Farther Foundation provides great opportunity to visit the Great Wall

During the course of the last three summers, 48 low-income, Chicago area high school students have participated in enrichment programs around the world with the aid of Farther Foundation grants. While on their programs, these students had unique experiences that opened their eyes to a new world of possibilities and raised their expectations for what they could achieve in their education and in their lives.

The investment Farther Foundation makes in these eager and deserving students is paying off. In an environment where only about 54% of Chicago Public High School students are graduating, Farther Foundation supported students are graduating high school and enrolling in college at a 100% rate.

One of these students is Ryan. Ryan and his brother are being raised by his mother alone on a very modest income. He receives academic support and mentoring through HighSight, a great organization that also encouraged him to travel abroad last summer in pursuit of new horizons. Here is what Ryan had to say about his adventure in China with The Experiment in International Living:

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, I have a thousand pictures, and they don’t begin to tell the story of my trip to China. I spent five weeks, thousands of miles from my hometown on the other side of the world. I remember looking around at my crewmates, who were all so homesick, and realizing that I didn’t feel homesick at all. I felt free. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chicago, I love my home, but spending five weeks on my own, trying to survive in a foreign country with a group of people I hardly knew? I felt like I was in my element.

When we landed in Hong Kong, I remember I spent about ten minutes looking out the massive Terminal windows at the city nestled beneath a mountain. I thought, “Wow, this is China? Amazing.” It turns out that I was looking at a rinky-dink town that was basically a suburb of the REAL Hong Kong. And the mountain that I gazed at in awe, wondering at its age and splendor? Pheh. That was nothing compared to what came next.

Beijing, Capital City of the People’s Republic of China. Luoyang, City of the Promenade. Guiyang, mountainous Capital City of the mountainous Province of Guilin. Yangshuo, Western Hotspot in the middle of the East. Shanghai, Crown Jewel of the Chinese Coast. All these places and more, I can still see in my head, I can still feel them in my body. I can feel the rumble of the hard-seat overnight train, I can see the tiny plane that was shorter than a 40-yard pass, I can remember the gritty concrete road under the tires of my rental bike, and the gravel biting into my leg as the tires slid out from under me. The sting of the alcohol pads, the smell of the lychees my friend stuffed into my bag, the burst of the dumplings in my mouth later at dinner were all sensations that have enriched my entire existence. There can be zero doubt in my mind that I am forever changed by this glorious experience.

Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.

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Time to Help Deserving Students

For more than three years now, Farther Foundation has been changing the trajectory of young lives – identifying eager and deserving students from some of the most impoverished and isolated communities in the Chicago area, and providing opportunities for them to travel across the country and around the world to participate in unique and life changing educational programs.

Our older program alumni are enrolling into college at a 100% rate while our younger alumni are progressing on a similar path. This is a remarkable achievement for kids from a population with disturbingly low high school graduation rates.

Year-end giving accounts for nearly 90% of our scholarship budget each year. Our friends and supporters will soon be receiving our year-end appeal in their mailboxes and email inboxes. We are so pleased with the design and print team that helped us put together this year’s message. Our thanks to the design team at Push Communications and our print rep Matt Claybour at Classic Color, they brought a creative spark to the project and were great to work with. Take a peak now online and please support our students with a donation today.

Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.

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Reflections yearbook now available online

2011 annual yearbook, “Reflections” now online

Every year when our student travelers return from their summer adventures, they amaze and inspire us with their photos and stories. We collect our favorite photos and quotations from our students and put them together into a yearbook to share with all of you. Enjoy Reflections, 2011, and please feel free to share it with your friends.

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Farther Foundation education travel grants help deserving students

This past summer, with the help of Farther Foundation, 16 eager and deserving Chicago High School students had the opportunity to travel across the country and around the world. While on their programs, these students had unique experiences that opened their eyes to a new world of possibilities and raised their expectations for what they could achieve in their education and in their lives.

One of these students was Melissa, a senior at Notre Dame High School who traveled to Ghana. Here is what Melissa had to say about her adventure:

                Traveling to Ghana in the summer of 2011 was definitely the best experience that I have ever had. To be honest, I did not know what to expect. When people describe any part of Africa, they only mention the poverty, never the beauty. Ghana has a beautiful rainforest and beautiful friendly people. My host family was very welcoming and I think they were the perfect family for me. Although, some of the most touching experiences occurred in the children’s home I volunteered at.

