Kirk Scarbrough, the Director of Internal Communication of Teach for America, conducted the keynote speech and multimedia presentation during the middle of Communication Week on Feb. 18, taking the place of former presidential speechwriter, Jon Favreau.

Beforehand, Favreau had messaged the head of the Department of Communication, Dr. Trudy Hanson, citing that he had caught an illness and was unable to make the trip. However, Favreau told Hanson that he is hopeful to return to West Texas and was open to visiting West Texas A&M sometime soon.

Tabbed as keynote speaker at the last minute, Scarbrough is an alumnus of WTAMU. Scarbrough has also gained a collection of valuable experiences and accolades in his time with Teach for America thus far, ranging from teaching third graders in San Antonio to joining their internal communications team in New York City.

“So whenever I was thinking about prepping for this speech, I thankfully had enough thought about what I wanted the students to hear at the Alumni Table Talk [on Feb. 17],” Scarbrough said. “It was very fortunate that I didn’t have to reiterate any points that I may potentially speak about [on the evening of Feb. 18]. I started to think about what kind of content I wanted the student population to hear. They are my number one audience that I’m talking to.”

At the keynote speech, Scarbrough used his experiences from WTAMU and his work through Teach for America to relate to the students who attended the event on Feb. 18.

Before graduating from West Texas A&M University with a degree in Communication Studies, Scarbrough was student body president, a member of the WT forensics team and was named Man of the Year in his senior year by CORE.

“It was amazing,” Julia Greif, a grad student in the Communication master’s program, said about working with and introducing Scarbrough for the keynote speech. “[Scarbrough] was really down to earth and has done so many great things, so it was easy to talk about him and introduce such an awesome person.”

According to Scarbrough, it was his ability to keep in touch with the faculty at West Texas A&M that aided his career path.

“I was really thinking about what I wish I would have known when I was in WT, from freshman to senior year, as I started to navigate my path outward,” Scarbrough said. “Thankfully, I have had the chance to stay in contact with the professors of WT and be able to talk about the things that I learned, the things that they probably taught me when I wasn’t listening.  I start to think about things that I know that wasn’t a lesson learned, I had the opportunity to bounce those ideas off of them.”

The company that Scarbrough currently works for, Teach for America, emphasizes the need for impoverished children in low-income communities to obtain an education.

For more information about Teach for America, visit www.teachforamerica.org.