Wendy Kopp found herself in the same position several years ago that many students find themselves in today — filled with idealism but without much outlet for making change. Turning her college thesis project into a nationwide organization, Kopp, founder of Teach for America, said she found a way to channel her youth and energy to address inequity in the U.S. educational system.

Speaking to a group of about 100 students in Norris University Center’s McCormick Auditorium on Wednesday night, Kopp shared how she put her vision of the organization into action.

“We truly can reach the day when every kid in America can engage in an equal education,” Kopp said.

Kopp grew up in an isolated, homogenous school in Houston, she said, and found inspiration from her college roommate who went to public school in the Bronx, N.Y., and struggled to keep up in college despite being a valedictorian of her school.

She said that when she went shopping for careers as a senior at Princeton University, she found only Wall Street and corporate America recruiting college graduates.

“I felt as if I was searching for something else,” Kopp said. “I went down to career services, and it was not that people didn’t want to do something idealistic, they just were not being recruited.”

Kopp said after college she wrote a letter to the U.S. president about her ideas and got back a rejection letter. She then began the organization as a nonprofit group and solicited about 30 corporations for money.

“I really believe that if I didn’t have the advantage of youth,” Kopp said. “I don’t think we would have made it past the first year.”

Teach for America was started in 1990 and functions to bring qualified college graduates into poor rural and urban schools. It serves 20 different communities across the United States and has provided more than 10,000 teachers has directly impacted 1.5 million students.

“It’s crazy to say that this is radical, in this land of opportunity,” said Kopp. “Education should be equal regardless of economic position.”

Northwestern was just one of Kopp’s stops on a cross-country recruitment tour leading up to the program’s Friday application deadline.

“She goes to schools around the country and just talks about the program to get students involved,” said David Washington, a senior at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a Teach for America campaign coordinator who came to NU for the event. “We’re interested in the program, so we’ll probably apply.”

Washington also said acceptance into the program is selective.

“The program is looking for people who will do well and do amazing things with their students,” Washington said. “They’d accept everybody if they thought that everyone would do a good job.”

NU’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity sponsored the event with Alternative Student Breaks, Northwestern Community Development Corps and OASIS.

“I think it was a huge success,” said Jenny Fogarty, Habitat for Humanity’s education co-chairwoman and a Weinberg senior. “Wendy’s story is very inspiring and it is amazing how many NU students are applying.”