                A few days after arriving to Ghana, we finally arrived at the children’s home. This place had orphans, lost children, and children who were temporarily there because of family issues. There were so many different personalities. Everyday when I arrived, I would see smiles on their faces because they loved company. One of my favorite moments was when then kids took all of our cameras and took pictures like there was no tomorrow. Aside from keeping them company, we were able to re-paint the walls, buy new mattresses, fix some plumbing issues, build mosquito screens, and donate all sorts of toys.

                My family included a host mother, father, two aunts, one sister, and five brothers. I loved having plenty of family members. There was never a dull moment because there was always somebody to keep me company. They taught me so much about their culture. I learned how to eat foods without any eating utensils, how to speak “Twi,” how to greet people, how important school is in order to be successful, and how important family really is in our lives.

                As I returned back to the United States, I realized that I have indeed grown as a person. I am more understanding, grateful, and willing. My manners have also significantly improved. I was never a really big fan of saying please since I got whatever I wanted anyway. However, I now catch myself saying it more often. A life-long goal of mine is to continue to help those in need. My love for the country of Ghana is so strong that I plan to return within two years. To me, it is now like a second home. I am grateful that I got a scholarship from the Farther Foundation because without it, my trip to Ghana would have never happened. I am also thankful for the new friends, family, and memories that I now have.

Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.

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Celebrating and supporting educational travel

Last week, Farther Foundation hosted students, educators and supporters at its annual celebration. Guests enjoyed food and drink, bid on auction items and participated in a raffle all while supporting enrichment travel opportunities for eager and deserving students.

Farther Foundation enables students from economically disadvantaged circumstances participate in significant educational travel programs. While traveling, students interact with people from diverse backgrounds, become immersed in new cultures and experiences, learn and develop skills, engage in community service, cultivate leadership potential and attain personal growth. This past summer, Farther Foundation scholarship recipients engaged in programs as diverse and far-ranging as participating in a cultural exploration in China to learning CSI science at George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Assembled guests were treated to inspiring presentations. Lester, a senior at De LaSalle High School, spoke of his summer program in Peru where he spent four weeks exploring some of the historic and geographic wonders of the land and also participated in a volunteer work project. Lester learned how people with so little are able to survive,

“When I was there my guide told us of a concept called “minca”, which means that if I help you out today then you will help me out tomorrow. This, to me, is a very thought-provoking concept because most people don’t believe in things like this in America. The people there help everyone they can because they know that you will then help them when they need it.”

Farther Foundation president David Weindling described enrichment travel opportunities as more than just a spark for aspiring students, but as tipping point experiences from which students never look back but propel themselves onward with confidence and the expectation of greater things ahead.

Over the past three years Farther Foundation has awarded scholarships that enabled 48 deserving students to travel to 21 countries on 6 continents and return home as leaders and inspirations to their families, schools and communities. Of all past scholarship recipients now college-age, 23 of 24 graduated high school on-time (the 24^th will graduate at the end of the current semester), and all 21 of the students who still maintain contact with Farther Foundation are currently enrolled in college.

Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.

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Opportunities Abroad for High School Students

These days, high school students can take advantage of amazing opportunities to travel across the country and around the world to participate in life changing experiences. Colleges and universities offer unique and engaging summer learning sessions; camps and outfitters offer outdoor adventure programs in beautiful wilderness locations; and dozens of organization offer programs abroad where students immerse themselves in new cultures, languages and experiences.

Farther Foundation maintains a searchable online directory of more than 100 companies, schools and organizations that offer trips and programs especially designed for high school students. Whether you want to study science and engineering at a leading university, trek the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu in Peru or volunteer with local children in communities in Ghana or Thailand, we list programs that are right for you. In fact, past Farther Foundation scholarship recipients have participated in each of these programs and many more.

Farther Foundation ensures that lack of money does not prevent eager and deserving students from having these valuable, life changing experiences that otherwise would not be possible. One of our 2011 scholars, Jasmine, will be traveling to Costa Rica this summer as part of a program designed and operated by Global Leadership Adventures.

Global Leadership Adventures (GLA) leads service learning trips around the world that inspire high school students while preparing them for the future. Here is what GLA stands for:

Misson

• Our mission is to inspire the next generation to realize their potential to transform the world and their role in it.

Values

• Our Integrity is unspoken.  It is the unfailing framework from which we build every program, human relationship, and bridge into a community.

