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With generous funding from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, two professors with the Center for Children and Childhood Studies at Rutgers–Camden are working to strengthen communities and the lives of youths in the city. Bill Whitlow, a professor of psychology, is working with the Camden Area Health Education Center to help residents address issues involving air and water quality in their neighborhood. Dan Hart, director of the Center for Children and Childhood Studies and a professor of psychology, is working with two Camden groups to address youth development and health care.
source: http://rujnjpartnership.rutgers.edu/index.shtml#item1
By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS
Courier-Post Staff
The nonprofit arm of the Camden school district is looking for participants and sponsors for the fourth annual golf tournament fundraiser, which provides scholarships for college-bound seniors.
The Camden Board of Education Foundation has expanded its financial goal to $62,500, an increase of $12,500 and five students, over last year’s goals. The increase allows the foundation to compensate for an additional five scholarships for students from Camden’s fifth high school, MetEast, which is graduating its first class of seniors on June 26.
The remaining scholarships are divided evenly over the other four high schools.
“We want to give these kids a financial hand up to go to college,” said Jack Tarditi, president of the foundation. “It’s integral in helping these 25 kids pay for their first year of college.”
Registration for the golf tournament fundraiser begins at 11 a.m. June 24 at the Pennsauken Country Club, on Haddonfield Road.
In addition to college scholarships, the money raised will benefit other cultural activities the school district can’t pay for on its own, said School District spokesman Bart Leff. In the past year, the foundation provided significant funding for the Camden High School Marching Band to compete in Inauguration weekend festivities.
The foundation has also helped refurbish high school football stadium field houses, travel expenses for special groups to see a Guatemalan rain forest, and a trip for a choral competition in Verona, Italy, Leff said.
The golf tournament is expecting former Philadelphia sports icons Bernie Parent, of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Jon Runyan and Irving Fryar, of the Philadelphia Eagles, as honorary chairmen. The Philadelphia Phanatic should also make an appearance, Leff said. There is also a silent auction and award banquet for the students and families.
Sponsorship begins at $250 for an individual, or $2,000 for a team of four. Top level sponsorship extends to $10,000 or $20,000. The overall fundraising goal is $80,000, Leff said.
“We would like to raise as much as possible,” Leff said. “Our game plan is to create an endowment for these activities.”
Tarditi said that he recognizes the hit on families and corporations, but added that he expects that Camden’s loyal community won’t let the children down.
Reach Joseph Gidjunis at (856) 486-2604 or jgidjunis@gannett.com
Additional Facts IF YOU GO
The Camden Board of Education Foundation’s fourth annual golf tournament fundraiser to provide scholarships for college-bound seniors will be at 11 a.m. June 24. The tournament will be at the Pennsauken Country Club on Haddonfield Road. For more information, call Bart Leff at (856) 966-2649 or Jack Tarditi (856) 552-4792.
By LAVINIA DeCASTRO
Courier-Post Staff
The staff at Urban Promise thanks the college students who spend spring break at the nonprofit’s campus on the Camden-Pennsauken border with a barbecue under a banner that reads “I could have gone to Cancun, but God called to Camden instead.”
The nonprofit has made good use of the banner this spring, when Urban Promise hosted more than 200 college students from 18 different schools.
“These are students that, perhaps a lot of their classmates are off to Cancun or Florida to unwind from their studies, but they choose to be here,” said Jim Cummings, Urban Promise’s work group director.
Camden is becoming a spring break destination for students who want to use the time off to help those less fortunate in a city known for a high crime rate and poverty.
“This little city of 80,000 people has a reputation that goes far and wide,” Cummings said.
Last week, Urban Promise had a group of 16 students from two different colleges, the smallest groups of volunteers this spring.
“They come from all over the United States and Canada,” Cummings said. The students spend their time helping maintain the Rudderow Street campus, which houses an elementary school, a high school and several programs after school that serve a combined 500 children.
“It’s the only way that we can do what we do,” Cummings said. “If we were to pay them, even at minimum wage, we’re looking at thousands of dollars.”
Those are dollars the nonprofit uses to run five after-school programs throughout the city.
“For me, it’s really relevant to faith and what I believe in,” said 24-year-old Jason Murray, the campus minister at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va.. “It’s far more meaningful than going to the beach.”
Murray and 20-year-old Nick Palladino, a student at the college, helped renovate the nonprofit Ray Scull Memorial Home, which will house offices and an art studio. They could have done the same type of work in Biloxi, Miss., helping to rebuild areas destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
“I chose to come here because the vision that Urban Promise has, I think, is very compelling,” Murray said. “This is so different than what I’ve ever experienced in a city,” added Palladino.
Some college volunteers returned after graduation to become part of the staff and others have taken the Urban Promise model to Delaware, Toronto, Vancouver, Honduras and Malawi.
Kent Monma, 17, a native of New Zealand and an international student at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, traded traveling for volunteering.
“I thought the people of Camden needed me more than I needed to travel,” Monma said. Kelly Conner, 18, spent time helping the teachers at Urban Promise’s Camden Forward School.
The religion studies and Spanish major learned as much from the students as they learned from her.
“I’m really glad I came,” the Randolph-Macon student said.
“I really had no idea what to expect,” she said. “I’m from a small town and Camden is a neighborhood that I’m not used to. I’ve learned that good things can come from an area like Camden. These are wonderful kids, wonderful people. Camden is not such a bad place if there are people like this.”
Reach Lavinia DeCastro at (856) 486-2652 or ldecastro@courierpostonline.com
This fall, they are entering the 8th grade. But this summer, they’re taking classes at Rutgers University.
The Rutgers Future Scholars program welcomed its first 200 Scholars this summer, and will welcome up to 50 students every year from each of the Rutgers’ communities: Camden, Newark, New Brunswick and Piscataway. The goal is to make tuition-free college education possible for promising students who would not be able to afford tuition. The five-year program will provide Scholars opportunities for academic enrichment and social development, along with tutors, mentors and advisors. Those who complete the program and gain admission to Rutgers will receive a full scholarship. Many of the Scholars will be the first in their families to attend a four-year college.
The program founders hope it will be a model for providing a pathway to higher education for at-risk, low-income students. The Scholars will attend residential summer programs during high school, as well as a Saturday seminar series and preparation classes for PSAT, SAT and ACT exams. Parents are expected to participate in workshops, partner with teachers, and assist with the college admissions process.
Funded by private donors and corporate gifts, the program has already raised more than $200,000 in pledged support.
Want to learn more? Check out this Rutgers Future Scholars Program Welcome Session Video.
