volume 11 perspectives in philanthropy · issue of perspectives in philanthropy is ... istic...

Perspectives in PhilanthropyReimagining Education

VOLUME 11

Cover photo courtesy of Community Foundation DeKalb County.

New Ways of Learning

Blue School: Reimagining Education for a Changing World

DonorsChoose.org: Microphilanthropy in Schools Across America

Khan Academy: Making Complex Topics Easier to Understand

Metropolitan College of New York: Higher Education With a Purpose

The Cigar Family School: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Through Education

Tostan: Communities Use Human Rights to Promote Social Change

Kids’ Education

The Center for Discovery: A Holistic Approach That Serves a Community

Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy: Taking Impact From the Football Field to the Classroom

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Community Foundation DeKalb County: Adopting a “Community” Approach to Raise Educational Levels

Little Pim Language Learning for Kids

Say Yes to Education: How Education Can Lift a Community

Philanthropic Education Programs

The University of Maryland’s Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership: Transforming the Future of Philanthropy

Medical

Pikes Peak Community Foundation: Breaking Ground/Gaining Ground: Innovative Education for Better Health

The T1D Exchange: A Fundamental Shift in Medical Research

The Pew Charitable Trusts: Supermoms Take a Stand Against Superbugs

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“EDUCATION IS THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON WHICH YOU CAN USE TO CHANGE THE WORLD.”

— nelson mandela

BY ROBERT B. SEABERG, Ph.D.

PERSPECTIVES IN PHILANTHROPY

There may be no area more crucial to the future of humankind than education. Nelson Mandela’s assertion—that “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”—gives a real sense of the connotations and the hopes which the word holds for individuals, families, communities and nations. Because of the foundational importance of education, many have focused on how to improve it, how to ameliorate its real and perceived deficiencies, starting with its very real absence in many parts of the world, its virtual absence in the lives of many inner city youth in America and its reliance on pedagogies which appear ineffective in reaching many other children. These serious issues have sparked a number of innovative projects aimed at establishing and freeing up the transformational power of learning. This issue of Perspectives in Philanthropy is dedicated to showcasing several of these innovative solutions.

The efforts of Tostan, a word which means “breakthrough” in the African Wolof language, have focused on providing non-formal educational programs in Senegal. Tostan bases its approach on the importance of the local ecosystem—where and how people and students actually live—and thus incorporates local traditions and learning styles, such as dialogue, story, poetry and skits to provide an educational experience profoundly different from the typical literacy programs relying on rote learning and memorization. The aim of these programs is to improve people’s lives through improving their literacy and numeracy, their under-standing of basic health and hygiene and their awareness of basic human rights. Classes are always held in the local language of the community by facilitators who have been recruited locally as well; and the results have afforded people the tools and opportunities to effect the transformation of their own communities.

In Philadelphia 25 years ago, George Weiss founded an organi-zation called Say Yes to Education to give real hope of attaining a college education to inner city sixth graders. Essentially, he made them a promise: if they maintained high standards and graduated from high school, he would pay their college tuition. Mr. Weiss and the organization soon learned that the promise itself was the easy

part—providing proper expectations and especially ongoing support were the real bases in making the promise real and possible to these children. Say Yes learned to listen to participants themselves and, like Tostan, to understand the ecosystem in which these children lived. That meant starting even earlier, with children in 1st and 2nd grades, and involving the families of these children, especially siblings. The program’s success in reducing teenage pregnancy and arrest rates, along with improving graduation rates, has led to its adoption by entire cities in upstate New York. First, Syracuse implemented the program throughout its 34 schools, followed by Buffalo in 2012.

For others, the problem with education was that it stifled cre-ativity and thoughtfulness in a number of students. At least it

did to the members of what has become known as the Blue Man Group. Their spe-cial educational program, known as Blue School, applies lessons from neurobiology to an educational pedagogy based on six “creative mindsets,” or lenses, through which students can question, explore and experiment. Relying on an extraordinary set of Board members, including a leading proponent of 21st-century design, a child psychologist and specialist in play therapy and an international expert in creativity and education, Blue School serves as a

worthy antidote to Albert Einstein’s observation that “the only thing which interferes with my learning is my education.”

From the simple to the profound, from common sense to the latest research, these innovators in education and others profiled in this edition of Perspectives in Philanthropy are literally engaged in reimagining education. They are pioneers in expanding access and true learning for the betterment of individuals, communities and the world. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Philan-thropy Management salute these extraordinary innovators and true philanthropists as worthy examples to us all.

ROBERT B. SEABERG, Ph.D.Managing Director Wealth Advisory Solutions

From the simple to the profound, from common sense to the latest

research, these innovators in education and others profiled

in this edition of Perspectives in Philanthropy are literally engaged

in reimagining education.

5MORGAN STANLEY | 2013

6 MORGAN STANLEY | 2013


Blue School: Reimagining Education for a Changing WorldBY SAM CHALTAIN

B efore he helped design the futur-istic character that would spawn

a $100 million company and intro-duce an iconic new figure to American life—the Blue Man—Chris Wink was a disaffected teenager living, in his words, “a bifurcated life. I was a stu-dent at school and a learner outside of school. Inside, I was being fed a series of subjects, while outside I was pursuing my passion. And I was led to believe they were different endeavors.”

Blue Man Group’s other two found-ing members, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton, felt the same way. “It’s telling that the educational system in which the three of us grew up didn’t identify any of us as having any promise cre-atively,” Stanton shared.

Ironically, that sense of disconnect ended up fueling the creation of the show. “Our goal was to inspire creativ-ity in our audiences and ourselves,” said Goldman. “We wanted to speak ‘up’ to the intelligence of our audience members while reaching ‘in’ to their childlike innocence and curiosity. We wanted to create a place where people continually learn and grow and treat each other with just a little more con-sideration than we typically find in the real world. We wanted to sew in multiple perspectives and collabora-tively stimulate innovative ideas. And we wanted to have fun doing it.”

By 2006—their theatrical ex-periment now a full-f ledged global

phenomenon—Wink, Goldman and Stanton (along with their partners Jen Wink, Renee Rolleri and Jennifer Stan-ton) decided it was time to tackle a dif-ferent challenge: the American system of schooling that has, for too long, kept too many of our children from learn-ing to use their minds well. Shortly thereafter, Blue School was born.

AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR LEARNING. “Originally we imagined the characters seeing and interact-ing with the world like children do,” said Goldman. “The Blue Man con-tinually explores and researches the world around him. So we imagined what a school would need to look like in order to let students see the world via six creative mindsets that we use

at Blue Man Group, which translated nicely into archetypal human lenses at Blue School:• The Group Member—the lens of collaboration, connection and global citizenship.• The Scientist—the lens of curios-ity, critical thinking, experimentation and analysis.• The Hero—the lens of perseverance, commitment and leadership.• The Trickster—the lens of provoca-tion, innovation and play.• The Artist—the lens of imagination, instinct and creative expression.• The Innocent—the lens of emotional awareness and mindfulness.

Each lens is a mindset children and adults can assume to explore work, academics or the surrounding envi-ronment. And although it may seem counterintuitive, the model owes as much to the C suite as it does to the Theater suite. “What we noticed was an unmet need in the marketplace, and I’m not just talking about parents with kids,” Wink explained. “I’m talk-ing about CEOs of big companies that would tell us how hard it was to find innovative thinkers they could hire.”

“That was interesting to hear, since the three of us have learned a lot about what innovation requires. You have to know how to move beyond the param-eters of what’s typical or expected. And you need individuals who are


NEW WAYS OF LEARNING

nimble enough to jump between dif-ferent sets of skills. There are times during the creative process when you need the disciplined thought of the scientist, and there are times when you need the unbounded thought of the trickster. What the lenses do is tear down the walls between those different lines of thinking. To be a good artist, you have to be a scientist. To be a good scientist, you have to be an artist. And in almost everything, you have to know how to collaborate.”

“What children need—what all of us need—are schools that can reimag-ine education in such a way so that all young people are prepared for the challenges and opportunities of our changing world.”

TAKING THE IDEA TO SCALE. How can one school fulfill such a lofty pur-pose—and what can the rest of us do to support such an effort?

Recently, f ive members of Blue School’s Board of Advisors met in Manhattan to reflect on that question, and on the unique value proposition that made them commit their own time and energy to the cause.

It’s an eclectic group, made up of leading voices in a diverse set of fields. Dan Siegel is a professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, and a best-selling author specializing in neuroscience and child psychiatry. John Maeda is a graphic designer, a computer scien-tist, and the President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Larry Cohen is a licensed psychologist spe-cializing in children’s play and play therapy. And Sir Ken Robinson is an international expert on education and creativity, and the owner of the most watched TED talk of all time (100 million and counting).

Jeff Walker, a fellow board member and former Chair of the JP Morgan Chase Foundation who is currently ac-tive in countless nonprofit initiatives, facilitated the conversation.

JEFF WALKER: Thank you all for taking the time to come together. There are a lot of impressive aspects of Blue School’s mission, vision and purpose, and one is certainly its application of these six lenses to the way children experience school. It sounds great, but does it actually map to the brain in meaningful ways?

DAN SIEGEL: It really does. My role as an advisory member is to take the lessons from neurobiology, look at things like the lenses and identify the foundations in science that support the idea that you could bring a new approach to education. This work is not a remodeling of some existing strategy for teaching the Three R’s—reading, writing and arithmetic. It’s a way of augmenting those skills with three additional R’s—reflective think-ing, relationship-building and resilience.

This framework for learning reflects the insights we’re making in interper-sonal neurobiology, where we’ve ob-served that different parts of the brain represent unique specialized capacities of the nervous system that actually filter energy and information flow via each of those lenses. When a team of educators understands how to do that well, they do a lot more than help children learn to read or identify their strengths; they literally help lay down a network of myelin that coats neural connections and promotes integrative growth in the brain. And so in many ways these six lenses are a beautiful example of how a school can uniquely start promoting

“What children need— what all of us need—are schools that can reimagine education in such a way so that all young people are prepared for the challenges and opportunities of our changing world.”



integration within the child across all these different lenses.

LARRY COHEN: Other schools try to squeeze these things in through the cracks. That’s because we’re so obsessed right now with measurable growth in reading and math—often at the expense of everything else. But what Blue School has done that’s so exciting is recognize that an integrated vision of child development must be built into a school’s DNA to promote deeper engagement in learning and academic vigor.

How can more schools learn to balance structure and freedom in a classroom so that it’s not chaos and it’s not stifling? I think the world is waiting for some new ideas.

We’re all pretty clear that the old ways are not working, and are not based on what we know about the brain or what we’re seeing in the world. Blue School opens the window so people can learn from it and craft similarly inte-grated learning spaces for children.

JEFF WALKER: So it’s a vision of schooling in which the goal is not to teach children what the answers are, but to help them ask the right questions, and to find, manage and analyze what-ever information they need to do so?

JOHN MAEDA: Exactly. I think the most valuable and lasting export of Blue School will be its attention to a set of design principles that can structure a school’s efforts to help children develop different ways of seeing themselves and the world. I also don’t know of any other school that serves as an aggregator of the latest research in neuroscience and

channels those insights directly back into the classroom.

That’s what’s missing so much in education today—clarity of purpose, and applicability of research. And that’s why we need places like Blue School, which has a vision for the future that doesn’t yet exist and the courage to ac-tually create that experience right now.

JEFF WALKER: So how can Blue School contribute to this larger movement, and make sure that its impact extends beyond just its own students?

SIR KEN ROBINSON: Blue School’s plan for reimagining education is as thoughtful and comprehensive as any

I’ve seen. The first part of the strategy is the school itself, and the ways it can serve as an active laboratory for a vision of learning envi-ronments that nurture the mind, body and spirit of children, that prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of the modern world, and that apply the leading neuroscience to the daily work of educators in the classroom.

The second part is the school’s plan to influence the national

conversation by building and sustaining an audience of parents, educators and policymakers, and helping them bet-ter understand what great teaching and learning actually looks like—and applies. There’s an unprecedented opportunity for parents to drive demand throughout the system, but to do that, someone needs to be connecting people to highly engag-ing stories and highly illustrative content. Someone needs to be connecting the dots between how we learn and how schools can be structured. And someone needs to

do those things with enough bandwidth to really build and sustain an audience over time. Blue School is poised to do that.

The final part of the strategy, at the right time, will be finding a way to bring the design principles and research to scale, via online training, tools and re-sources, educational learning materials, a certification program—perhaps even all of the above.

It’s a big vision, but then again, these are the people who created a worldwide phenomenon, which is why they’re the people I’d trust with doing something so ambitious, and doing it well.

DAN SIEGEL: I couldn’t agree more. The future of the world depends on holding on to the divergent, creative thinking of our youth. Sadly, school sys-tems as they exist now wipe it out. Blue School stands as an exclamation point of a different possibility—and as a ques-tion mark. It’s a reminder of the fact that we’re never done in the work; our goal is always to keep pushing further. So I’m here not just because it’s a fun school or a creative school, but because it literally is the future of our planet, and that’s why I put in my time and whatever energy I have to support what Blue School does.

JEFF WALKER: That’s right—we could all spend time on a lot of different things, but I am a funder of Blue School because I believe in it. And my kids don’t even go there! But I support this work because, as you all say, it’s a model of things to come and a smart way to invest in that future.

Thank you all for taking the time to come together. Let’s get to work.

SAM CHALTAIN: a member of Blue School’s Board of Advisers. His newest book about Education, “Our School: Searching for Community in the Era of Choice”, will be released in early 2014.

To learn more about Blue School, visit www.blueschool.org.

“That’s what’s missing so much in education today— clarity of purpose, and applicability of research. And that’s

why we need places like Blue School, which has a vision for the

future that doesn’t yet exist and the courage to actually create that experience right now.”


DonorsChoose.org: Microphilanthropy in Schools Across America

P erhaps the most celebrated “Eure-ka!” moment in history happened

to Archimedes in the third century B.C. Archimedes was challenged by King Hiero II to determine his gold crown’s authenticity. The Greek math-ematician was taking a bath when he realized that he could calculate the density of the crown by noting how much water it displaced; he could then compare the density of the crown to the density of gold, confirming or re-futing its composition. Struck by his revelation, Archimedes allegedly ran naked through the streets shouting “Eureka,” meaning, “I have found it” in ancient Greek.

Charles Best had a “Eureka” moment of his own while teaching history in the Bronx.

“I often found myself talking with colleagues about books we wanted our students to read, or field trips we wanted them to take, or a microscope we wanted them to use. But there was no funding—we had to spend our own money. None of them were particularly expensive. But there was just no place to get the kind of microfunding that was needed to make our lessons come alive.”

“I thought, well, there must be people out there who wanted to help provide support. But they had no way to know about the specific need.”

“At the same time, I knew there were lots of teachers, not just in our school but everywhere in the district, who had terrific ideas that needed just a little money to make them happen.”

“So I thought, why don’t we connect these t wo g roups—teachers and citizens—to get these kids the books, field trips and equipment that would make a small but real difference?”

