ITHACA, N.Y. -- Wendy Kopp, founder and president of Teach for America, will be speaking on Cornell University's campus Monday, Feb. 10, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Barnes Hall Auditorium.

Kopp's talk, "A Simple Idea and an Extraordinary Vision," is free and open to the public. It is part of the Park Leadership Speakers series sponsored by Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Driven by a concern that not all U.S. children have equal access to education, Kopp used her senior thesis at Princeton University to propose the creation of a national teachers corps of outstanding and diverse recent college graduates from all academic majors who would commit two years to teach in the nation's most underresourced urban and rural public schools.

In 1989 Kopp began working to make her thesis a reality. Corporations and foundations donated an initial $2.5 million to get the program off the ground. In the first year, 2,500 students applied for positions, and 500 were selected. They attended a special training institute, set up with the help of experienced teachers and teacher educators, and then were hired as beginning teachers by school districts in six sites.

Today, about 9,000 graduates of four-year undergraduate programs from across the country have joined Teach for America, among them scores of Cornell graduates. They have taught in classrooms from South Central Los Angeles to the Mississippi Delta to the south Bronx and reached more than a million children. Many alumni of the program, driven by the unique perspective they gained while in the classroom, have gone on to become educators, doctors, lawyers and legislators involved in improving opportunities for disadvantaged young people.

For her work, Kopp received the Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor Princeton confers on undergraduate alumni. She was the youngest person and the first woman to earn the honor. She also was recognized in December 1994 as one of Time magazine's 40 most promising leaders under 40. Other honors Kopp has received include the Jefferson Award for Public Service, Aetna's Voice of Conscience Award and the Kilby Young Innovator Award.

For questions about Kopp's visit, contact Clint Sidle at (607) 255-4104, ccs7@cornell.edu .