Jimmy Hopper

30under30-LOGOJimmy Hopper served Eta Chi as Archon and immediately following his graduation he became TCU’s Student Affairs Program Director. In this role he started the schools Leadership for Life peer-mentor program and organized the school’s Hunger Week. He then took up an internship with the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce and worked his way up to Legislative Assistant, assisting members in research. Jimmy left DC to join Teach for America where he was sent to a rural community just outside of Nashville. It is there he found his passion for educating the youth of lower income communities. While teaching he got his Masters of Education in Institutional Practice from Lipscomb University. Jimmy had led an effort to bring a charter school, Tennessee’s first rural charter. Although it wouldn’t get approved just yet, the political, community and financial support he worked for led the county to adopt a number of reforms from his petition. Jimmy continues to teach and serve as an instructional coach for another charter start-up in Nashville.

Advice for students and young alumni:
“Try to think of others 10 times before thinking of yourself.”