With the Teaching and Teacher Leadership Licensure deadlines approaching, we asked Jordyn Kaplan and Austin Cunningham, members of the 2025-2026 TTL cohort, to share a bit about their journeys and advice for prospective students.
Jordyn Kaplan (she/her)
If you were to ask me about my favorite interactions I’ve had as a teacher, I’d undoubtedly respond with a story about my students from IES Lázaro Cárdenas, the public school in Madrid at which I worked as a Fulbright English teaching assistant. I have pages in my journal detailing students’ quippy one-liners, their exuberant reactions after having presented at the Model U.N. conference for which we prepared together, and their thoughtful questions in response to the lessons I led about Jewish traditions. While I knew I wanted to be an educator since teaching with Breakthrough Collaborative my senior year of college, it was the sense of community I felt at Lázaro Cárdenas that motivated me to apply to graduate programs in education; I was ready to become certified so I could foster the joy and curiosity that my students in Spain brought to our learning within my own classroom in the United States.
I ultimately chose the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program at Harvard Graduate School of Education because of its emphasis on learning by doing. Though I knew basic lesson planning and practices of good teaching, I wanted to feel confident making decisions about what to teach and how to teach it, specifically within the context of a history class in an American public school. TTL’s student teaching model enables me to develop this assuredness; with the support of a mentor teacher, I lead lessons multiple times a day, multiple days a week, for the duration of the academic year. While I’m at my placement school (Brookline High School) three days a week this semester, starting in January, I’ll take over two of my mentor’s classes full-time. This format allows me to practice everything from communicating with parents to providing instructional supports for multilingual students and students with learning disabilities.
Another strength of TTL is that the coursework at HGSE directly aligns with our fieldwork at our student teaching site. My most recent assignment for my Dilemmas in Teaching seminar was to shadow a student for a day: attend her classes and reflect on how her experience in our school can inform my practice. In my history methods class, we’re currently exploring how to plan a unit by forming inquiry-oriented essential questions, sequencing lessons, and designing summative assessments that will reinforce learning. This work directly translates to what I’m doing at Brookline and equips me with fundamental skills that I’ll utilize throughout my teaching career.
My advice for people contemplating or currently applying to TTL is to use the application process as an opportunity to reflect on your values as an educator and your vision for your instructional practice. Having clarity on why it is you want to teach and in what areas you want to grow will allow you to maximize your experience at HGSE. I also want to affirm those people who might be considering doing this program after a few years of working or as a way to pivot careers. Having life experience is a major asset– you know yourself, your strengths, and your growth areas better now than you would have right after college. And, at HGSE, you won’t be alone. About half of my cohort is coming to the program after having worked for a few years after graduating, myself included.
HGSE is a place where teachers from diverse backgrounds can thoughtfully engage with and develop their practices. I could not be more grateful to be growing as an educator and a person in this community.
Austin Cunningham (he/him/él)
As a high school band director, I sat through years of staff meetings discussing my school’s underperformance. Our standardized test scores, for example, were far below our goals. To some extent, this confused me: our elective programs (especially soccer and music) were thriving. How could a school experience such significant internal disparities? This led me to evaluate inequity in education across my state. I wondered why were my students coming to me with no formal music training, while students 20 minutes away had years of high-quality musical experiences?
To become better at answering these questions and solving these problems, I applied to the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I was particularly drawn to the TTL program since it’s designed for people who want to be great teachers, great administrators, or both. TTL also has a lot of flexibility in the courses one can take to fulfill its degree requirements, which allowed me to pursue a wide range of interests.
My experiences here have helped me uncover answers to my burning questions, but that’s not why I’m writing this blog post, and it’s not why I adore this place and this program. I adore Harvard because it is transforming me for the better. These readings, these classes, these people have made me wiser. They have challenged me, frustrated me, and enlightened me. I think of the campus itself as a vibrant participant in our learning: as our historic buildings reach toward the sky, I’m reminded that only the sky itself is the limit to my learning.
Some may picture Harvard as a stuffy, high-brow place where geniuses talk about evolution, mathematics, or chemistry. Though that might be true in some places on campus, that’s not been my experience. Our HGSE is a place where people from all walks of life come to ask great questions. Our HGSE is a community of people who embody truth, love, and joy both inside and outside the classroom.
My advice: you do not have to be a genius to thrive in the TTL program or at Harvard. What you really need is an overwhelming, burning desire to improve the world by improving education. In your application, make it clear to the Admissions Committee how you have demonstrated this ambition in the past; how you plan to live it in the future; and why you think HGSE is the most logical next step for you.
I wish you all the best of luck as you prepare for the life-changing experience that awaits you at Harvard.
HGSE Admissions Blog 