Skip to main content

Alumni Volunteers Honored at Horizons at Saint David's Event




 
"These two men are a testament to what our alums can do," said Nicole Ransone, Executive Director of Horizons at Saint David's. "I'm so appreciative of the rock stars they are." With that, she handed the mic to Horizons' volunteers Davis C. (Saint David's Class of 2020) and Aaron P. (Horizons Class of 2020).

The occasion was Horizons at Saint David's annual benefit, held Tuesday evening in our Benno Gymnasium. The evening was a tremendous success, raising more than $100,000 for the tuition-free, intensive academic and enrichment program for boys from our partner schools in East Harlem.

Horizons was born as mission-focused, greater good initiative of Saint David's to provide educational opportunities for local elementary school children who wouldn't otherwise have access to programs and resources like these. Over 12 years, the program has evolved from a single class of rising first graders. It now covers the full spectrum of elementary school years (rising-first to rising-ninth grades) and also offers fall and spring sessions.

Tuesday's benefit was dedicated to the nearly 40 young high-school-age alumni from both Saint David's School and Horizons at Saint David's who volunteer together for the program. The volunteers are essential. They arrive in-person each day of the session, collaborate with each other, read to the boys, accompany classes on field trips, assist at lunch and with group projects, and basically do whatever is needed to ensure a successful day of learning and fun. They get to know each other and the younger boys in the program well, sharing life stories, insights, and laughs, and serve as role models for the boys.


Davis has volunteered with Horizons for the last three years; he has loved working with the boys and remarked on how much he's learned from them. Aaron, who at five-years of age was a member of the first Horizons cohort in 2012, shared the three most significant lessons he took from his nine years in the program: the values of brotherhood, preparation, and being good men. Both alumni have enjoyed and valued the opportunity to collaborate with each other and play a role in the program's success.

Horizons at Saint David's has been extraordinarily successful in preventing "summer slide" according to several metrics, including gains in reading and math; and it features a strong social-emotional component. We are grateful to the members of our Saint David's extended community for their continuous, enthusiastic commitment to and support for Horizons: thank you to the program's boys and their families, the advisory board, executive director and administrators, teachers, donors, and our many young Horizons and Saint David's School volunteers.  

 


Popular posts from this blog

The Wisdom Within - A Matter of Trust

The Teaching Boys Initiative (TBI) is a cornerstone of Saint David’s School’s strategic vision, aimed at developing a robust framework of evidence-based best practices in boys’ education. The initiative’s primary goal is to empower educators with the knowledge, skills, habits, and dispositions of reflective practitioners, enhancing their professional growth and the overall quality of teaching and learning for boys.  In TBI's new quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," our faculty share stories that inform, inspire, and encourage reflective practice using evidence-based approaches in teaching and learning for boys.  The following inaugural entry, "A Matter of Trust," was written by reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Tom Ryan, who has been inspiring generations of Saint David's boys for more than 53 years. A MATTER OF TRUST …but, I digress. I cannot possibly begin any writing piece, and/or class, without some digression that, as I have said to my s...

"The Wisdom Within" - Bringing Sound to Space

In the second entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative's quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," Saint David's reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Cathy O'Neill explores the pedagogical power of play in the education of young boys. BRINGING SOUND TO SPACE It began with a mound of mangled metal and the vapor of a vision gleaned from recent comments and random fact-dropping by the Pre-K boys. Unsure of what exactly I was looking for, but fueled by the idea of a makeshift rocket to dovetail with our upcoming space unit, I gingerly picked through the scrap pile until my hands grazed an old VW control panel devoid of its dashboard. Eureka! An array of knobs, dials, and buttons - while in reality, dead as doornails - in the right small hands, would become the epicenter of our NASA-inspired dramatic play corner. With a couple of lawn chairs and some old CB radio microphones to round out the set, engines would be ignited by the power of imagination. All systems go...

"The Wisdom Within" - Building Student Motivation Through Choice

In the third entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative quarterly blog series, Master Teacher Jim Barbieri explores how providing boys with agency to choose builds motivation and enhances learning. BUILDING STUDENT MOTIVATION THROUGH CHOICE By the time I was eight years old, I had become completely absorbed in all things baseball. Living in New York was perfect for a baseball fan; although I was a Mets fan thanks to my idol, Tom Seaver, I was also interested in learning about all the amazing Yankees stars of yore. How could I call myself a baseball fan if I didn’t know the history and records of stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra? I loved collecting baseball cards and reading the career statistics of each player on the back. Looking through my collection one day, I discovered that I shared a birthday with the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. At eight years old, I was crushed to hear the news that he had died tragically in a plane crash while trying to ...