Matthew Aiken
St. Louis '10
Washington University in St. Louis, University of Missouri—St. Louis, University of Pennsylvania
Law
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Teach For America: St. Louis Corps
Matthew served as the 9th grade math department chair and helped lead the football team to a district title as an assistant coach.
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University of Pennsylvania Law School
Matthew was the managing editor of the Journal of Constitutional Law, as well as a research and training director at the Civil Rights Law Project.
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U.S. District Court
After graduation, he accepted a clerkship with the Honorable Carol Jackson in the Eastern District of Missouri.
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Matthew was a clerk for the Honorable Gregg Costa (Mississippi Delta ’94), where he conducted legal research, drafted bench memoranda, and assisted in making legal determinations.
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Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Matthew is an associate in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C. office and a member of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group.
Q & A
What led you to apply to Teach For America?
I did my due diligence. I talked to friends who had applied and taught in the program, I spoke with family members who were teachers, and I asked a lot of questions. Ultimately, I spoke to my campus recruitment director and her future husband who later became the executive director of TFA-St. Louis. I heard their stories about the impact that was possible here, and that’s what sold me.
What were some of the major lessons you learned during the corps?
The most important thing I learned while in the corps is that accountability is everything. In law school, I was the research director for the Civil Rights Law Project, which involved holding volunteers accountable, communicating issues that needed to be revised, and developing editing processes—skills that directly correlated with my time teaching.
What were the major challenges and opportunities you were responsible for?
In large part I wanted to become a lawyer because of my experiences while teaching. Being a teacher and working in an underserved school allowed me to see all of the issues the children I worked with were confronting beyond their issues at school, issues such as lack of adequate housing, lack of adequate food, general lack of resources, involvement with the criminal justice system, etc. – all ways that I felt couldn’t be addressed solely in school.
How did you use the skills and beliefs you developed in the corps?
Professionally, my organizational skills, speaking ability, and leadership skills all grew exponentially. I led in a number of capacities that I never thought I would, specifically with my 9th graders and as a JV football head coach. The responsibility and ownership of your successes and failures is unparalleled in preparing you for any future leadership experience.
Is there something about being a corps member that has uniquely prepared you to be a leader that you wouldn’t normally get in any other field?
The responsibility and ownership of your successes and failures as a corps member is unparalleled. As the only adult in the room, you are solely responsible for the success and failure of the children who are in your care...I believe that weight and responsibility is something that is unique to being a teacher and can uniquely prepare a corps member to be a leader in whatever field they wind up.