“So I thought, why don’t we connect these two groups—

teachers and citizens—to get these kids the books,

field trips and equipment that would make a small

but real difference?”

“That was the genesis of Donors Choose.org. Teachers post a classroom project request. On the other side, donors can go and view the projects, decide which they’d like to support, and donate any amount, even just a dollar or two. Our role is to actually purchase the material the teacher requests and fulfill it, so the money goes to what it’s intended for in full.”

MAKING THE CONCEPT INTO REALITY. Charles had a terrific idea and worked with a programmer to design a rudi-mentary website. But there were two immediate problems—no projects, and no donors. So he began a campaign to recruit project postings from his teacher colleagues. “My mom makes this incred-ible dessert with roasted pears with orange rinds, and they’re just awesome. So I brought a plate into the teacher’s lunch room and put them on the table. I said, ‘OK, whoever eats one of these des-serts has to go to this new website called DonorsChoose.org and ask for whatever you want most for your students.”

Three teachers took the bait. “The health teacher was thinking about teen




pregnancy prevention, and wanted these Think It Over dolls. They’re basically life-size, life-weight dolls that cry at three in the morning and need to be fed. Then an English teacher wanted to purchase some SAT prep books. The art teacher wanted to create a wall-to-wall quilt and needed some supplies. Those were the first three projects.”

In the fairy-tale version of this story, the teachers would post the projects and excited donors would discover the site and fund the projects. But that’s not what happened. “My aunt is a nurse and she funded the dolls, but I didn’t know any other donors. I was living at home with my parents and they weren’t charging me rent, so I funded the other two out of my own pocket.

Because I funded them anonymously, my colleagues thought that the site worked; that there were all these donors out there just waiting to fulfill teachers’ dreams. So the rumors spread and we got hundreds of projects across the Bronx. Way, way more than I could personally afford!”

Charles knew that he needed to find donors. But he didn’t know how.

Fortunately, he had a classroom full of students to help.

STUDENTS TO THE RESCUE. “It really was my students that closed this circle.

They saw the potential for this site, and they also felt bad for me being in a bind. So they volunteered every day after school for about three months, put-ting together a small mailing by hand. They sent out about 2,000 letters to people across the country, telling them that for $10 they could be a classroom hero. We sorted them by hand to get the cheapest postal rate—each desk in

my classroom was like a different postal region. Well, that letter writ-ing campaign brought in about $30,000 in dona-tions, and we were off and running.”

The event which push-ed DonorsChoose.org to the next level was a tragic one. “Right after 9/11, a lot of teachers near Ground Zero started posting projects. There was a math teacher who

There really is no limit to the creativity of teachers, and the kinds of projects donors

can support. Many people choose to donate to initiatives that are dear to them.


needed a new set of calculators because hers were sealed at the disaster site. An art teacher wanted to bring in an Afghan artist so her students could learn about Afghanistan. There was a first-grade teacher who had been rescued by a group of firemen, and she wanted to put on a musical performance for them and needed instruments. There were hundreds of projects focused on 9/11.”

SHEER PERSEVERANCE GETS THE WORD OUT. Charles thought there would be a lot of interest in the New York press about these 9/11-based projects on DonorsChoose.org, so he started calling around. Like everything else he has done with DonorsChoose.org, his persistence and drive paid off. “No local reporters would give me the time of day. Finally, out of frustration, I called an editor at Newsweek. I didn’t know him, but his name was on the top of the alphabetical list of editors. Turned out it was Jonathan Alter. I called him and said, ‘Hi, I’m a teacher in the Bronx, I started this nonprofit with my students, do you want to hear about it?’ He was the first reporter not to hang up on me. We talked for 45 minutes, and he wrote a column for Newsweek.com.”

Jonathan Alter’s reporting got the attention of a number of important people. “Oprah Winfrey noticed us. Maybe the greatest response was from Stephen Colbert. He’s mentioned us on his program at least a dozen times. He’s done some amazing things for us. He commissioned a portrait of himself, and got the National Portrait Gallery to hang it—in the men’s room! As part of a bit on his show with Steve Martin, Colbert got him and Shepard Fairey and a bunch of other famous artists to sign the portrait. Then he auctioned it off and gave us the proceeds. He also pranked Jimmy Fallon into making a large donation. And now, Colbert gives every guest who appears on his show

a DonorsChoose.org gift card, that allows them to donate to the project of their choice.”A SELF-FUNDING ORGANIZATION.

DonorsChoose.org has always been self-funding. “We explain on the site that, if the donor chooses, he or she can specify that 15% of the contribu-tion goes to us for administrative costs. About 75% of them do.”

A remarkable percentage of the projects are successful. “The average project is for $500. Roughly 70% of them get fully funded before they hit their expiration date, which is four months. As we speak, we have funded about 240,000 classroom projects, with roughly $170 million of giving. Every one of these projects has been vetted and fulfilled by us, and every donor gets an update on the project, with photos and a report from the teacher on how the program did.”

OTHER MEANS TO GENERATE REV-ENUE. The microphilanthropy model will remain an integral part of DonorsChoose.org, but there are other ways to generate support as well. “We have a gift card program where corpo-rations can buy $100 or $200 donations, then give them out so people can choose what they want to fund. They’re very popular gifts for children. We also have larger donors—for example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foun-dation made a major grant, underwriting DonorsChoose.org gift cards for essen-tially everyone living in Memphis and Tampa, two cities where they were backing a number of initiatives. But we are committed to our microphilanthropy model—it keeps our original vision alive.”

There really is no limit to the creativity of teachers, and the kinds of projects donors can support. Many people choose to donate to initiatives that are dear to them. “I was once being interviewed by a reporter. He was impressed with our site, but said that his passion was salmon, that all of his charitable contributions went to salmon. I think he was just politely trying to tell me that he wouldn’t be making a donation! But I did a quick keyword search on our site for ‘salmon,’ and there were five projects on our site dealing with salmon! A high school teacher in Oregon had created a hatchery to teach students about biology—he needed hip waders for his students. Another teacher in Alaska taught in a school of all native Alaskans. Her students had gathered their parents’ folk tales about salmon and needed a scanner and printer to share their work. It showed that, no matter what your interest, you can fund something on our site.”

To Charles Best, DonorsChoose.org is clear evidence of the creativity and

drive of teachers. And he hopes to continue to expand and support their commitment. “Our audacious goal is to see a million people g ive $10 0 million to classroom projects from 100% of our country’s high poverty schools—all in one school year. This year, we’ll get about halfway there. But the more ways we find to support

the model, the better our chances of getting there.”

To find out more about DonorsChoose.org, visit www.donorschoose.org.

Our audacious goal is to see a million people

give $100 million to classroom projects from 100% of our country’s high poverty schools – all in one school year.

This year, we’ll get about halfway there.




Khan Academy: Making Complex Topics Easier to UnderstandBY ED BERNARD

W hen I was in high school, I was a good student but awful at trig. I

was mystified by cosines and tangents. What were they? Why was I working them out? What was their relevance?

Fast forward 25 years. As a curious adult interested in astrophysics, I’m lis-tening to a lecture on space travel when suddenly the speaker mentions trigo-nometry. He casually describes how trigonometry is essential to working out key principles in astronomy that de-fine how celestial bodies relate to each other. “Oh,” I thought, “Why wasn’t I told that in 11th grade? I might have actually understood what I was doing.”

Salman Khan had a similar question. He couldn’t understand why people were so f lummoxed by science and math. He enjoyed and excelled at the subjects but did not credit his progress to any innate ability.

“Three hundred years ago, people assumed that only smart people could read,” Sal notes. “Well, that assumption is completely false—virtually anybody can learn to read if they’re taught prop-erly. Our educational system invests an enormous effort into teaching read-ing—we start very early, offer years of instruction, and give remedial as-sistance if needed. We don’t do the same with math and science; we just assume that some people are good at it, and others are not. If reading is any indication, the assumption about math and science just isn’t so.”

Sal has seen this belief validated first-hand. Sal notes, “Before I started Khan Academy, I tutored my cousin. In seventh grade she had some trouble with unit conversions and her school dropped her back into a slower math track. Once I helped her, she got past that hurdle and was able to race ahead of the class. Three years later, she took calculus as a high school sophomore. So, this girl who the school thought was horrible at math quickly became one of the best math students in her city.”“BUT ISN’T YOUTUBE FOR PIANO-

PLAYING CATS?” In 2008, a buddy of Sal’s asked him if he had considered scaling up, making a few math lesson vid-eos and posting them on YouTube. Sal’s first reply was, “YouTube is for cats playing the pi-ano, not serious math-ematics.” However, Sal decided to give it a try and his attitude quickly changed as the videos became more and more popular and it became appar-ent that a lot of students were hungry for this material. Sal received a lot of positive feedback. Viewers shared how when people stopped throwing formulas at them they were finally able to under-stand concepts that had once seemed like a foreign language.

In 2009, Sal quit his job as a hedge fund analyst and began devoting himself to Khan Academy full-time. His idea was to bring this kind of learning to anyone with an Internet connection. To-day, Khan Academy features more than 4,000 videos on a variety of subjects, in addition to practice problems, tracking tools, and many other resources. Sal shares, “When I filed the paperwork to become a nonprofit and was asked to supply a mission statement, I wrote ‘Provide a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere.’ Mind you, I was a one-man show operating out of my closet! It was a grandiose ambition, of course, but shows that we are trying for something powerful and innovative.”

KHAN ACADEMY IN THE CLASSROOM. As Khan Academy evolved, it continued to pursue world-altering opportunities. In fact, one breakthrough occurred in the very environment where the prob-lem originated—in the school classroom.

Sal was approached by the Los Altos school system to integrate Khan Acad-emy videos into a single classroom. It turned out that the new curriculum enabled students to operate at their own pace and let teachers interact with more students on an individual basis. Us-ing Khan Academy’s online materials, students could take as much time as they

needed to understand the concepts. Fewer kids got left behind and fewer got bored. The first year was so successful that Khan Academy has been integrated district-wide in Los Altos in all 5th through 7th grade math classrooms and most 8th grade math classrooms.

Sa l states, “ We learned a lot from that experience. It made us think about our place in the education ecosystem. It also led to an expansion of our offering, because learning is more than just watching videos. We added interactive features, problem sets, feedback and diagnostics.

Viewers shared how when people stopped throwing formulas at them they were finally

able to understand concepts that had once seemed like a foreign language.


These are important elements of tra-ditional education, and we use them because they work.”

MEASURING SUCCESS USING BUSI-NESS PRINCIPLES. Khan Academy’s curriculum is subjected to rigorous metrics. Every time the organization considers changing its curriculum, the proposed change undergoes a series of robust measurements.

Sal notes, “There’s a concept in research called AB testing. It entails putting out two versions of a concept and examining which one works bet-ter. Someone says, ‘Hey, I think if we make the Buy Now button blue, it will increase sales.’ So, they’ll test it by ex-posing the blue button to 5 or 10 percent of their buyers and see if it actually performs better. We test things the same way.”

Khan Academy recently conducted a test with negative exponents that ultimately changed the way the orga-nizations offers hints when students are taking a test. Traditionally, the hint had a text-based explanation. Sal and his team at Khan Academy thought

that maybe it would be more beneficial to just use hints with numbers and not include any text. It turned out that students using the ‘numbers-only’ hint not only gained proficiency faster, but also retained the knowledge better and longer. Sal notes, “And this was a test administered to 40,000 people, which is about two orders of magni-tude larger than most experiments. You can’t do this kind of testing in a classroom—there are no classrooms with 40,000 students.”

The Internet gives Khan Academy access to a vast number of users. It also means that sometimes important thought-leaders take notice. Sal notes, “By the summer of 2010, Google had started to take an interest. It came out that Bill Gates was an advocate, and that he was using our videos with his kids. The Gates Foundation became a source of funding.”THE SROI—SOCIAL RETURN ON IN-

VESTMENT. Khan Academy, between its self-directed instruction and blended learning, is onto something profound and monumental. Sal notes, “I think our

Sal Khan

social return on investment is off the charts. Our costs are nowhere near the cost of traditional instruction. We’re improving educational performance and retaining more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) stu-dents, which we desperately need to stay competitive.”

The future is rich with possibilities. Already, Khan Academy has expanded far beyond its original offerings. Eco-nomics, computer science, history, art history and videos in multiple languag-es are all part of the curriculum. Sal notes, “Upwards of 100 million people have used the site since we launched it. We’re pushing the boundaries of how people learn.”

To learn more about Khan Academy, visit www.khanacademy.org.

ED BERNARD Writer and creative director




Metropolitan College of New York: Higher Education With a Purpose

Is our system of higher education effective?

Does it prepare people to do meaningful, important work?

How should we change it to better serve society’s needs?

Thoughts like these were running through Audrey Cohen’s mind back in 1964. During that time of social up-heaval, she saw the lack of opportunity for women, as well as poor and disen-franchised people. She wondered if there was a better way. Why wasn’t tra-ditional higher education doing a better job of preparing students for work that would benefit them, their families, their workplaces and their society?

She realized that incremental chang-es were not going to be enough. It was necessary to start with a clean slate and engineer a college education that creates a motivated, effective work-force doing meaningful, productive community work. Her insights led her to found a school that ultimately became the Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY).

“My mother was a passionate and tenacious advocate for educational re-form and social change,” says Wendy Cohen, Audrey Cohen’s daughter, Head of Segment & Channel Marketing at

Morgan Stanley and Co-Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of MCNY. “She believed that the measure of learning is not what you know, but what you ac-complish with what you know. If you start with that premise, you pretty much have to rethink everything from the students you target to the structure of your pro-gram to the content of your curriculum to the teaching pedagogy you employ.”

“Audrey Cohen thought deeply about how education could help people imme-diately. She was particularly interested in empowering women who were eco-nomically marginalized. She believed that the purpose of education was to help individuals take charge of their own lives, thereby making organiza-tions and communities more effective in serving their constituencies. It was clear to her that traditional education was not structured to achieve those goals. She wanted to restructure educa-tion so that it would better serve both students and society.”

START WITH THE “WHO.” Audrey Co-hen thought about the kind of student she wanted to reach. She imagined a population underserved by traditional


education, people whose goals aligned with her vision.

“Our students are not those who come to mind when you think ‘college stu-dent,’” notes Vinton Thompson, Presi-dent of MCNY. “At MCNY, our average undergraduate is 29 years old. Most are women with children. Many are the first in their families to attend college, and many are single heads of families with full-time jobs.”

Some examples:“I needed a job that

would allow me to sup-port my family. I didn’t see the need to study traditional classes that don’t relate to what I want to do…I wanted to know that what I was studying was relevant to helping me help others.”

“I was a grandmother when I went back to school. I wanted a program where I’d come away doing something I believe in.”

“My son was born when I was in high school. The fact that I could get a bachelor’s degree in under three years was appealing, but the idea that I could keep my job and get skills that would help me get promoted was even better.”

