Teach For America is a national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teach in our nation's public schools for two years. Since its founding 16 years ago by Wendy Kopp, the organization has put more than 14,000 teachers in classrooms and won accolades from the press and from funders. This week's guests are on the front lines of Teach For America working in Memphis city schools, the eighteenth largest district in the country. Brad Leon is executive director of Teach For America and is heading the program in Memphis. Shelby Rohrer and Donique Nobles are two of his recruits.

Brad Leon comes into his role as executive director after four years with Teach For America as a recruitment director, managing recruitment efforts at three major universities which lead to an increase in candidate applications of 96%.

Shelby Rohrer is a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota, majoring in psychology with a minor in youth studies. Donique Nobles earned her Baccalaureate degree from the University of Mississippi where she majored in physics and minored in English and mathematics.

They are all about to begin their first day of school and we'll find out about the challenges they expect to encounter once the students arrive, this week on Smart City.