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New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.

As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.

So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.

Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.

Hey everyone, welcome to how I built this resilience edition from NPR.

I'm Guy Ross, and on these episodes we're hearing from entrepreneurs and business leaders about how they've been building resilience into their businesses during this very challenging year.

And today, my conversation with Alisa Villanova-Beard, CEO of Teach for America.

Teach for America is a nonprofit that recruits members to teach in low-income communities, and if you want to hear the story of how it began,

I interviewed the founder Wendy Copp back in October of 2017 on the podcast, so check that out.

Anyway, about 80% of Teach for America alums have a career in education or serve low-income communities, and that includes Alisa.

You yourself went through the program in 1998.

What made you interested in pursuing a career in education?

Well, Guy, my story is quite personal. I grew up in South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley right on the Texas Mexico border.

That's where my story and interest begins.

My mom came to the United States for a Mexico at the age of 17 with a formal eighth grade education.

She quickly figured out the pathway to opportunity in this country is education.

So she'll often tell us, you know, my first most important decision as young adult was deciding I was going to marry a man with a college degree, because I knew my kids' lives would be different.

Which is quite literally how she chose my father. It's a two story.

They're still together 48 years later, dad's a first-generation college graduate.

Anyway, I was the kid that did everything right in high school.

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