To reach this type of nontraditional student, MCNY reimagined the logis-tics of traditional higher education, challenging every assumption. For example, MCNY operates three full semesters a year to enable students to finish more quickly while still earn-ing a fully accredited degree. MCNY also schedules classes at night and on weekends for working students. CREATING A PURPOSE-CENTERED

EDUCATION MODEL. Aside from logis-tical considerations, how would one

structure an education focused on help-ing students “identify and achieve goals that would benefit their workplaces and societies?” What would be taught?

There must be a close connection between what students learn and how they hope to apply their knowledge. The specificity and relevance of the material

is crucial.“Research suggests

that we are more mo-tivated to learn, and more personally ful-filled, if we see our work as meaningful and important,” notes President Thompson. “At the same time, our mission is to prepare our students to do

work that benefits others as well as themselves. This is one area in which our goals as individuals dovetail per-fectly with positive benefits for our community. Our students learn to use the knowledge they acquire to make positive change.”

So the goal is clear. But to accom-plish this mission, students need skills, knowledge and practical experience. What kind? How can they be made universal? What characterizes skills that can be used in the real world?

To find out, Audrey Cohen inter-viewed professionals from many fields, trying to identify the key competencies that characterize effective, communi-ty-based service work. This research helped define the principles of Purpose Centered Education.

START BY SELECTING A PURPOSE: A “CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION.” As one would in the workplace, students at MCNY identify and define a goal, then pursue the knowledge and skills neces-sary to achieve their goal.

A CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION … IN ACTION

Shana Melius’ Constructive Action changed her community and beyond.

“While working in Public Relations, I met a boy named Jaden Hilton. He was three years old and suffered from leukemia. Stem cells and umbilical cord blood could have saved him, but matches are hard to find, especially among people of color. When Jaden lost his battle, I knew that I wanted to do something that could help prevent another Jaden.”

As her Constructive Action, Shana created a nonprofit called “Preserve Our Legacy,” implementing her course-work at MCNY. Preserve Our Legacy has launched umbilical cord blood donation programs at local hospitals, and, in 2012, they helped pass Jaden’s Law in New Jersey, which helps donors easily identify themselves.

Constructive Action is a way of demonstrating student mastery of coursework through meaningful work. “The Constructive Action program at MCNY made Preserve Our Legacy possible,” says Shana. “Planning, implementing and running an organization takes skill and knowledge. It’s great to have a vision, but the CA program helped me take what I’d learned — as I was learning it — and turn it into important action for my community.


There must be a close connection between what students learn

and how they hope to apply their knowledge.

The specificity and relevance of the

material is crucial.



“Each semester, students carry out a real-world project, or what we call a Constructive Action,” explains Presi-dent Thompson. “During their time at MCNY, they might develop a training program at their current place of em-ployment or create a facility for housing the homeless.” A Constructive Action may be as small as teaching a paraplegic how to use a toothbrush or as large as establishing a daycare center. In some way, every Constructive Action should aim to improve the world.

Examples of Constructive Ac-tions include: • Attending MCNY after working with Head Start for more than 20 years, one student created a job enrichment and training program that helped case workers develop the skills needed to assist families.• A student of Haitian heritage started an orphanage in her ances-tral homeland.• In response to the low percentages of minorities in the National Bone Mar-row Registry, a student created a non-profit organization called “Preserve Our Legacy” to help patients get the life-saving treatment they need.

Obviously, ambitious projects like these require more than motivation and the right attitude; they require signifi-cant, broad, specific skills to make them succeed. The curriculum at MCNY is constructed around this imperative.

INNOVATIONS IN STRUCTURE, CON-TENT AND GOALS. In preparation for their Constructive Action, students take classes that teach them to look at problems and solutions from five dif-ferent perspectives: Purpose; Values and Ethics; Self and Others; Systems;

and Skills. Examples include Promot-ing Empowerment through Work in Groups and Philosophies of Change and their Impact on Social Policy. While highly specialized and focused on skill development, these classes are not un-like traditional college courses. “We have not done away with disciplinary knowledge,” explains Deborah Allen, Co-Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of MCNY and a longtime colleague of Audrey Cohen. “We just pull it apart and arrange the pieces in a way that is relevant to achieving meaningful goals.”

Each semester’s Constructive Action is tied to a particular area of professional responsibility, such as counseling or supervi-sion or marketing. By graduation, students have acquired a full set of competencies that are essential in their chosen profession—and they have prac-ticed using them in their workplace.

THE IMPORTANCE OF “WHY.” Stu-dents have a class in Values and Eth-ics every semester. “This concept is woven into the very fabric of the MCNY educational model,” explains Wendy Cohen. “Students learn how to under-stand their own values and the values of other people and organizations in order to make a positive impact.”

“Going back to our original ideals, students are interested in work that is meaningful and important,” says President Thompson. “At MCNY, part of our raison d’etre is to enable students to think critically about the impact of all their choices. The MCNY faculty

teaches students how to use knowledge to benefit others, make positive use of what they are learning and to apply that knowledge. In this way, our students link learning with action to improve the world.”

A UNIVERSAL CONCEPT THAT WORKS. The concept of Purpose-Centered Edu-cation works well in a diverse range of professional arenas. MCNY offers a variety of degree programs, in fields from education to business, public af-fairs to media, financial services to emergency management. “People can

do meaningful, im-portant work across society,” notes Wendy Cohen. “Our model is effective because it focuses on helping people learn how to make a difference.”

And it works. “Look at it this way,” says Lilibeth Acosta from

New Life Head Start. “At MCNY, you are required to identify a problem … imagine a solution … acquire the skills needed to engineer that solution … implement the solution in the field … observe and analyze what works … make adjustments on the fly … report on the effectiveness of your program … be evaluated by someone with intimate knowledge of the problem. That sounds like the real world to me … it’s exactly what I want my staff to do. And at MCNY, they do it every semester. The person who thrives in that program is precisely the person I want to hire.”

To learn more about the Metropolitan College of New York, visit www.mcny.edu.

The MCNY faculty teaches students how to use knowledge to benefit others, make positive use of what

they are learning and to apply that knowledge.


The Cigar Family School: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Through Education

N estled in the wilds of the Domini-can Republic, there is a microcli-

mate that is truly unique. Surrounded by the Central Cordillera mountain range, rich fertile soil and mountain streams, the Bonao region is an oasis in the heart of the Caribbean.

Visitors to this remote location might make their way to the town of Caribe, and happen upon an equally remark-able place.

Amidst the lush landscape and roll-ing hills of tobacco farms, the commu-nities surrounding Bonao are some of the poorest areas in the region. Many homes have no indoor plumbing and no electricity. In sharp contrast to this abject poverty is a brightly painted, immaculate primary school and a new high school tucked behind it. Nearby is a modern health center, a playground, an amphitheater, a commercial kitchen, a multi-use center, a basketball/vol-leyball court and a baseball field. Just across the road is a fish pond, a small animal center and bee hives. But as nice as these facilities are, it is the en-thusiasm and the smiles of the kids that let visitors know how special this place really is.

Welcome to the Cigar Family Com-munity Complex, a project of the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation and the vision of Carlos “Carlito” Fuente, Jr. of the Arturo Fuente Cigar Company and Eric Newman, of the J.C. Newman Ci-gar Company and David Luther, execu-

tive director of the Dominican Institute for Integral Development (IDDI)

What began as a dream a dozen years ago to add a wing onto the one-room local school adjacent to Chateau de la Fuente has become a 23-acre complex serving 5,000 children and their fami-lies from the communities surrounding

Bonao. Approximately 470 children attend the school which also serves nutritious breakfasts and lunches at no cost. The children have access to clean, safe drinking water for them-selves and their families. They play sports, participate in music and drama classes, learn English and French and how to use computers. When they com-plete the eigth grade, they enter the high school which is the only one in the community. A staggering 92% of its graduates have gone on to college. The school dropout rate is zero and absenteeism is virtually nonexistent.

CHOOSING THE PERFECT LOCATION. Carlos Fuente, co-founder of The Ci-gar Family Charitable Foundation, describes how Chateau de la Fuente evolved. “It all began back in the 80’s when we were looking to find a location to grow a special type of very flavorful Dominican wrapper. We were very for-tunate to find this tobacco farm situated between the mountains and the river,




creating the perfect soil for growing tobacco. At the time there were no roads in or out, no electricity and not even running water. My father and I were convinced that this was our destiny.”

Eventually Carlos and his father built Chateau de la Fuente into a tobacco farm like no other company had done before. Today, that region yields unique tobaccos used in the most sought after cigar in the world—the Fuente OpusX. Having both been in business for over 100 years, the Fuente and Newman families own the two oldest cigar manu-facturers in the country, still privately owned and operated by the founding families. “Our families had previously partnered in Ybor City (Tampa, FL) and we are very proud to continue that

tradition for the next generation and beyond,” says Eric

The tobacco farms brought work to many of the families in the com-munity. Sadly, in the five communities surrounding Chateau de la Fuente, only a couple of primitive one-room school houses existed, and, as a result, very few children received an education. Many of the workers even asked if their children could work alongside them in the fields as they weren’t in school and wanted to make money to help support their families. During a visit to the farm, Eric recalls seeing these young children and wondering why they were not in school. The reason was that there simply weren’t enough classrooms in the existing schools.

A SIMPLE IDEA TAKES ON A LIFE OF ITS OWN. The idea of building a school has proven to be a long and rewarding journey. At the outset, simply constructing a school would have been pointless. The local com-munities did not see the value of receiving an ed-ucation and this proved to be a huge obstacle.

It was then that Car-los and Eric reached out to David Luther to as-sist with the logistics of how to engage the community and get the new school built. David stressed the importance of looking at the bigger picture. As he pointed out, it’s nearly impos-sible for children to learn if they are hungry, thirsty or sick. More-over, it’s difficult for

children to succeed if their parents don’t see the value of education. David urged them to create an infrastructure around education that would transform the community.

In response, Carlos and Eric formed the Cigar Family Charitable Founda-tion. From the outset it was important to them that the name “Newman” or “Fuente” not appear on the project—“Cigar Family members include anyone who shares their vision of “giving back” whether they enjoy cigars or not” says Carlos. Moreover, the Fuente and New-man families underwrite all adminis-trative costs to run the charity so that every dollar donated goes directly to help the children and families of the Cigar Family Complex.


In record time, the Cigar Fam-ily Charitable Foundation and IDDI brought in electric power, built roads and bridges, and purchased school buses. They made a point of hiring local people to do the work which empower community members who then became stakeholders and played a major role in making positive change.

The community’s attitude towards education slowly began to shift. Fi-nally, after many conversations and meetings with parents and community leaders, in 2004, the Cigar Family Pri-mary School for students pre-kinder-garten to eighth grade, was open for business. Eric recalls seeing the pride and joy in the children’s faces. “In the United States, at the end of the day children run from the school to get on the buses. At the Cigar Family School, when they arrive in the morning, our children are so excited to go to school that they actually run from the buses into the classrooms.”

THE BUSINESSPERSON’S PROB -LEM/SOLUTION MINDSET. As Carlos explains, “Eric and I are business-men who are used to implementing business-like ways to address prob-lems. We confront challenges face-on, one at a time in a building-block approach.” For example, when Carlos and Eric first arrived, the local com-munities lacked basic health care. In their eyes, this was unacceptable; so, the Cigar Family went out and built a Health Center. Students and their families now have access to an array of services in the areas of pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, laboratory test-ing, pharmacy and emergency services served by an ambulance.

Another problem that became ap-parent was the unavailability of po-table drinking water. Prior to the help of the Cigar Family Charitable Founda-

tion, children had to walk miles to the nearest river to collect unsanitary wa-ter for their families to drink. Through the efforts of Rotary International and other civic groups these children now have access to clean, sanitary drinking water.

Soon after opening school doors, there was yet another obstacle. Once completing the primary school, the students had no place to go to continue their education. So, to meet this defi-ciency, the Cigar Family High School opened in 2005. The High School offers students a well-rounded education, and not unlike many American high schools not only offers programs in computers, music, dance, sports and organic farming, but vocational train-ing as well.

The Cigar Family School offers much more than just learning to read and do math. Children gain self-con-fidence, learn discipline and discover untapped talents through sports, mu-sic and drama programs which can

The Cigar Family School

offers much more than

just learning to read and

do math. Children gain

self-confidence, learn

discipline and discover

untapped talents through

sports, music and drama

programs which can lead

to successful careers.

lead to successful careers. As Carlos remarks, “Maybe one of these children will one day turn out to be a great violin player. We’ll never know unless we give our students the opportunity.”

AN ASTONISHING RECORD OF SUC-CESS. Carlos and Eric are like proud fathers when they share the inspiring and remarkable achievements of their students. Eric notes, “One girl, Enero-lisa, who was one of our first students, came back after graduating from col-lege and is now a math teacher at the school. Nelson, another student, who once only dreamed of working in the tobacco fields, is now studying at a local university to become a doctor.”

The academic success of the Cigar Family School is well recognized. For instance, the students have won first place in the Ministry of Education’s National English Language competi-tion so many times that they are no lon-ger allowed to compete. The School’s test scores rank among the highest in the region. One student, aspiring to be a doctor, was chosen from among 2,000 students to be President of the National UN Model General Assembly. The United Nations has recongized the Cigar Family Charitable Founda-tion as a model for other developing countries and communities. Children who once only aspired to be farm work-ers are now setting their sights on becoming architects, scientists and diplomats. Education has given the whole community a sense of hope and new meaning to life.

To learn more about the Cigar Family Chari-table Foundation, visit www.cf-cf.org.




Tostan: Communities Use Human Rights to Promote Social Change

T ostan, which means “breakthrough” in Wolof, the most widely spoken

language in Senegal, is a nonprofit orga-nization founded by Molly Melching. “Tostan” is a befitting name for an orga-nization that seeks to empower African communities to bring about sustain-able development and positive social transformation based on respect for human rights.

Although Tostan was founded in 1991, the organization’s origins date back to 1974 when Molly moved from the United States to Dakar to complete her graduate degree in African Stud-ies at the University of Dakar. During Molly’s subsequent work both in Dakar and in rural villages, she began to notice that a lack of basic education in na-tional languages was impeding development in many communities. Villagers were intel-ligent and motivated but lacked important information and skills needed for making im-provements in their communities.

These observations spurred the development of an initial nonformal education program. For three years, Molly and a team of Senegalese cul-tural specialists worked with villagers in the rural community of Saam Njaay

to develop educational materials based on African traditions and learning styles. This early program became a forum for women to discuss their own needs and hopes and encour-aged them to take a more active role in community development.

Discussions with villagers about the problems in their communities led Molly and her team to further refine the program. In 1987, they designed a six-module basic education program that differed both in methodology and content from existing literacy programs which relied mostly on rote learning

a nd memor i zat ion rather than active dis-cussion and participa-tion. Then, beginning in 1988, Molly collab-orated with UNICEF Senegal to train local facilitators to imple-ment the program in rural villages in the regions of Thiès and Kolda. On February 7, 1991, Tostan was offi-cially incorporated as a US 501(c)(3) public

charity and has subsequently imple-mented its activities in over 3,000 com-munities in eight countries.

