With the nation facing both new and old challenges, the power of youth can prevail, said Wendy Kopp, founder and president of Teach for America, to an audience of Penn State students yesterday.

Kopp delivered the address in the 7th Annual Schreyer Honors College Luchinsky Memorial Lecture to a full HUB-Robeson Center auditorium.

During her speech, Kopp said that today's college students have "the ability to bring new perspective and new energy" to face the problems of society.

Kopp used her energy and perspective to turn her senior thesis at Princeton University into a reality.

"I had become very focused on education inequity," Kopp said. "Where you're born determines your education prospects."

Kopp used this as the basis for her thesis and later as the focus issue for TFA.

"From the minute it came into my mind, I became obsessed with it," she said.

TFA, now in its 12th year, is a national corps of college graduates who pledge to teach two years in under-funded public schools across the country. The organization has placed over 7,000 corps members in urban and rural regions in an attempt to compensate for shortcomings in the public education system.

During her speech, Kopp chronicled the challenges she faced in converting her idea from a thesis to an organization.

Students who attended the speech said they were inspired by Kopp's message and were interested in the program.

Sarah Edwards (senior-advertising and public relations) said she was considering applying and found the speech to be inspiring.

"For me, the speech was a good base for learning about the program," Edwards said.

The program is an opportunity to take a break from education and offer service, said Nadira Branch (senior-international politics), who is interested in TFA.

"I know how much it helps to have a caring teacher," she said.

Several Penn State students have already been accepted to the program for this coming fall.

Meg Freund (senior-Spanish and psychology) said she was shocked and excited when she was accepted.

"I'm looking forward to giving back some of what I had," said Freund, who will be teaching in Baltimore.

Kopp's speech was part of the Luchinsky Memorial Lecture Series held in honor of Mark Luchinsky, a Penn State student who died in 1995 at the age of 20.

Kopp said TFA works for educational change through dedicated individuals, rather than working for policy change. She said the opposite approach is "ultimately far less powerful."

The education disparity that Kopp originally sought to change still exists, but she is optimistic that her organization can make a difference.

"We see every day the disparities that we set out 12 years ago to address," she said. "If we're sure it can happen, we've got to make it happen."