Just a few weeks ago, the NHL announced a new program teaching tolerance and giving support to gay athletes.

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Nine years ago Bushman left a job managing bond traders at Lehman Brothers, the last of her three stops on Wall Street, to take classes at Fordham University under the aegis of the New York City Teaching Fellows program.

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Undone by stress and grief, Chris stopped working some of the personal training jobs he held to supplement his income teaching in the exercise science program at the University of New Mexico.

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New Jersey, meanwhile, recently announced a program to help former traders earn their teaching credentials.

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Ms. Mangan-Valle said she moved to New York City after college as part of the Teach for America program that places college graduates in teaching positions in poor neighborhoods.

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To bring more educators into the classroom, the National Math and Science Initiative is working with Texas Instruments and the Dell Foundation to prepare almost 5, 000 new math and science teachers in the next five years -- through a program that allows young people to earn teaching certificates and science degrees at the same time.

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