Tostan has found that community members are passionate about improv-ing their lives and the lives of their chil-dren but often lack the necessary tools

to achieve their vision for the future. Many people, women in particular, do not have basic, life-saving knowledge about health and hygiene, such as how to prevent malaria, how diseases are spread, how to treat diarrhea, and when to visit a health clinic. Many people also do not understand the importance of education, and the right of each child to receive one.

By focusing on three specific areas, Tostan works to empower and unify communities behind a common vision: Human rights principles, community-led development and social networks. Tostan works outside state-sponsored educational systems, often with ado-lescents and adults who have never had an education. It conducts class sessions, which are designed to spread knowledge and practical skills communi-ties then use to develop their own vision for empowerment and improvement.

Tostan’s three-year Community Em-powerment Program (CEP) serves as the cornerstone of its partnership with communities. CEP class sessions are led by facilitators who lead participatory discussions on human rights, health and hygiene, numeracy, project man-agement and how to read and write in their own languages. These sessions are highly inclusive—with women, men, boys and girls participating and interact-ing during lively discussions—in which everyone is encouraged to participate.

The curriculum of the CEP is de-signed to be culturally relevant to par-ticipants. Class sessions are always led in the community’s local language by facilitators recruited locally. The fa-cilitators integrate their deep cultural knowledge to respectfully commu-nicate important themes within the CEP while ensuring the information is presented through mediums already familiar to participants such as group discussion, poetry, drawings and pic-tures, song and skits.

The themes covered in classes are designed to spread well beyond the immediate village using an outreach strategy called Organized Diffusion where Tostan learners “adopt” others to share their new knowledge. Tostan


ATHLETES AND ENTERTAINERS GIVING BACK

often partners with local radio stations to disseminate key themes and Social Mobilization Agents help to bring com-munities together to discuss relevant topics at intervillage meetings, forging connections among different communi-ties committed to positive changes. The awareness-raising activities often come to a head when participating communi-ties come together to publicly abandon harmful practices such as female geni-tal cutting and child-forced marriage.

Tostan recognizes that social change requires the buy-in of all members of an extended social network and believes that harmful social practices can only be abandoned if a whole social network is ready to abandon. This can include many villages, sometimes across coun-try borders, which are traditionally connected and intermarry, for example.

Tostan is continually innovating and reinforcing its core program. In 2013, Tostan launched its Reinforcement of Parental Practices module in 200 com-munities in Senegal. This project, devel-oped with psychology researchers from Stanford University, teaches a practical way to integrate recent discoveries on the positive impact of parent-child inter-actions into daily life, thereby fostering improved neurological, linguistic and social development in children.

Human rights principles serve as the basis for all themes discussed within communities. Tostan has found that it is vital for participants to first un-derstand and recognize their human rights in order to apply their new skills and knowledge learned through the program. Once understanding their hu-man rights, learners are able to affirm both practices they wish to reinforce and harmful practices they wish to abandon for the development of their community.

Tostan believes that social change and grassroots development work best when the community itself is the pro-ponent of its own transformation. CEP sessions begin by engaging partici-pants in discussions about their visions for the future of their communities. These shared visions are reviewed, discussed, debated, revised and then

put into practice throughout the pro-gram. Community members also iden-tify challenges that their community is facing and during the program certain sessions are dedicated to problem solv-ing. This allows community members to become the catalysts and transformers of social change.

In addition to the nonformal edu-cation sessions, Tostan establishes a Community Management Committee (CMC) and provides training for this committee throughout the program. The CMC ensures the coordination, management and sustainability of de-velopment activities led by the commu-nity, both during and after the comple-tion of the CEP. The CMC includes a

diverse group of community members, bringing together the traditionally in-fluential people with more marginal-ized groups. The CMC also promotes the role of women as decision makers in their communities with at least half of the members being female.

Tostan programs also seek to engage all relevant stakeholders, including traditional and religious leaders, gov-ernment officials, other nonprofits and international organizations. Engaging all of the parties and bringing them to-gether helps forge sustainable partner-ships between them and communities. Working together, Tostan has been able to facilitate interactions such as local governments and CMCs collaborating



The Center for Discovery: A Holistic Approach That Serves a Community

W hen we think about education, we generally think of a school.

Kids go to school, they come home, they play games, sports, do homework, eat, watch TV, chat with friends. School is just one part of the many experiences of childhood that, taken together, form the adult that the child will become.

But at what point does education stop? Isn’t everything in a child’s life, to some extent, part of their education?

One population for whom this is partic-ularly true are chil-dren with complex, multiple disabilities. Many of these chil-dren are bright, eager to learn and capable of enriching their own lives and those of the people around them. For these kids, the notion of “school” cannot be compartmentalized.

Which is what makes The Center for Discovery such a special place.

A JOURNEY BEGINS. Monica Belag Forman discovered The Center when she was searching for a program for her son Garett, who was born with severe neurological and physical disabilities. “When Garett was three months old, we were concerned about his visual

tracking, so we took him to a neurolo-gist. We had no idea there was a severe problem. They did a few tests, and we went home.”

But the next day, the doctor called with devastating news. “An MRI showed that Garett had suffered a stroke in the

third trimester of my pregnancy. The doctor told us what Garett’s life was going to be like, a list of problems, complications and la-bels. He would strug-gle with crippling dis-abilities his whole life. The entire time he’s talking to me on the phone, I’m looking at Garett in his bassinet thinking, ‘this can’t be right! He’s beautiful, he’s perfect.’”

But the diagnosis was accurate. “He cannot walk, he cannot

talk, he cannot sit up. He needs help eat-ing, bathing, dressing and changing posi-tion. He is totally dependent on others for his care. But that doesn’t mean he’s not entitled to the same sense of respect and dignity as anyone else. When it became clear that he needed a more appropriate environment then what we had been able to provide at home, I searched for a place that could care for him, but also give him the enrichment that all people want.”

to obtain birth registration documents for community members, advocacy movements for improved access to formal education and health clinics, and partnerships between CMCs and nongovernmental organizations on development initiatives.

Tostan draws inspiration from the many participants in communities who take it upon themselves to lead initia-tives, and especially those who over-come gender, age or other traditional barriers to leadership. One such example is Khady Sow, who is now the Coordi-nator of her CMCs Health Commission in the village of Kolma Peulh, Senegal.

Before the arrival of Tostan’s pro-gram in her community, Khady worked as a community health agent, helping people seek treatment. Khady found that by implementing the program in her village, she was much more effective at her job, and used the new CMC as a way to address persistent health risks in the community and garner support for new health initiatives. The other members of the Health Commission have used the knowledge they gained in the CEP’s health sessions to conduct awareness-raising activities in the areas of child/forced marriage, malaria, diar-rhea, family planning, medical visits and latrine use. Moreover, through following the CEP’s literacy component, Khady is now able to keep written documentation of malaria test results, filling out forms in her native language of Pulaar.

Khady’s story and thousands more like it represent the effectiveness of Tostan’s nonformal educational pro-grams in giving inspired people the tools and leadership opportunities they need to work towards their vi-sion of a happier, and in Khady’s case, healthier community. Tostan believes that when communities start with what they already know, they can expand and “break through” to new understandings to make their visions and dreams a real-ity because ultimately, people must be the authors of their own future.

To find out more about Tostan, visit www.tostan.org.

The Center for Discovery is specially designed to provide

a wide variety of educational

opportunities, work/vocational programs,

and social and creative experiences in which

individuals with multiple disabilities and medical frailties can learn and grow.


KIDS’ EDUCATION

“A FOCUS ON ABILITIES, NOT DIS-ABILITIES.” The Center for Discovery is specially designed to provide a wide variety of educational opportunities, work/vocational programs, and social and creative experiences in which in-dividuals with multiple disabilities and medical frailties can learn and grow. Be-cause it also provides residential settings for those who need it (like Garett), the result is a totally cohesive and integrated program that improves functioning, increases independence and enhances interpersonal skills for each person.

“One core tenet of The Center is to celebrate the abilities of each individual, rather than focus on his or her disabili-ties,” says Monica. “When Garett first arrived, they didn’t see a kid who can do so little with his hands and cannot walk—they saw a child who could drive a power wheelchair and ride a bicycle. They didn’t see a kid who couldn’t speak, they saw a person who could commu-nicate if given the proper equipment, training and assistance. They saw a sweet boy who loves other people. Ga-

rett is nosy, funny, friendly, lively and loving; some people at The Center call him The Mayor. They saw all that.”

LEARNING AND GROWTH AT EVERY OP-PORTUNITY. The Center has a rich variety of innovative, evidence-based programs specifically designed to help those with a variety of severe disabilities. For example, there is evidence to suggest that those on the autism spectrum may do better with a whole foods, plant-based diet. The Center has a rich organic and biodynamic (Demeter-certified) agriculture program. Adult residents are engaged in a variety of work/vocational opportunities on The Center’s farm known as Thanksgiving Farm, and all residents benefit from the high-quality foods and nutrition that are considered a major part of the founda-tional therapies at The Center. Resources include the organic farm with 75 varieties of vegetables and features herb gardens, soft fruits, greenhouses, a variety of live-stock and a bakery.

“We have a philosophy of food as medi-cine,” explains Bill Evans, Vice President of Development at The Center for Discov-

ery. “Particularly in the area of autism. Kids with significant behavioral issues become more regulated when their diet is optimized. Behaviors, sleep patterns, GI issues and a host of other issues appear to improve from a combination of a healthy diet, vigorous exercise, a “green,” healthy environment and advanced educational practice. Plus, the residents who work on the farm are outdoors, engaged in meaningful work, so when they come home, they are able to sleep better which helps with sleep-related issues.”

“You should see the refrigerator, it’s unbelievable,” says Monica.

THERAPIES THAT HELP CHILDREN LEARN AND GROW. The Center pro-motes other innovative activities like the farm—programs that are both enjoyable for the children, and help-ful in their development and enrich-ment. They have a team of seven music therapists, using an improvisational approach so children can make music using instruments, singing and creative movement. “When you walk around, you hear singing, drumming, key-boards. It’s a place of joy,” says Monica.

Another innovative program is the equine-assisted therapy program. The Center has an Amish-style barn and indoor riding arena that helps residents strengthen and reinvigorate still mus-cles, while gaining confidence, control and discipline.

There are also therapeutic swim-ming programs, intensive physical, oc-cupational and speech therapy, as well as a comprehensive adaptive physical education program.

A HEALTHIER APPROACH TO HEALTH CARE. But all that is just one area of The Center. It also houses a special-ized health care facility used by non-residents as well as residents. The Discovery Health Center, a New York State certified health clinic, provides



a full and broad range of outpatient medical and dental services. And, in keeping with the “green” focus of the entire operation, the Discovery Health Center was the first health care building in the nation registered with the US Building Council as LEED certified, constructed from a high percentage of recycled and/or locally produced materials.

The Center for Discovery doesn’t simply provide services. In keeping with its education mission, it helps the children learn . . . but it also provides a setting for researchers and other pro-

fessionals to come together to learn more about serving this large (and growing) population.

HELPING RESEARCHERS LEARN TO HELP CHILDREN. “When you think about people with disabilities, it’s easy to just see a kid in a wheelchair. But at some point in our lives, just about everyone is disabled at some level,” Monica points out. “We’re living lon-ger, and seeing chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. What about those disabilities? Some of what we learn at The Center can be helpful to a much larger population.”

“We are working with researchers from Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, Columbia and Georgia Tech,” says Bill. “It’s part of a National Science Founda-tion grant called Expeditions in Com-puting that is utilizing biometric sen-sors and computer vision technology to examine response to intervention. The team is looking at physiologic changes that may be associated with changes in behavior among individuals on the autism spectrum. Are there changes happening below the surface that we can’t see or perceive that might be an indication of a gathering storm? Most studies with this population take place in a lab or clinical setting. We are one of the few places in the country that is conducting this type of research. It is because of the unique opportunity to work in real time with students in ac-tual classrooms that these researchers have chosen to come to work with us.”

“The technology we’re develop-ing brings the lab to people instead of people to the lab. And in so doing allows for more naturalistic, ecologically valid research that includes students who have difficulty complying with tradi-tional lab-based observation methods over longer periods of time and thus en-able better understanding and support in individuals who are more complex and who scientific study knows the least about” says Mathew Goodwin, PhD, Assistant Professor jointly appointed in the Colleges of Health Science and Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University.


ADVENTURES IN FUNDRAISING. Of course, all of these intensive services require significant public and private resources. The Center is funded in part by the New York State Education De-partment, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities and the New York State Department of Health. “The Center has partnered with New York State to develop innovative and cost-effective programs, including new models of care that seek to reduce the need for unnecessary hospitalizations, emergency room visits and out-of-state residential placement for those with special needs,” Bill empha-sizes. “For example, we are able to care for ventilator-dependent children at a far lower cost than in an acute care hospital setting, and in an environment that promotes healing and increased access to their families. The Center is also working to develop a Regional Children’s Assessment Center Licensed as a Specialty Care Hospi-tal that is projected to save New York State $29 million a year. We are also a driver of economic growth—we employ more than 1,500 people, including therapists, nurses, doctors, chefs, special educa-

tion teachers, farmers and hands-on caregivers. We’re the biggest employer in Sullivan County. We provide con-tinuing education opportunities for our employees as well, helping to increase their skills and advance their careers. Still, we have to generate substantial private support and philanthropy from committed individuals, foundations and corporations to support our work.”

Which is another place that Monica Forman comes in.

A world-renowned fashion execu-tive and dedicated philanthropist,

Monica has been the driving force behind a number of highly successful fundraising initia-tives. She has com-bined fashion and ph i la nt h ropy in unique ways over the years to raise millions of dollars for the organizations she cares about, es-pecially The Center for Discovery. Like so many of the activities at The Center, her efforts have served multiple purposes.

“We had a fash-ion show that was a huge success,” she

says. “Everyone gets dressed up, with makeup, hair, the whole thing. The girls look so beautiful, feel so special com-

ing down the runway. We arranged for Revlon and L’Oreal to come in and do makeovers. So we raised money from that, and also had an event that was a highlight for the children. It’s important in fundraising, to make it a win-win.”

Similarly, Monica arranged to hold a special sale at Magaschoni, a cashmere fashion company, where she served as CEO. She invited celebrity friends such as actress Lorraine Bracco to attend. “I think people feel better when they’re spending money and they know it’s go-ing toward something important. With the sale, we could sell our cashmere sweaters, scarves, shawls and blankets at a great price, and raise a lot of money for The Center. It’s also a high-profile awareness building. Lorraine is a good example. She was a client, was familiar with The Center, became intrigued, and came to visit The Center. Now she’s on the benefit committee.”

As with so many things about The Center for Discovery, the relationship with Monica is a win-win. “It’s just a very special place for Garett. Whenever he comes home, all he wants to do is call The Center! He thinks he might be missing something. That’s his life, those are his friends. Why would he want to sit in a room with his mother? At The Center, he rides a bike, they even have an Olympics-type of event that takes place over a weekend specially designed for kids with disabilities. It’s just taught him so much.”

