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School Resources to Africa

africa-schoolA UK preparatory school is shipping out its entire contents to a school in Africa in need. School furniture, books, and even a billiard table are among the items being donated following its closure some months ago. The school has asked to remain anonymous. It is being aided in this mission by Action Through Enterprise (ATE) a UK-based charity. The school will literally be given everything it needs – everything a regular school needs – to aid functioning.
As a result of this generous donation, the Karbo Primary School in Africa will receive enough stuff to equip an entire new teaching block. This will mean that the school will be able to educate kindergartners – something it’s not been able to do until now.

Teachers Recognized for Charitable Work

ronald-mcdonald-houseA first grade teacher at J. Milton Jeffrey Elementary School, Denise Chabot was the recent recipient of the Ronald McDonald House Charities Local Hero Award. She was one of a group of teachers who received awards for her dedication the teaching and superb efforts in servicing schools in their communities. In addition, at the start of this most recent academic year, she received the Teacher of the Year Award from Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice.
Chabot is extremely dedicated to helping her students reach their potential. She has worked with colleagues and special education teachers to help each student reach greater goals in their education, welcomed parents into her classroom and established real learning interactions for all those involved. She has also helped develop open communication between the class and home by her website and newsletter that ensure parents are kept up-to-date with new lessons and discussion topics. Chabot has been a teacher for close to two-and-a-half decades.
Of course, teacher dedication is just one area that is essential when it comes down to giving students the best possible education. Schools need to have adequate resources, such as good furniture, comfortable school chairs, modern whiteboards and more. When these two elements are combined students have a greater chance of reaching their full potential.

Teach for America: Recent Activities

Elisa-Villanueva-BeardTeach for America seeks to “close the educational gap in low-income communities” across America. Today, this is expanding to Latino teachers and corps members given that over 600 Latinos form the 6,000 incoming teacher corps. This renders it the largest Latino recruitment in TFA’s history.

According to co-CEO of TFA, Elisa Villanueva Beard, this group of Latinos is “dedicating their talents and energy to giving all kids an equal chance in life.” This translates into all sorts of issues for teachers, administrators and students.

Teach for America has a simple mission: to help those who are impoverished “achieve at the highest levels.” Today, there are approximately 16m children throughout the nation that are encountering poverty. But TFA is working to ensure that this does not have an impact on their education. This means it does what it can to ensure children get a good education, irrespective of where they live and that the schools are well equipped – from school desks to computer equipment, to playground supervision with extra staff.
In other words, money should not be a factor when it comes to the education of our children.

Educational and Charitable Foundation Scholarship Program

classroomsApplications are currently available for the Central Insurance Companies’ scholarship program.  Established to support graduates considering property and casualty insurance careers, the scholarship aims to help career-minded individuals meet their goals.  Each student – who graduates from one of the Van Wert County school districts – that is awarded the scholarship will receive up to $5,000. In addition, dependent children of employees of the Central Insurance Companies (irrespective of where they live) can also apply.  At least 3.0 GPA in high school as well as a personally-written essay and extensive application must be completed.  Two letters of recommendation and an official high school transcript must also form part of the application.

The scholarship is strictly for the students, for their studies.  It has nothing to do with the school and cannot be used to make purchases such as computers for schools, school chairs, or anything else an educational institute may require.  Rather it must be put toward expenses of the actual student – books, tuition and even room and board.  But the student has it for their own school-related use, even though it is not confined to being an academic scholarship.

While not exclusively an academic scholarship, applicants must demonstrate academic promise and good character. A minimum 3.0 GPA in high school is required. Applicants are asked to complete an extensive application and provide a personally-written essay, two sealed letters of recommendation and a current official high school transcript.

For more information and the application, visit: www.cicecf.org

Lungi Sierra Leone Charity

school-kidsLast month a school started work on the construction of additional classrooms in their own school, Kingswood House, while at the same time helped a charity to build schools in Sierra Leone. This was a classic example of showing the advantaged children in the school how to think of those less-fortunate than themselves. Since the school has spent over £1m on the classrooms as well as top of the line equipment and school furniture, it is now putting its efforts into fundraising for extra money for a new sports hall and a swimming pool.
Getting the kids involved in the fundraising drive is also an important educational lesson. Realizing that you really have to work hard for the things that you want is a lesson for life. At the same time, the school is working hard for one of its selected charities – the Lungi Sierra Leone Charity – and is trying to raise the money needed to build a primary and pre-school in the region. Thus Kingswood House is in the process of donating books, chairs, tables and computer equipment to the charity. Other charities Kingswood House is involved in include: Good Shepherd Homes (India) the Lunchbowl Network (Nairobi) and MERU (West Hill).