public education. Each of you play a vital role in our efforts to improve teacher quality, close the student achievement gaps, and create great public schools for every child. We need you to help us achieve real reform at the local, state, and national levels by lobbying, by voting, and by holding elected leaders accountable. Professional pay, smaller class sizes, and mentoring programs for all new teachers are within reach when we stand together for children and public education.

We need you to help us diversify the teaching profession so it better reflects the racial and ethnic diversity of today’s students. And we need you to reach out to diverse communities because your obligations as educators extend beyond the school walls to understanding the needs of the children you will teach.

As you prepare to enter teaching, your colleagues will look to you for the skills and knowledge you bring to the classroom and to the profession. At the same time, you should look to us—Team NEA—for the ongoing support you will need to make a difference in our nation’s public schools.

You are the new experts on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to America ’s classrooms.  You must stay involved in the process and make sure your voices are heard.

Your involvement in the NEA Student Program will help sustain us for the long race ahead. I look forward to your contributions as we grow professionally and build the collective strength of NEA and public education.

Welcome aboard!

Reg Weaver
NEA President