To learn more about The Center for Discovery, visit www.thecenterfordiscovery.org.

“The Center has partnered with New York State to develop innovative and cost-effective programs,

including new models of care that seek

to reduce the need for unnecessary hospitalizations, emergency room

visits and out-of-state residential placement for those with special needs.”

KIDS’ EDUCATION



Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy: Taking Impact From the Football Field to the ClassroomBY LINDSEY SMITH

A nyone who has met Justin Tuck—two-time Super Bowl Champion

defensive end for the New York Foot-ball Giants—on the field could tell you about his impact. With 50 sacks and nearly 20 forced fumbles over an impressive nine-year career, he is a player to be reckoned with. He takes the game and his role in it seriously, giving his all and making an impact on every player around him. His strategy off the field is no different; here, the name of the game is still impact, in this case, in education.

“Education is an equalizer,” says Justin. “When I connect the dots in my life and look at what made a boy from Coosa County, Alabama, a suc-cessful man in New York City, I see, among other things, my degree from the University of Notre Dame and all of my educational experiences.” Tuck realizes that without dedication in his early schooling an NFL career would have been no more than a dream.

All members of the Tuck household—Justin, his wife, Lauran, even their three-year-old son, Jayce—are avid readers, so it follows that for Justin, education is synonymous with literacy. In 2008, when he began thinking about his im-pact off the field, he turned to his love of reading and, together with his wife, founded Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy. They were motivated by personal passion, but were also aware of the sobering sta-tistics linking literacy to future success:

Children with the lowest reading scores account for one-third of total students, but three-fifths of high school dropouts. This combination of personal experience and demonstrated need inspired them to found Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy. The organization’s mission is straightforward: to encourage children to READ, UNDER-STAND, SUCCEED and HOPE, helping them connect the dots in their lives the way Justin has in his own.

Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy gives back to the communities that have sup-ported Justin, working with seven mid-dle schools in New York, New Jersey, and Alabama. Books are not distributed at random; each year a theme is chosen

and a reading list carefully constructed with the help of literacy specialists. Every student in fifth through eighth grade at participating schools receives five books to add to their home library. The Tucks have relied on research to guide their program, and the knowl-edge that access to quality reading ma-terials is substantively related to the amount of reading children do, shaped their decision to give the books to the students, rather than to the schools.

The program has evolved greatly since inception. Aware that literacy goes be-yond a love of reading, in 2009, the Tucks instituted an essay contest. After discuss-ing the books with teachers and class-mates, students write an essay reflecting on the overarching themes. The contest helps them engage with the materials, while developing their critical thinking and writing skills. Essays are read by Justin and Lauran, and judged for their creativity, understanding of the topic, and writing ability, with one winner chosen from each school. All the winners receive a trip to a New York Giants home game, where they meet the other winners, as well as Justin and Lauran Tuck.

In 2009, looking to expand their reach beyond the program, the Tucks also began giving grants. Now they give a minimum of $60,000 annually to high-performing nonprofits that


support literacy or financial literacy. “Grants are an effective, low-resource way we can improve the lives of more children than we can reach with our programming,” says Lauran.

The most recent step in their quest for deeper impact narrowed their fo-cus within literacy. In 2012, with the guidance of All Stars Helping Kids—the California nonprofit that provides them with administrative and programmatic support—they decided to focus on the so-called “summer slide.” Also called summer learning loss, summer slide is the phenomenon of students losing months of grade-level proficiency during the sum-mer break. It disproportionately affects low-income youth, who lack access to the enrichment resources of their more-affluent peers. Not only do low-income students return to school academically behind their peers, but learning losses are cumulative and by the time a struggling reader reaches middle school, summer reading loss accounts for a two-year lag in reading ability. Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Lit-eracy was initially designed with books distributed in the fall, but, starting in the 2013–2014 school year, books will be distributed at the close of the previous school year, read over the summer, and integrated into the classroom in the fall with the essay contest. Not only does this extend the program’s duration, but, by shifting focus from the school year to the critical summer months, Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy is able to reach the same group of low-income youth in a more impactful way.

Justin and Lauran both play critical roles in the success of their organiza-tion. Justin’s unique platform as a two-time Super Bowl Champion gives him the ability to encourage and motivate students—from essay contests to school visits, his impact has been proven by years of qualitative feedback. Many of the previous essay contest winners continue to reach out, sending letters, photos, and drawings to Justin and Lauran, whom they view as role models.

“They see our genuine investment in their success and well-being, and they respond positively to that,” says Tuck.

“Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy is not only about encouraging literacy as a vehicle for achievement; it is about forging rela-tionships that lead to a successful life.”

Justin also contributes on the fund-raising front. The program has grown through generous individual dona-tions and two signature fundraising initiatives: Sack Challenge and Tuck’s Celebrity Billiards Tournament. Sack Challenge allows community-minded corporations to pledge an amount per sack during the season, which Justin matches. Tuck’s Celebrity Billiards Tournament utilizes one of Tuck’s personal passions, billiards, to raise funds and awareness about the charity. Thanks to these aggressive fundraising initiatives, the program has raised more than $2,000,000 in five short years.

Lauran’s strengths complement Jus-tin’s. With a Master’s degree in Non-profit Management from the University of Pennsylvania, she leads the Advisory Panel, eagerly seeks out strategic part-nerships, oversees grantmaking and perpetuates the organization’s vision.

“We aim to be recognized as philan-thropists who really make a difference,” says Lauran. “The education reform movement is constantly evolving—by

engaging in annual strategic thinking sessions and collecting regular feedback we hope to avoid philanthropic pater-nalism and to provide students with the resources they need. We are not cur-riculum designers but we would like to be known as motivators and providers.”

Justin Tuck may be known for his hard hits and strong defensive leader-ship, but the field isn’t his only arena. Leaving his mark on the world of edu-cation is equally important. He reflects, “Education reform is complex and to date there is no silver bullet to the problems that our education system faces, but an investment in education is a wise one. The more educated our children are, the better our future will be!” Justin and Lauran Tuck are eager to continue bring-ing their passion and impact-focused philanthropy to the education arena, but most of all they are eager to continue in-spiring youth to READ, UNDERSTAND, SUCCEED and HOPE, as they have.

To find out more about Tuck’s R.U.S.H for Literacy, visit www.rushforliteracy.org.

LINDSEY SMITHProgram Director, Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy

“Education reform is complex and to date there is no silver bullet to the problems that our education system faces, but an investment in education is a wise one. The more educated our children are, the better our future will be!”

KIDS’ EDUCATION



Community Foundation DeKalb County: Adopting a “Community” Approach to Raise Educational LevelsBY JUDITH SORG, ED.D.

N estled in northeast Indiana, leaders of Community Foundation DeKalb

County stepped out on a limb in 2008 to increase the level of educational at-tainment countywide. In a state that ranked 45th in educational attainment, only 18.6% of DeKalb County adults had earned a two- or four-year degree compared to 25.2% in the state of In-diana and 30.7% in the United States. Historically, the county’s labor force was tied to the automotive industry where a high school diploma or GED (General Equivalency Diploma) was deemed “good enough.” DeKalb County residents could make a living wage walk-ing out of any one of the three public high schools and into the local foundry or one of the many auto parts suppliers. John Parker (name has been changed), age 38, and unemployed, shared the common sentiment, “My dad didn’t go to college and we lived pretty good. I had my hands . . . that’s all I needed.”

So in 2008, the Community Founda-tion DeKalb County gathered a group of the county’s visionary leaders to address its most compelling social is-sue. Increasing poverty and a declin-ing economy were flashing indicators of the need for change in this small, rural county of 43,000 residents. As an organization responsible for pooling resources on behalf of its community members, the community foundation recognized the risks to the community associated with the declining economy.

By the end of 2008, community foun-dation board members and this broad-based group of leaders had concluded that addressing the county’s low levels of educational attainment could help develop a talented workforce for the jobs of the future, thereby reducing unemployment and poverty. “If our community is a learning community which supports a learning environ-ment which leads to educational and employment opportunities, then we can successfully address a number of our unmet community needs,” stated Wendy Oberlin, Executive Director, Community Founda-tion DeKalb County.

The foundation’s board of directors agreed to invest in three years of lead-ership to guide com-munity members in working together. They were well aware that no single organi-zation, however pow-erful or innovative, could solve the complex social problem of low levels of education. It would require aligning the goals of the educational programs that are already in place, and provid-ing smoother connections between them,” states the initiative’s Director, Judy Sorg. “The real focus is on the

relationships between organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, and the progress toward shared goals.”

Board members and community leaders soon learned that the solution required a long-term commitment from every sector along the education pipe-line, i.e., government, local business, philanthropic and community organi-zations. Known as “collective impact,” the foundation embarked on taking a comprehensive “cradle to career” ap-proach to increasing educational attain-ment. Addressing just one point on the educational continuum wouldn’t fix the problem. Focusing on all parts of the con-tinuum, from early childhood through adulthood, was judged important by community leaders, along with the use of agreed upon indicators of progress.

By early 2009, DeKalb County had adopted the shared vision of working together through continuous learning to improve the quality of life for all in DeKalb County. Rather than create new programs or ask donors to spend more money, the newly created initiative of the foundation, now called Learning Link, focused the entire community on a com-

mon agenda and com-mon goals. A steering committee and three action teams orga-nized around (1) early childhood; (2) kinder-garten to 12th grade education; and (3) adult learning. Teams were responsible for setting goals and indicators to measure progress and be accountable to the community. Most im-portantly, Learning Link was providing a platform for cross-sec-

tor leaders to learn from one another and align their efforts to support each other.

The effort was not without contro-versy. For example, there were educa-tors who asked, “Why the community foundation? What’s wrong with the way things are?” Steering Committee and action team members held tight to

“If our community is a learning

community which supports a learning environment which leads to educational

and employment opportunities, then we

can successfully address a number of our unmet

community needs.”


their vision, citing the potential impact of working across sectors, the common agenda and necessary shift in thinking, the long-term process of social change, and if not the community foundation, who? A credible institution and viewed as neutral in the community, the foun-dation was ideally suited to offer lead-ership and the financial investment to begin the initiative’s ongoing work.

An early sign that DeKalb County was on the right path came when a small group of community leaders asked, “how many of our children en-tered kindergarten this year ‘ready’ to learn?” Good question . . . but no one in DeKalb County could answer it. Learning Link could change all that.

By the end of 2009, Learning Link’s early childhood team had formed, com-prised of early childhood care and educa-tion providers, kindergarten teachers, school administrators, parents, grand-parents and other community leaders. After several meetings, some conten-

tious, the team agreed on the aspiration of all children being ready to learn upon entering the kindergarten door. It wasn’t long before they realized that while those working in the early childhood field were doing good things, they were operating within a fragmented system, employing an assortment of mindsets and measures. This fragmentation left parents, as well as supporting community organizations, providing their own definitions of what they believed children needed to be suc-cessful in school. Some were spot-on, others, not so much. Many providers experienced difficulties documenting improvements, and there was little com-munication between early childhood program providers and kindergarten teachers regarding their expectations. Early childhood team members now clearly understood the need for a com-mon definition and measure from which all stakeholders could operate.

“One person can make all the differ-ence,” states Learning Link Director,

Judy Sorg. After being unable to agree on a measure of progress, it was an elementary school principal who said to fellow team members, “I don’t think any of us are married to the assess-ment tools we’re now using. What if we read the literature, consider what we’ve all been doing, then decide together what’s important for the children in our community?” By 2010, the team had agreed upon a common definition and developed a corresponding screening tool that every school in the county agreed to use.

So, how do we answer the question about how many children are entering our schools “ready” to learn? In 2012, 56 percent of entering kindergarten students were screened as ready. While exceeding the team’s goal of 50 per-cent for 2012, the early childhood team knows that this also means 44 percent of children are not ready; they have their sights set on reaching 90 percent of children ready by 2015.

KIDS’ EDUCATION



Little Pim Language Learning for KidsSINK OR SWIM. Julia Pimsleur was no different than any other six-year-old girl when she walked into class on her first day of first grade. Except in her classroom, the teacher spoke only French, the kids were all French and she was the only American. Over the summer, Julia’s father, Dr. Paul Pimsleur, who created the ground-breaking Pimsleur Method, had moved his family to Paris, France, and Ju-lia and her brother were enrolled in a French public school. Within three months, they became perfectly bilin-gual. This early immersion experience, and the two years Julia lived in Paris with her family, changed her life for-ever. “I always felt that speaking fluent French was the greatest gift my parents ever gave me—it opened doors for me culturally, educationally and profes-sionally. And I don’t even remember learning.” Years later, it was this ease of learning that Julia sought out to recre-ate for her own sons when she came up with Little Pim, an at-home immersion language teaching method designed to introduce young kids to a second or third language before the age of six.

Pimsleur’s goal was and is ambi-tious: To change the way children learn languages. A mother, filmmaker and daughter of a language teaching pioneer, she felt uniquely qualified to create the first method specifically de-signed for young children to learn a second language. Julia spent more than

two years creating her Entertainment Immersion Method®, working with a leading neuroscientist, educators and language experts. The method teach-es 360 words and phrases and makes language-learning easy for kids via an entertaining series that includes DVDs, music CDs, flash cards and apps. Every aspect of the method is designed for use by parents who don’t already speak a second language. Little Pim has sold over 1.5 million products, and is now in 12 languages, including Chinese, Arabic and Russian, with Hindi slated for release in 2013.

“When kids learn Spanish, Mandarin or French early,

it provides them with essential tools for success

in school and in our increasingly global economy. In 21 of the top 25 industri-alized countries, the study of world languages begins

in grades K-5, while the majority of US students begin studying a second

language at age 14.”

A striking benefit of the collective im-pact model, or framework of Learning Link in this case, is that it allows most everyone in a community to contrib-ute. To date:• Over 90 educational program provid-ers and community volunteers partici-pate on teams.•More than 350 individuals have at-tended community meetings to hear the progress of action teams and offer input. • Over 130 business leaders contribute by speaking with high school students about career paths. •More than 100 community volun-teers mentor students in kindergarten to 12th grades. •Most recently, 10 community leaders signed on to form a countywide Career Success Coalition affiliated with a state network whose goal is increasing col-lege access and completion.

Learning Link is creating crucial links between early childhood, K-12 and lifelong education by connecting com-munity leaders with people who provide educational programs to work toward a common goal—raising the educational attainment of DeKalb County citizens. Northeast Indiana leaders in education and economic development are watching DeKalb County’s efforts closely.

DeKalb County’s education levels are on the rise. In 2010, while Indiana has moved up to 41st in educational attain-ment, 25.8% of DeKalb County adults have earned two- or four-year degrees compared to 30.2% in the state of Indiana and 35.6% in the United States. While DeKalb County, Indiana, might have a long way to go, the Community Foundation intends to continue shining the light on educational attainment, working together to improve the quality of life for all.

“For me,” Judy Sorg notes, “that’s how a foundation should work.”

For more information about Learning Link DeKalb County, visit www.DeKalbLearning Link.org.

