Can one award make a difference?
Most of you know that I spent much of my career in what could be called a "community of abundance." Working at Microsoft, I was surrounded by brilliant minds who came together every day to produce amazing results.
Truth is, no matter where we came from, we all had access to the best human and technology resources available. It was an honor to be part of that community.
So you can imagine how humbled I was last month - and also sort of validated - when I was awarded a
Microsoft Alumni Foundation Integral Fellows Award for the work of TAF.
It started with a nomination by some of my fellow Microsoft alumni. Then great people like
Bill Gates Sr., President
Jimmy Carter,
Ashoka founder
Bill Drayton,
eBay founder
Pierre Omidyar and
Bridgespan Group cofounder
Tom Tierney selected me and TAF as one of three award winners.
A whole new community came together to support TAF kids. How cool is that? Presidents and captains of industry agreed that our students deserve the tools and opportunities necessary to go to college, have successful careers and, in turn, be leaders in the communities they form.
I wish I could say that one award is all it takes. Unfortunately, resources are still scarce in many of our classrooms.
We have an opportunity this holiday season to come together and create our own "community of abundance." Our Development Director Lee Benner
compared our situation to the story of Stone Soup, where small contributions turn an empty pot into a feast.
Two projects immediately came to mind that I offer to you as ways for you to "fill the pot":
- Support an underfunded TechStart class
Despite having a waiting list, we have had to eliminate our Kindergarten TechStart classes and other classes remain underfunded. Most classes have 10 students. For $1,550 per student, you can help provide:
- 1 highly trained teacher who receives 10 hours of professional development
- Project-based science, math and writing curriculum
- 1 laptop per student
- Demonstration of learning through Lego Mindstorm, Scratch and Alice
- Equip TAF Academy's Computer Sciences lab
As TAF Academy approaches full enrollment, we need a high-functioning Computer Sciences lab to implement critical parts of our STEM curriculum. (That's the "T" in STEM) One-time costs of $100 per student will allow us to offer technical courses to all students for the next three years in a lab that has:
- 25 high end programming machines
- Smartboard
- Training space for internship program
