Join the Family!

Greetings to family, friends, former students, and future Foundation members.

I have taught in Harlem and the South Bronx for 34 of my 36 years in the classroom.

During my career, there have been two constants in my day-to-day life as a teacher:

1. Amazing young people who show up every day with intelligence, energy, optimism, and grit; they have changed my life.

2. Yet, these same young people endure a deplorable lack of resources in all aspects of their lives: impoverished families, impoverished communities, and unbelievably underfunded schools, both private and public.

I taught at the Frederick Douglass Academy in central Harlem from 1999 to 2020. Simply put, this is a school situated in an economically depressed area that educates young people who have to navigate sociological and familial issues that would have overwhelmed any of us at their age. We consistently have had a core of amazingly dedicated teachers and students who come in every day to fight the fight. However, we could only do so much with our limited resources.

This is why I launched a 501(C)3: The Uptown Educational Foundation Inc. in 2017.

Something amazing happened.

I began receiving donations!

Over the years, I have relayed to many of you case after case of young men and women who have achieved academic excellence despite incredible barriers and educational and economic inequity. These stories are always also a bit bittersweet: what else could have been done for them? And what about those young people who simply were not able to enter the game at all because of systemic disadvantages?  Through the UEF, we aim to reach more of these kids. With your support, every dollar will go directly to the kids, and we can:

1. Give students access to Foundation-sponsored Kaplan SAT prep class.

2. Pay for application fees, SAT test fees, etc. – when vouchers can’t be secured

3. Give students access to Chromebooks – Most of our kids cannot afford laptops – despite the fact that the entire college application process, not to mention most of their academic lives, exists online.

4. Give students access to updated textbooks, literature, review books

5. Help teachers build out classroom libraries

6. Underwrite college visits – which few of their families can afford

7. Provide subsidies to our kids as they enter their freshmen year in college to offset all the hidden costs that even full financial aid packages do not cover

8. Provide emergency financial support; a few hundred dollars can make the difference between a difficult situation and a catastrophe.

9. Allow teachers to buy basic teaching supplies: paper, printers, pens, and pencils. Choose to be a Donor so teachers do not have to use “DonorsChoose.”

10. Support teachers in similar positions: I have two former students who are teaching in the Bronx, and one in Maryland, and have just received Foundation grants for Classroom Libraries and Chromebooks.

11. Feed students after school and on Saturdays.

With these resources, The Uptown Educational Foundation Inc. will continue to assist a cohort of committed teachers and students.

The UEF has no salaried employees. All funds will go directly to benefit the kids, and we’ll provide transparent disclosure of how your contributions are being spent and helping our kids! For now, if you can support us, please send a check or contribute using Stripe on this site.

Thanks so much for reading.

And, please hit that Donate Button!!!

Peace