JUDITH SORG, ED.D. Director, Learning Link, an education initiative of the Community Foundation DeKalb County


DEMOCRATIZING LANGUAGE LEARN-ING. An important piece of what drove Pimsleur to create her company was the idea of making language learning accessible to all children She noticed that millions of families can and do buy DVDs so why couldn’t they use that same screen time to teach their kids a second language? Little Pim was intentionally created as affordable and scalable digital content, packaged as a DVD series, complemented by books, CDs, flash cards and games. All the content is available online, in stores for the same price as any other entertainment DVD, and for free in the public library. “Now all parents can take advantage of that fertile six-year window when kids can learn up to three languages with ease and a perfect accent,” Pimsleur explains. “When kids learn Spanish, Mandarin or French early, it provides them with essential tools for success in school and in our increasingly global economy.” Pimsleur points out, “In 21 of the top 25 industrialized countries, the study of world languages begins in grades K-5, while the majority of US students begin studying a second language at age 14.” (US Committee on Economic Development). Foreign language learning is not mandatory in US public schools, putting our kids at a big disadvantage on the global stage. Pimsleur notes, “We are doing our part to help get kids started on their

language learning journey as early as possible, since that is the time research shows kids learn best.“

SCALING UP. Little Pim proprietary Entertainment Immersion Method® has won more than 25 awards and allowed children in the US and in 17 countries where Little Pim is exported to start learning languages as tots. Little Pim has been honored by Business Week as one of “America’s Most Promising Startups” and been featured on The View, WABC, and The Today Show. It is sold in Barnes & Noble and Toys“R”Us and is the only foreign language pro-gram offered on all LeapFrog devices. The company recently raised its first Venture Capital round, led by Golden Seeds, and will use the funds to scale up marketing, create new digital products such as E-books and a Progress Track-ing app for parents. The company also has plans to expand internationally.

LEARNING ENGLISH, ENDING POV-ERTY ONE FAMILY AT A TIME. In order to further her goal of “democratizing language learning,” Pimsleur created a partnership with One Laptop per Child, the nonprofit that gives millions of free laptops preloaded with educa-tional content to kids in developing countries. With the press of a button, OLPC was able to deliver English as a second language learning on comput-ers in the homes of three million kids in Africa and South America. Pimsleur notes, “For an American child learn-

ing a second language gives them an advantage, but for kids in developing countries learning English is often what gets an entire family out of poverty. At Little Pim we are proud to be helping kids start learning when it’s easiest for them and giving them a great founda-tion for fluency in English.”

NONPROFIT LANGUAGE TEACHING. Pimsleur serves on the Advisory Coun-cil of the Global Language Project, a nonprofit that brings free language instruction to kids in disadvantaged New York City schools. “Imagine the opportunities there will be for a bright child from Harlem who speaks Chi-nese” Pimsleur notes, adding she loves seeing how learning Spanish, Arabic and Chinese expands their horizons beyond their local neighborhoods. Many of them have never left their neighborhood, much less the country, but that could all change if the language learning sticks. “Thousands of jobs go unfilled each year in the US because there aren’t enough people who speak Spanish or Chinese or many other lan-guages to fill them,” notes Pimsleur. “International markets offer so many career opportunities, both in the US and abroad. I like to tell kids, there are 7 billion people in the world and only about 300 million of them are here in the US. There are over 400 million na-tive Spanish speakers in the world and 1.2 billion native Chinese speakers.”

A second language is one of the most powerful 21st-century tools you can give a child. Little Pim is helping par-ents give their kids that tool, and foster a life-long interest in language learning. Pimsleur believes that in the next 50 years priorities will change in the US and language learning will become a more important part of the school cur-riculum in order to stay competitive with other G20 countries. Until then, she and her panda teacher are making language learning widely available, affordable and fun for children every-where. C’est fantastique!

To find out more about Little Pim, visit www.littlepim.com.

KIDS’ EDUCATION



Say Yes to Education: How Education Can Lift a Community

I n 1987, George Weiss promised 112 Philadelphia sixth graders that he

would pay for their college educations if they maintained high standards and graduated from high school. Thus be-gan Say Yes to Education. Since then, Say Yes has engineered programs in six cities, dramatically increasing gradu-ation rates, reducing dropouts, and creating opportunities for thousands of young people. In 2008, Syracuse, New York, became the first community to offer the program to all the schools in its district. Already they are begin-ning to see profound results, not just in education metrics but in quality of life for the entire city.

By any measure, Say Yes to Education has been an enormous success. George Weiss has personally backed the orga-nization since its inception, donating money he earned running a highly suc-cessful investment advisory firm. But for George, the course toward a life of phi-lanthropy was charted long before that.

“I grew up without much money. I started working at age 11 as a busboy to help support my family. My father was smuggled out of Austria in 1939; he was a scientist, number one in his class at the University of Vienna. My parents didn’t have much. But one day, I saw them writ-ing a check for $500 to support the state of Israel. I asked them about it, and they said that if something like Nazi Germany ever happens again, Israel is the only hope the Jews have. It was a lesson that

stuck, about giving money—money that you will miss—to something that you believe in passionately.”

TWO WORLDS COMING TOGETHER TO INSPIRE A PASSION. George’s interest in helping inner city youth goes way back to his college days at the University of Pennsylvania. When he was a sopho-more, his fraternity hosted a Christmas party for a dozen inner-city 12 year olds. George spent the afternoon with them. “We played basketball and shot pool, and they just told me about their lives, which were very challenging. I liked these kids, and I stayed in touch with them. They had courage and resiliency, which I admired.”

Seven years later, George returned to Penn for homecoming. By then, he had earned enough money to be able to take his friends to lunch. At the restaurant, he learned that all 12 had graduated from high school. One of the young men turned to him and said, “we could not have dropped out and looked you straight in the eye.”

“That was a watershed moment for me. Right then and there, I knew that I had to do whatever I could to make a difference in the lives of children facing overwhelming obstacles.”PHILADELPHIA’S BELMONT SCHOOL—

THE FIRST CLASS. Building on the work of Eugene Lang and his “I Have A

Dream” Foundation, George founded “Say Yes to Education” in 1987. The core concept was to offer kids from an inner city school free college tuition if they graduated from high school. But how to implement that vision?

George opened a dialogue with his alma mater, the University of Pennsyl-vania. “I met with the president of the University, and he was a big supporter. He agreed that if we chose a school in Philadelphia, the University would help us by offering free medical care, free dental care, other services that would be important to help these kids succeed.”

RAISING AND ADJUSTING EXPECTA-TIONS. This was an early lesson. George soon found out that setting proper ex-pectations and providing support were crucial. “I remember very early on, in our first school, we had a problem be-cause the schools wouldn’t let the kids take home their books. How could they study without books? We had a meeting with the superintendent, who said the kids would destroy the books if they were allowed to take them home. So we had to change that. It was the first time I saw the low expectations that everyone—teachers, administrators, social workers—had for these kids.”

Adjusting expectations works the other way, too. “One of our earliest participants in the program is named Shermika. She’s never been afraid to speak her mind. I remember at one of the early events, the mayor of Philadel-phia at that time, Wilson Goode, was

doing a photo op with our kids at a play-g round. Shermika gave him a piece of her mind because his administration was closing some park

services! Later, she became president of her class, and today, she works for us at Say Yes.”

“Anyway, about five or six years ago, I was having lunch with her, and she said, ‘Mr. Weiss, can I critique Say Yes?’ I said sure, and she told me that Say Yes put expectations on her that were unrealis-tic. ‘You wanted me to go to college, so

By any measure, Say Yes to Education has been an enormous success.


in deference to you I went, and flunked out. Then I went to another college and flunked out. Then I went to cosmetol-ogy school and became a hairdresser. So why couldn’t I have just been the best hairdresser I could be?’ And you know, she’s right—my expectations, as a college-educated middle-class man, were that a 4-year college degree is best for these kids. And for plenty of them, it is. But we shouldn’t set their dreams for them. It’s up to us to facilitate, not dic-tate. Now we support them in a variety of post-secondary programs.”

LESSONS LEARNED, IMPROVEMENTS IMPLEMENTED. Say Yes to Education has evolved substantially since that first class. For one thing, George says they discov-ered that they were making their offer of a college education too late. “Our first class was going into seventh grade. We did a lot of great things with that class. They were a very troubled group, but most of them turned out to be wonderful men and women, and we definitely made a difference. However, when they started with us, they were reading at only about a second-grade level. And when you’re that far behind, it’s just about impossible to catch up and become college-ready. We knew we had to start younger.”

Say Yes to Education has also come to understand the greater value of their challenge. “When you start in 1st grade,

2nd grade, you can give them a sense of values, and suddenly college means something to them. But whether they make it in college or not, they gain from the challenge. The rate of teenage preg-nancy among inner-city young people can be as high as 50% … but among Say Yes kids, it’s dropped to around 3%. The felon rate drop is similar. Say Yes shows them an alternative.”

Another lesson was the need for a more holistic approach. “Kids need support of their families to succeed. But one thing we hadn’t anticipated—our kids’ siblings were jealous. You know,

‘Jamal gets all these things, he can go to college, but I get nothing. So we created Last Dollar scholarships for families, not full tuition, but a sizable grant.”

But it’s more than families. It’s also school systems, neighborhoods, local institutions. And that’s why the most re-cent chapter to the Say Yes to Education story is so exciting. Because Say Yes has moved beyond individual kids or even individual schools. In fact, in Syracuse, New York, the entire city is involved.

The real goal is to change an entire community.A CITY-WIDE COMMITMENT. “To ex-

pand the program to include thousands of kids, we needed a different kind of infrastructure. There are 34 schools in the Syracuse City School District. We have signed up over 40 private colleges to provide free tuition for our kids. A critical partner is Syracuse University. And we’re working on expanding that network.”

Getting Say Yes into the whole city of Syracuse required a lot of constituents to come together. “You’re talking about changing the whole city,” says George. “You need social services involved, educa-tion, police, politicians, the school Super-intendent, everyone. Say Yes in Syracuse is a landmark collaboration that includes extended day programs, tutoring, mentor-ing, family outreach, social work, counsel-ing, financial aid, legal services. It’s the only way to make it district-wide.”

KIDS’ EDUCATION



By providing academic, social and health support, and collaborating with the school district, the community and the sponsoring colleges, Say Yes has achieved some remarkable success. High school graduation rates with Re-gents diplomas are up significantly, 70% of our elementary students are enrolled in our after school program, and we have 23 mental health clinics located in every elementary school.

Just as impressive are the commu-nity-wide metrics.

“If you go to the airport in Syracuse, you’ll see two large banners. They say ‘Move to Syracuse, your kid will get free college tuition.’ College matriculation has increased. Enrollment in Syracuse schools has stabilized after ten years of steady decline. Five pro bono legal clinics are serving our families, helping them with issues that bring stability to the homes of our children.”

Buffalo, another economically chal-lenged city in upstate New York, is the latest to embrace the Say Yes program. In 2012, Say Yes began implementing its programs and services through Buffalo Public Schools.

To George Weiss, it’s all a natural ex-tension of his original goal. “To achieve the kind of results we want, we had to do much more than just pay for college. That’s important, of course. But, to succeed, kids need the kind of support that lots of people take for granted. They can’t learn if they’re hungry. They can’t learn if they’re worried about where they’re going to sleep. They can’t do their best without academic support. It would be easy to say, well, we’ll pay for college, the rest is up to you. But that’s not fair to these kids. That’s why we’ve gotten into provid-ing health services, financial services, legal services, social services.”

“Our goal has always been to help kids succeed. Along the way, we’ve developed a whole new model for education.”

To find out more about Say Yes to Education, visit www.sayyestoeducation.org.

The University of Maryland’s Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership: Transforming the Future of Philanthropy

BY CHARLIE CUMMINGS, ROBERT T. GRIMM, JR. AND MARGARET CROUSHORE

I n front of a large cheering crowd and celebrity judges that included

award-winning actress and philanthro-pist Fran Drescher; Sports Illustrated’s Olympian of the Century and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Carl Lewis; and Morgan Stanley’s Head of Philanthropy Management, Melanie Schnoll Begun, University of Maryland at College Park students showcased their philanthropic and entrepre-neurial skills in the second annual Do Good Challenge. Through the spring competition, students challenged to do good produced impressive results, mobilized thousands of volunteers and donations, and sparked efforts that will impact lives locally and globally. And the Do Good Challenge is only one of the unique and transformational edu-cational ventures led by the School of Public Policy’s Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (the “Cen-ter”), the first endeavor in the nation to extensively immerse university stu-dents in the practice of philanthropy as well as nonprofit leadership.

MAKING PHILANTHROPY A PILLAR OF THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE. Found-ed officially in 2011, the Center’s mis-sion is to create a new culture of phi-lanthropy through developing more effective and innovative citizens and leaders committed to improving our world. The Center emphasizes that learning is not a passive activity, but instead requires active participation

and deep practical application. With this core value, students engage in rich educational experiences; develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills; compete in prize competitions; regu-larly interact with top leaders and philanthropists (including through an upcoming Philanthropists in Resi-dence program); and employ their skills to advance the work of nonprof-its. The Center’s Director, Dr. Robert Grimm explains, “One of the Center’s ultimate aspirations is to engage stu-dents from the moment they step foot on campus to their graduation day and beyond. We instill the belief that everyone can be a philanthropist and are making philanthropy a pillar of the college experience.”

The Center emphasizes that learning is not a passive

activity, but instead requires active participation and

deep practical application.

The heart of the undergraduate program is a growing number of in-novative courses. Imagine sitting in an Art and Science of Philanthropy class where you not only learn about


the strategies of great philanthropists, but where you have the opportunity to put those ideals in motion and make a real difference in your com-munity through awarding $10,000 to a nonprofit. Reflecting on that course experience, student Jeff Brumfield wrote, “I am a philanthropist. Four months ago that statement would have sounded nothing short of ab-surd, but after my experience in [the philanthropy course] it’s something I can proudly proclaim. Along the way I’ve made new friends, been in-troduced to amazing faculty, learned life altering lessons, and made an impact in the fight against HIV and AIDS. That’s a ton of amazing things to cram into a single semester and it is more than I’ve gotten out of any other class in my two years of college. I love this course.”

The Center subsequently pioneered the Do Good Challenge, a campus-wide, seven-week competition that engages students across campus in philanthro-py, and partnered with actor Kevin Bacon as its first celebrity judge. Do Good Challenge co-founder Charlie Cummings explained, “We created the Challenge as a platform to motivate stu-dents through a fun, highly publicized prize competition to make a difference for a cause they care about. Students across campus responded overwhelm-ingly to the call to action and have made the Challenge a huge success.”

