Great AmeriCorps members become excellent teachers.
City Year’s Teaching Fellowships are a partnership between City Year and licensing programs to provide AmeriCorps members with a premier teacher residency experience for both graduate and undergraduate degrees in education. This partnership addresses the traditional barriers into entry such as program affordability and cost of state licensure testing.
In a graduate returning AmeriCorps member teaching fellowship role, corps members return to City Year for a second year of school-based service—while continuing to earn a biweekly stipend and other benefits like all City Year corps members—and receive licensure upon completion of the program coursework with scholarships and reduced costs. Service counts towards student teaching, which is traditionally unpaid in a majority of residency programs.
We want to build a welcoming classroom community—a place where students feel like they are cared for and can have joyful interactions with the teacher, students and the learning material. Students, like all of us, have their good and bad days.”
Casey Phalen (Boston ’21, ’22; Teaching fellow ’22) Middle school math teacher in Boston Public Schools
From supporting to leading a classroom in communities near you
Benefits offered by City Year’s teaching fellowships
Students need great teachers. City Year’s teaching fellowships support young adults who have already demonstrated leadership, empathy and a commitment to serve as AmeriCorps members in becoming the great teachers our students deserve.
Teaching Fellows can expect to:
Save money. Earn an AmeriCorps stipend and full benefits, including a Segal Education Award for past or future study, while enrolled in a cost-effective teacher training program, paying on average one-third of the cost of your peers in teacher training programs.
Be mentored. Receive hands-on teaching experience under the guidance and coaching of a mentor teacher while taking on gradual ownership of classroom responsibility to earn your teacher’s license and endorsements with access to graduate and undergraduate options.
Build community. You’ll collaborate with a team of City Year fellows and alums from around the country. Attend weekly City Year professional development to support you in fostering joy and belonging in the classroom.
Advance equity. Become part of a diverse group of City Year fellows and alumni teachers who are committed to educational equity and who tend to stay in the teaching profession longer than the national averages.
The experience
Year 1: City Year or AmeriCorps service
During their first year of service, City Year AmeriCorps members develop essential skills that help them to build strong relationships, partner with classroom teachers and support student growth. For many corps members, completing this year of service is the first step in entering the field of teaching and serving students long term.
Year 2: City Year's teaching fellowship
In this second year of service, Teaching Fellows earn their teaching license while developing high-quality academic instruction under the guidance of a mentor teacher and graduate program. Our Fellows receive robust coaching and support rooted in City Year's Whole School, Whole Child® services.
Year 3 and beyond: Classroom leadership
Graduates of City Year’s Teaching Fellowship work as fully licensed, prepared classroom teachers in City Year aligned schools. Our graduates enter their classrooms with tangible tools and knowledge to keep students engaged and at the center of a welcoming classroom.
Next steps
Have some questions about City Year’s teacher pathways? Contact Jeanette Rojas at jrojas@cityyear.org.
Are you a potential AmeriCorps member or Teaching Fellow? Contact Tashonda King at tking2@cityyear.org.