The Food Recovery Network (FRN), founded at College Park by student Ben Simon and his team won the first competition in 2012 by recovering over 6,000 meals from campus cafeterias and donating them to local shelters. This year’s competition yielded simi-

lar impressive results with student Juan Bellocq taking home the $5,000 top prize. Bellocq co-founded a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Microjusticia Argentina, which provides dedicated lawyers who work in the Argentine slums to help families send their children to school and ac-cess health care and other essential services. Sparked by the Do Good Challenge, Bellocq’s team designed and launched the organization’s first awareness and fundraising campaign in partnership with volunteers in the United States and Argentina. Their campaign, Making the Invisible Vis-ible, raised almost $9,000 and created an impressive series of online films and testimonials. Bellocq said their on-going campaign gives a voice to residents of Buenos Aires’s slums, “It’s about getting rid of that prejudice that

PHILANTHROPIC EDUCATION PROGRAMS



if you are in the slum you are a drug dealer or a criminal,” while expanding their high-impact services.

Demonstrating the ripple effects of this competition, Do Good winner Simon and his FRN became a formal nonprofit in summer 2012, recently won a national youth entrepreneurship competition sponsored by Ashoka, now boasts chapters on 18 other college campuses, and cumulatively recovered and donated over 130,000 pounds of food. Bellocq plans to use the Chal-lenge to similarly expand Microjusticia Argentina. FRN “is our hero, and we want to imitate what they are doing.”

BUILDING A NEW GENERATION OF LEADERS AND ENTREPRENEURS. As part of building a new generation of innovative leaders and entrepreneurs, the School of Public Policy recently launched a Nonprofit Leadership and Management program that enables students to delve deeply into the com-plex challenges facing nonprofit lead-ers, formulate innovative strategies, and graduate with invaluable skills and experiences. The Center further brokered an exclusive partnership with the Washington Regional As-sociation of Grantmakers (WRAG), in which students work as Philanthropy

Fellows at major foundations and cor-porations. Tamara Copeland, WRAG President explains: “The foundations and corporate giving programs have benefitted immensely from participat-ing in the Philanthropy Fellows pro-gram. In the short-term, the funders increase their capacity with knowl-edgeable and skilled fellows. In the long-term, funders, not to mention the philanthropic sector in our region more broadly, benefit from the pipeline of future leaders.”

Exhibiting the high demand for program graduates, alums already work full-time at places that include the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation, Fund for Educational Ex-cellence, America Achieves, the Rich-ard and Nancy E. Marriott Founda-tion, The Pew Charitable Trusts, One Percent Foundation, Partnership for Public Service, and Hunt Alternatives Fund. Similar to Bellocq and Simon, another program student entrepre-neur, Maggie Croushore, leveraged Center resources to develop her KidFit company, a holistic education program utilizing technology, character devel-opment, community engagement, and academics to help reduce childhood obesity. In a pilot at a charter school,

Croushore’s KidFit students lost (on average) one to two inches off of their waists in one semester.

JUST THE BEGINNING. These efforts are just the beginning. The Center will soon launch a Global Philanthropy Program that will uniquely immerse and engage students in major inter-national issues and in the developing world. The Center is well on its way to demonstrating how philanthropy can be a pillar of the entire college experi-ence and equipping university students with the skills necessary to positively impact the world

To find out more about The University of Maryland’s Center for Philanthropy and Non-profit Leadership, visit www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/philanthropy.

CHARLIE CUMMINGSProject Manager, America Achieves

ROBERT T. GRIMM, JRDirector, Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

MARGARET CROUSHOREFounder of KidFit


W e believe that when people get involved with Pikes Peak

Community Foundation, their lives will improve.

As a full-service community founda-tion, the Pikes Peak Community Founda-tion (PPCF) invests millions of dollars ev-ery year in the Pikes Peak region, striving to accomplish its mission to dramatically impact the quality of life in our commu-nity. We strive to expand philanthropic concepts and ideas to all segments of our community, promoting the idea that “everyone can be a philanthropist.”

We also believe we should lead by example. One of our more innovative projects—owning and bringing back to life the last remaining historic farm in our community—highlights the im-portance of direct investment in our region. For us, operating the Venetucci Farm has evolved into a powerful way to improve the lives of children and their families. Because, in addition to growing local, healthy, chemical free food for the community, the Farm now provides priceless educational experi-ences for tens of thousands of children and their families in the importance of high quality nutrition for a healthy life.

The innovative programs at Venetucci Farm not only preserve a priceless phil-anthropic legacy for our community, but also break new ground, thanks to the unusual history of the Farm’s relation-ship with the community. For decades, farmer Nick Venetucci invited teachers

to bring their children to the Farm each autumn to pick out free pumpkins. Nick’s rule was that the child had to carry his own pumpkin from the field. Over fifty years, this amounted to literally millions of pumpkins finding their way into the hands of children. While adventuring into a genuine pumpkin patch provided an eye-opening experience for the city kids of Colorado Springs, the Farm historically didn’t offer a full-fledged educational experience.

Through their estate plan, the Venetucci family entrusted the long-term care of their farm to PPCF in 2006. PPCF agreed to own and operate Venetucci Farm, promising to continue the Venetucci legacy of connecting peo-ple with the source of their food. We be-lieve that one of the most critical issues facing our nation today is poor health. Tragically, many of the leading causes of death in the United States usually can be prevented through a healthy diet and daily exercise. But convincing people to shift their diets doesn’t come easily.

Fast forward to today. Under PPCF’s leadership, students from pre-kinder-garten through college receive a re-markable array of intensely hands-on, minds-on learning opportunities. Dur-ing the school year, teachers choose from classes such as The Living Soil, Good Bugs, Bad Bugs, Farm Animals, Caring for Our Heritage, and others. Each topic comes with a variety of online resources to supplement the field trip experience

with classroom learning before and after the visit to the Farm. Teachers may also work with Venetucci Farm’s education coordinator to design special projects for semester- or year-long learning experi-ences for their students.

Venetucci Farm also provides a vari-ety of summer programs for elementary and middle school students: the chance to experience life on the Farm for a week in the Junior Farmhands program; learn-ing about the animals on the Farm and how each contributes to its ecosystem in the Farm Animals, Wild Animals pro-gram; and new this year, a program called Farm to Fork, in which children will learn about both plants and animals grown on the Farm and cooking with the ingredients they study. For example, on Omelet Day, the students will learn about chickens, collect their eggs, har-vest fresh herbs, and make a delicious omelet. On the final day of the program, they’ll prepare a meal for their families in a friendly competition.

Three years ago, we introduced a series of continuing education classes for fami-lies and adults called Living Close to Home.

Pikes Peak Community Foundation: Breaking Ground/Gaining Ground: Innovative Education for Better Health

BY MICHAEL HANNIGAN

MEDICAL

As a full-service com-munity foundation, the Pikes Peak Community Foundation (PPCF) in-vests millions of dollars every year in the Pikes Peak region, striving to accomplish its mission to dramatically impact the quality of life in our community. We strive to expand philanthropic concepts and ideas to all segments of our community, promoting the idea that “everyone can be a philanthropist.”



Topics like Raising Backyard Chickens, Home Canning, and Raising Fruit Trees give people the practical skills they need to pursue more sustainable ways of life.

Virtually all of our programs, classes, and workshops sell out quickly, and PPCF is actively searching for addi-tional resources to expand the capacity of the Farm to serve the community. An active fund-raising effort for a new barn (the old one blew down twenty years ago!) is underway right now.

Why do we make this local investment? Because we believe that bringing children and their parents together to learn in a hands-on way in the outdoors at a real farm makes the entire experience more interesting, more compelling, and more fun for everyone. We strive to show kids that real foods don’t just provide good nutrition; they actually taste good. Making nutritious food enjoyable for young kids may sound like a daunting task, but when given the opportunity, children embrace these concepts. The hardest part may be simply ensuring that they have that op-portunity. Perhaps not so surprisingly, the kids who learn from our programs then convince their parents to eat better!

We believe our country now faces an array of mind-bending problems with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, auto-

immune disorders and more…mostly stemming from poor nutrition. The pri-mary problem lies in the fact that, for a variety of reasons, people have drifted into unhealthy eating habits, including eating foods that are low-quality or even toxic. When we invite kids and their families to come to the Farm, show them how much fun you can have learning in a dynamic setting—being outdoors, tasting veggies straight from the fields, milking goats, harvesting honey, dig-ging in the dirt—along with all the other experiences that people can have here, then the prospect of living healthily starts to become more appealing. We believe that reaching 10,000 kids a year in this community will allow us to in-troduce a sea change.

As Americans grow more and more disconnected from the sources of our food, and as our country continues to nosedive off the nutrition cliff, the learn-ing opportunities at Venetucci Farm become more and more crucial to sup-porting the health and wellness of our community. These hands-on experi-ences make strong impressions in a way that classroom lectures can’t replicate.

While we host school groups from all around the Pikes Peak region, we focus specifically on reaching out to the kids in

lower-income school districts, where we find more challenging health issues. One of the largest low-income neighborhoods in the community surrounds the Farm; ironically, the area comprises a ‘food des-ert,’ where the food options come from convenience stores or fast-food restau-rants. Another nearby community, the military base of Fort Carson, sees a rotat-ing population of military families who by nature deal with incredible stressors that can compromise their wellness. Students and families from these two areas provide a large percentage of the visitors during Venetucci Farm’s annual Pumpkins for Kids event.

Our community knows that PPCF will sustain a dynamic set of tradi-tional community foundation ser-vices, such as donor-advised funds, charitable estate planning, the role of real estate in charitable giving, fis-cal sponsor funds, and more, along with innovative grant-making efforts that support great nonprofits here in our community. And, increasingly, our community now understands that we’re investing resources into Venetucci Farm to create dramatic changes in health for thousands of kids and their families every year.

In just a few short years, the Farm has become a gathering place to learn and share, to create, to discover, to have a class, to have a meal. We believe this farm needs to be here for a hundred—five hundred—years. We believe that many people strongly desire to relearn a deep understanding of their health, and the role of real food in staying healthy.

Our investment in Venetucci Farm is one that we hope people in the future will thank us for. We want our kids’ kids’ kids to come here and say that this was really worth saving, that we did something good here.

To learn more about Pikes Peak Community Foundation’s services and programs, visit www.ppcf.org.

MICHAEL HANNIGANCEO of the Pikes Peak Community Foundation


The T1D Exchange: A Fundamental Shift in Medical Research

B y some estimates, more than $95 billion is spent on medical

research each year. So why aren’t more cures developed?

This became a deeply personal ques-tion for David Panzirer in March of 2007.

“My 6-year-old daughter was di-agnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and 5 months later I found myself as a Trustee of a multibillion dollar Trust,” he recalls. “I knew how to care for a child with T1D. I knew there were more than a million other children and adults in the United States living with this disease and that the Trust could make a difference in their l ives. But I knew nothing about get-ting a drug or device to market. I needed an education.”

David is a Trustee of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charita-ble Trust and the grandson of Leona Helmsley. “The timing of my daughter’s diagnosis and my amazing opportu-nity to positively impact the lives of everyone afflicted by this disease was not lost on me,” notes David. “On the recommendation of a friend, I wrote a letter to Lee Iacocca, who established a family foundation focused on T1D research, requesting a meeting to ask him for help and guidance.”

That letter landed on the desk of Dana Ball, who was then the Executive Director of the Iacocca Foundation. David continues, “During our very first conversation, Dana said ‘welcome to the drug discovery business.’ I had no idea what he meant, but I would soon learn. Dana spent many years as a patient advocate in early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and had spent the prior seven years working in T1D, the very space I was trying to

have an impact on—meeting him was extremely fortunate for me.”

After witnessing firsthand how some philanthropists struggle with program development and strategic grantmaking, it was clear to Dana that David was dedicated to doing the work to understand the highest and best use of Helmsley funds. “Often times, a philanthropist who is touched by a disease in a personal way hears about a promising line of research and their hearts lead their funding strategy, but

unfortunately it rarely works out,” notes Dana. “David was dedicated to taking a much more hands-on and business-minded approach.”

THE GENESIS OF AN ORIGINAL IDEA. Dana took David on a fact-finding tour. “We spent the better part of two years, meeting with the T1D commu-nity: private and public T1D chari-ties, government agencies, dozens of academic investigators, researchers and almost every for profit company

that was involved in the T1D space,” Da-vid recalls. “We met with the FDA nu-merous t imes. We met with insurance companies. We want-ed to understand the entire ecosystem in-volved in developing and delivering new devices and thera-

peutics for the T1D population so we could understand how we could make an impact. It was important for me to develop a clear goal for the Trust’s T1D program, which is to accelerate getting drugs, devices and therapies to market that can ease the burden of managing T1D.”

To Dana, it was obvious that David had an appetite to thoroughly under-stand the space, become involved, and not merely write checks: “Here was a father who was extremely passionate

“I knew how to care for a child with T1D. I knew there were more than a million other children and adults in the United States living with this disease and that the Trust could make a difference in their

lives. But I knew nothing about getting a drug or device to market. I needed an education.”

MEDICAL



and wanted to have an impact on ev-eryone living with this disease. But he understood that he had a lot to learn and was open to meeting with anyone, including other disease specific organi-zations that were making a substantive impact; we noticed a common thread in that they all had a business-like ap-proach to their giving. The Cystic Fi-brosis Foundation was the true pioneer in this respect, and we learned a great deal from them and their model.”

David credits Dana with formu-lating the vision of how the Trust could fill what they perceived to be a major gap in the T1D ecosystem—a platform for collecting and shar-ing information to improve clinical care and accelerate drug, device and therapy development.

BUILDING THE EXCHANGE FROM SCRATCH. David and Dana knew that their concept required the buy-in of all the stakeholders in the T1D com-

munity. Dana explains: “We started with the endocrinologists, and flew more than 60 investigators to a two-day meeting. We outlined our strategy and asked them, ‘how can we make it work for you?’”

“At first they were very skeptical,” David recalls. “To study a disease, you need highly engaged patients. There is a finite number of them, and the in-vestigators had some concern that we were stealing their patients. But, after a few hours, they started asking, well, could your project do this, could it solve this problem for me? And we’d say, yes, we can make it do that. By noontime, they were they on board, excited about co-creating it. They even helped name it—the T1D Exchange.”

With that vital initial input in hand, David and Dana took their plan on the road. Dana describes their next step: “We then set out to reach all of the other key stakeholders in T1D. We met with

the funders, clinicians, researchers, people with T1D, companies, the FDA and the payers and again asked ‘how can we make this work for you?’ We knew their feedback would be essential in creating a system that could acceler-ate everything having to do with T1D.”

The T1D Exchange (T1DX) is a care and research network that consists of: over 65 clinics in the US; 100 clini-cians seeing over 100,000 T1D patients; a clinic-based registry with detailed medical and demographic information on more than 26,000 pediatric and adult patients; a biorepository of bio-logical samples collected for research; and an online community, Glu, devel-oped to support, empower and educated individuals with T1D and their caregiv-ers. The individual components of the Exchange exist as standalone resources in many other disease areas. However, the Exchange marked the first time that these powerful resources were united on a single, integrated platform.

Dana elaborates: “I use the example of the public library, another vast re-pository of data. Not everyone has the resources to buy a book. But one copy of a book can educate many people. The Carnegie family created the public library system, an infrastructure that allows people to cost effectively share information and knowledge; one person can borrow a book, learn from it, and then return it so someone else can learn from it too. The T1D Exchange is a very


large learning network that supports the community, so people can study the disease without having to create their own registry.”DEALING WITH SOME REAL-WORLD

OBSTACLES. The T1D Exchange has been designed as an innovation hub for all things T1D with the goal of ac-celerating research and clinical trials and prompting new hypotheses based on real-world data.

“We now have a robust data set that is large enough to be clinically relevant,” David notes. “Before the T1DX existed, many people thought of T1D as a safe and managed disease. However, the data shows that across 27,000 patients in the 67 best clinics in the country, we a ren’t ach iev ing optimal control and outcome measure-ments. The better the control of T1D the lesser the chances of devastating complications associated with this disease which cost this country bil-lions in health care dollars. It was an eye opener for the FDA when we presented the registry data to them a little over a year ago. We can now be smarter and more strategic too, because we have the data to better un-derstand patient needs, which guides our program strategy.”

In order for a drug, therapy or de-vice to reach the market, there are two hurdles that must be overcome, both of which require data. The FDA relies on data to demonstrate that a proposed treatment, therapy or device is safe, and the insurance companies need data to prove efficacy and validate the case for reimbursement. The T1D Exchange either has this data readily available or it can facilitate the collec-tion of new data much faster than was previously possible.

Dana explains, “The quality and size of the T1DX database provides

incredible value and is seldom debated because of the size of the sample and the fact that it comes from credible and respected diabetes clinics across the US. Before, researchers often debated the validity of smaller studies and say, ‘hmm, that doesn’t seem right, let me do a study to refute that.’ With such robust data, there’s no time wasted on science that is already settled.”

The T1D Exchange does much more than collect, aggregate and

“We are currently working with a small company that has a novel new therapy. We have been able to bring that idea into the Exchange, play matchmaker with a funder to get the project funded and we are using our network to support the clinical studies. This is

the power of such a large, integrated network.”

publish data. It also acts as a facilita-tor, supporting a variety of research projects and connecting researchers with funders. Says Dana, “We are cur-rently working with a small company that has a novel new therapy. We have been able to bring that idea into the Exchange, play matchmaker with a funder to get the project funded and we are using our network to support the clinical studies. This is the power of such a large, integrated network.”

THE SECOND PHASE. All this rep-resents phase one of the Exchange. Phase two may be even more powerful.

“There are plenty of researchers with terrific ideas that lack resources, in-cluding certain ex-pertise,” Dana ex-plains. “We sought to fill that gap. We have statisticians, epidemiologists and

other technical expertise to analyze data and identify trends, which in turn helps funders decide where to focus their research dollars. These resources make a material difference, opening re-search opportunities, even identifying possible new lines of studies based on biological data from people, not mice. Science has cured millions of mice, but unfortunately, few of those break-throughs have translated to people. T1DX offers a large-scale, real-life,

MEDICAL



hypothesis-generating data set that simply did not exist before.”

Another part of the T1D Exchange is an online community called Glu. “Living with a chronic disease can be an incredible psychological burden,” says David. “T1D is the only disease I know of where you are making medi-cal and dosing decisions of a drug 24/7 that if you get it really wrong you could die. T1D is a relentless grind for people living with this disease as it never takes a break. Glu is an online community for patients and caregivers to connect, find support,

share experiences and participate in research. During our diligence, we learned that what people with T1D wanted more than anything was to meet and talk to others living with this disease. There are so many aspects of life with T1D that people can learn from others, and we have now given them a platform in which to do so. People struggle with certain foods or with glucose control while exercis-ing—the list goes on and on—but now there is a place to share experiences and learn from others. These discus-sions happen daily in Glu.”

Dana adds: “Another, perhaps even greater, value of Glu is that it lets people with T1D understand that they hold the clues to their own solutions. We wanted to engage the community so they can stand up and say ‘study me! The clues are inside me, and I want to get involved.’”

Dana has a vision for where the T1D Exchange might be headed: “Before, I was frustrated by the siloed men-tality and fragmented community in T1D. I think the Exchange has helped demonstrate a better way.”

David agrees, “The T1D Exchange is a new model that is built with the end in mind, getting devices and therapies to patients as fast as pos-sible. I think we have proof of concept and Dana’s vision has always been to share this model with other disease groups. I think we can change the way medical research is conducted. After all, most philanthropists made their money by being smart, prudent busi-ness people, focused on value proposi-tions and results. Philanthropy should be approached with the same rigor. At the end of the day, we are in the business of delivering a drug, therapy or device to the people who need them to live better lives.”

To find out more about the TID Exchange, visit www.t1dexchange.org. For more about the Helmsley Charitable Trust, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.

“T1D is the only disease I know of where you are making medical and dosing decisions of a drug 24/7 that if you get it really wrong you could die. T1D is a relentless grind for people living with this disease as it never takes a break.”


I n 2004, Everly Macario’s 18-month-old son Simon woke up one spring

morning with ice cold skin and shriek-ing cries, gasping for air. He was rushed to the emergency room, but doctors could not determine the reason for his unusual symptoms.

Within a day, Simon was dead. Tests ultimately revealed he had con-

tracted methicillin-resistant Staphylo-coccus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant infection also known as a “superbug.” Alarmingly, stories like Simon’s are becoming more common.

“This is not an isolated incident,” says Laura Rogers, director of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ campaign to reduce antibiotic overuse on industrial farms. “It’s happening more and more to fami-lies in the United States and across the globe because the antibiotics that we used to rely on to protect us when we got sick are starting to lose their effectiveness.”

Drug-resistant infections are re-sponsible for hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths each year. Further, they cost our health care system up to $26 billion annually. The elderly, cancer patients, the chronically ill and children face the greatest risk.

The declining efficacy of antibiotics is due, in large part, to their misuse in industrial farming. Eighty percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States are intended for food animals, often

just to make them grow faster and to compensate for the effects of unsani-tary and overcrowded conditions. In 2011, drugmakers sold nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics in this country for use in chickens, pigs, cows and other food animals. Yet, in the same period, only 7.7 million pounds of antibiot-ics were sold to treat sick people. This practice helps breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect people.

The US Food and Drug Administration, the US

Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention have all testified before Congress that there is a definitive link

between the routine, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics

in food animal production and emergent antibiotic-

resistant infections in people.

Government agencies and medical and health leaders alike recognize the impending crisis. The US Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Dis-

ease Control and Prevention have all testified before Congress that there is a definitive link between the routine, nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in food animal production and emergent antibiotic-resistant infections in people.

Furthermore, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other leading medical groups all warn that the injudicious use of antibiotics in food animals presents a serious and growing threat to human health because the practice creates new strains of dangerous antibiotic-resis-tant bacteria, supported by hundreds of studies conducted over the past four decades. New research indicates that these practices are even contributing to diseases not traditionally associated with food, including drug-resistant urinary tract infections and MRSA.

“Pediatricians are already limited in the number and types of antibiot-ics we can use to care for ill children, and we cannot effectively care for the most vulnerable children without ef-ficient antibiotic treatments,” says Dr. Cecilia Di Pentima, a pediatric infec-tious diseases doctor at Monroe Carrel, Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University. “The emergence of antibi-otic resistance leaves some of our sick-est young patients without life-saving treatment options.”

To tackle this problem, Pew has been working since 2008 to improve federal policy to regulate the use of antibiotics

The Pew Charitable Trusts: Supermoms Take a Stand Against SuperbugsBY SHAR TAYLOR

MEDICAL



in order to preserve their efficacy in humans. And, over the last two years, Macario, Di Pentima and others have been champions of Pew’s effort to help educate the public about the connec-tions between food animal production, antibiotics and “superbugs.”

Despite receiving a doctorate in pub-lic health from Harvard, Macario had never heard of MRSA until her son’s death. She realized that many more mothers were like her—unaware of the growing threat to their families’ health. That led Macario to join Pew’s cam-paign “Supermoms Against Superbugs.”

At a briefing for reporters during the project’s 2011 launch, Macario called on moms—the people most likely to take children to the doctor’s office and to shop for their families’ food—and other caregivers to help advocate for policy changes that could prevent trag-

edies like hers and ensure the effective use of drugs.

“Every time we use an antibiotic, we risk creating a superbug. Sometimes, when people or animals are sick, we must tolerate that risk and use those drugs to fight infection,” said Macario. “But we cannot afford to throw these drugs around industrial farms simply to rush a healthy pig or chicken to reach slaughter weight.”

On April 16, 2013, Pew again hosted “Supermoms Against Superbugs” Advo-cacy Day. Concerned moms, dads, pedia-tricians, farmers, chefs and caregivers from around the country came to the nation’s capital to shine light on the use of antibiotics by industrial farms and to advocate for an end to the practices that threaten our health. Together, they held more than 100 meetings on Capitol Hill and with the Obama administration.

Among the Supermoms present that day was Diana Goodpasture of Akron, Ohio. Goodpasture had an active and healthy life as a school bus driver for 30 years and as a volunteer with her church and local charities. Then, in 2011, she ate ground turkey and be-came infected with salmonella that was resistant to several antibiotics. Goodpasture spent five days in the hospital due to the severity of her ill-ness and associated pain. Thankfully, some antibiotics were still effective against her infection and saved her life.

That experience led her to give a great deal of thought to how food is produced and how it gets to our tables. Despite a weakened immune system, Goodpasture traveled to Washington. “I’d much rather not have to tell those in government that we need safe food,” she said, “but until they act, I’m going to tell my story.”

Joining the Supermoms were “Su-perchefs Against Superbugs,” a grow-ing movement of chefs that leverage their celebrity status to call attention to the overuse of antibiotics in industrial farming. This effort, launched in July 2012, has been gaining steam since. More than 300 chefs wrote to the FDA that summer, asking the agency to re-double its efforts to reduce antibiotic overuse in meat and poultry produc-tion. “As chefs, we use food to help build strong and thriving communi-ties,” they wrote. “That is why we are committed to using ingredients and preparing meals that serve our custom-ers’ well-being. Misuse and overuse of antibiotics in food animal production does not serve the interests of consum-ers in the United States.”

In a Washington Post column last year, Mike Isabella, a finalist on Bravo’s “Top Chef All-Stars,” highlighted the dangers of industrial farming practices that breed superbugs. “I was shocked to


learn that four times the amount of an-tibiotics produced for humans goes into animal feed each year,” he wrote. “This allows companies that use this practice to crowd animal pens and raise more animals in a shorter period of time.”

Top Chef’s host, Tom Colicchio, spoke up about drug-resistance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in March 2013. And, to help broaden our reach to consumers, chefs have provided great recipes for Pew’s website that people can use to prepare meat and poultry raised without antibiotics.

On Advocacy Day this year, the Supermoms and Superchefs urged members of Congress to cosponsor the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. This legislation would withdraw the use of antibiotics from food animal production unless the drugs are not used in human medi-cine or the animals are sick. They also visited officials from the White House, the FDA, and Department of Health and Human Services to encourage policies aimed at ending the overuse of antibiot-ics in food animal production.

Thousands more moms, dads, grand-parents and others from across the country engaged with Congress and the FDA officials through a digital tool kit that the campaign created online.

Thanks to their action in Washing-ton and nationwide, policies and the marketplace are changing. New bipar-tisan legislation has been introduced in Congress and the FDA is expected to finalize its policy to restrict the overuse of antibiotics. Major institutional buy-ers of meat and poultry—from school systems to airports—are shifting their purchasing to include more meat and poultry raised without these drugs.

To learn more about this initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, visit www.saveantibiotics.org.

SHAR TAYLORDirector, Principal and Major Gifts, The Pew Charitable Trusts

MEDICAL

Antibiotics Sold for Meat and Poultry ProductionAntibiotics Sold to Treat Sick People

2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 201105

1015202530 Million of Pounds Sold 29.9M

7.7M

Antibiotic Sales

ThePewCharitableTrusts,2013



CLOSING LETTER FROM THE CO-EDITORSWe want to thank all of the contributing authors who shared their inspiring stories. The organizations featured are all finding ways of redefining excellence and making education more meaningful and universal in exceptional ways.

Most of all we want to thank our manager, colleague, supporter and friend, Robert Seaberg. Bob is Managing Director of Wealth Advisory Solutions within Morgan Stanley. During his more than 25 years in the financial services industry, Bob has been responsible for orchestrating comprehensive wealth planning services, including the development and supervision of regional wealth planning centers, financial planning analytics and solutions and special services for clients of distinction, including Philanthropy Management, Family Governance and Dynamics and Lifestyle Advisory Services.

Bob is a true example of thought leadership. His opinion carries significant weight because of his experiences, authenticity, unique insights, knowledge, and credibility. He speaks with authority on many fields and constantly has an eye on innovation. He generates original ideas, spots trends, and elevates important conversations for consideration, contemplation and debate.

On a personal note, Bob has been one of the most enthusiastic supporters of Philanthropy Management since our department’s inception in 2000. It is with bitter sweetness to report that after an illustrious career, Bob will be retiring in February 2014 from Morgan Stanley to pursue his interests in writing, lecturing, board service and travel. We will miss his generous spirit, keen intellect, gifted speaking ability and prowess with a pen. We’re forever appreciative of his unfailing support of Philanthropy Management and wish him the very best as he enters a new phase in his life.

Please send us your comments, suggestions and/or ideas for future issues to [email protected].

Melanie Schnoll BegunManaging DirectorMorgan StanleyPhilanthropy Management

Steven RosandichVice PresidentMorgan StanleyPhilanthropy Management

© 2013 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. Member SIPC. PS7563079 CRC698148 CS7563079 09/13

The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”) or its affiliates. All opinions are subject to change without notice. Neither the information provided nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The references to the charities should in no way be considered a solicitation by Morgan Stanley on behalf of the charities mentioned, or an endorsement of those charities by Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley, its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. To the extent that this material or any attachment concerns tax matters, it is not intended to be used and cannot by a taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed by law. Any such taxpayer should seek advice based on the taxpayer’s particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor.

Blue School: Reimagining Education for a Changing World, CRC677639

DonorsChoose.org: Microphilanthropy in Schools Across America, CRC677641

Khan Academy: Making Complex Topics Easier to Understand, CRC677644

Metropolitan College of New York: Higher Education With a Purpose, CRC677627 The Cigar Family School: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Through Education, CRC677629

Tostan: Communities Use Human Rights to Promote Social Change, CRC688388

The Center for Discovery: A Holistic Approach That Serves a Community, CRC677645

Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy: Taking Impact From the Football Field to the Classroom, CRC677628

Community Foundation DeKalb County: Adopting a “Community” Approach to Raise Educational Levels, CRC676919

Little Pim Language Learning for Kids, CRC677632

Say Yes to Education: How Education Can Lift a Community, CRC677634

The University of Maryland’s Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership: Transforming the Future of Philanthropy, CRC677637

Pikes Peak Community Foundation: Breaking Ground/Gaining Ground: Innovative Education for Better Health, CRC677633

The T1D Exchange: A Fundamental Shift in Medical Research, CRC677629

The Pew Charitable Trusts: Supermoms Take a Stand Against Superbugs, CRC677625

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