• Respect is inherent in all of our interactions among students, staff, and all of the members whose communities we serve.  Respect means accepting and celebrating differences.  Respect means considering all points of view, always.

• Cooperation is key to our accomplishments.  We are a traveling community, helping to serve other communities.  We work together, learn from one another, and build valuable friendships in the process.

• Compassion is what drivers our service, and that compassion extends to students, parents, and host communities.  Our care for people extends to everything we do.

• We are invested in the Personal Growth and development of all our students and staff.  We foster an environment for students to safely explore, experience, and self-discover.

• Optimism is at our core.  We believe that anything is possible and that every person is capable of driving and adopting positive change in the world.

• Innovation is what makes us stand out in international education.  Open to new ideas and always striving to work better and smarter to serve our communities, students, and parents.

We wish Jasmine all the best as she heads off to Costa Rica with GLA to explore the culture and serve the people. We know that she will have eye-opening and life changing experiences, and bring back the best in herself.

Check out our enrichment travel directory online. Tax deductible donations from people like you help Farther Foundation make more opportunities available for deserving students like Jasmine. Please help with a donation today.

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Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.

 

Optimizing Human Capital

This is an exciting time of year for Farther Foundation, our 2011 scholars are preparing for their summer adventures, while several of our alumni from past years are making their college plans for next fall.

Here is where this year’s graduates will attend college in the fall:

Abby                     University of Massachusetts – Amherst

Angelicca            Pomona College

Chandrea            Knox College

Dolores                Augustana College

Eddie                    Wilbur Wright Community College

Gabriel                 Tufts University

Michell                 Vassar College

Ulises                    University of Illinois – College of Engineering

The diversity of college types and locations indicate that our travel scholarship alumni felt sufficiently prepared, confident and empowered to explore all the options available to them and choose the best fit according to their interests, skills and circumstances.

 

Why is this important? David Leonhardt wrote recently in the New York Times: “The truth is that many of the most capable low- and middle-income students attend community colleges or less selective four-year colleges close to their home. Doing so makes them less likely to graduate from college at all, research has shown. Incredibly, only 44 percent of low-income high school seniors with high standardized test scores enroll in a four-year college, according to a Century Foundation report — compared with about 50 percent of high-income seniors who have average test scores.  “The extent of wasted human capital,” wrote the report’s authors, Anthony P. Carnevale and Jeff Strohl, “is phenomenal.”

Several of our alumni are or will be attending some of the most selective and demanding colleges in the country, almost all have selected four-year institutions and most will be attending schools far from home. The research cited above points to all of these as indicators of future success and at Farther Foundation we know that the enrichment travel experiences of our students provide them and their families with the knowledge and confidence to seek opportunities from the broadest array of choices available.

That is why we expect such great things from our alumni no matter what they choose to pursue beyond high school. Whether they go immediately to an elite college or start near home at a community college, they have chosen with their eyes open, aware of their options and opportunities and prepared to pursue a plan for success.

Go Farther!

Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.

 

Mid-year report now available online

Another 18 eager and deserving students have been awarded Farther Foundation enrichment scholarships to help them participate in unique and life changing educational travel programs this summer. Our scholars will travel to 12 countries on 5 continents and study at three U.S. universities.

Meanwhile, we keep getting exciting news from our alumni from past years who are just now deciding where they will go to college in the fall.

Our Mid-year Report is now available online for you to catch-up on all of our recent activity and to learn how you can help make more of these opportunities possible.

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Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.

Contests on the Web

There are a lot of contests on the web lately — many of them offering cash awards to charitable organizations that generate the most votes from their supporters. I just voted in two contests today, helping two of the organizations I support and respect. At Farther Foundation we are in the midst of an online contest as well – please cast your vote for us at www.oakparkapartments.com.

It is easy to look at all these contests as simply marketing ploys, using nonprofit organizations and their supporters’ good will as just another way to increase visits to a for-profit business’s website. Certainly there is an element of truth in that, it is the business of business to make money, but we should not dismiss the altruism at the root of these promotions. Somewhere in the organization, as part of its marketing plan, the decision was made to donate money to a cause rather than just enlarging an ad buy – that is good, and it likely sprung from some individual’s desire to do good.

It is perhaps easier to be cynical when it is a large corporation, like Chase Bank. It has tons of money, so its giving may not be a significant business expense. It likely has a huge marketing department and contracts with big firms to develop its marketing and advertizing plans, so who is that person driving its philanthropic spirit? I don’t know, but doing something charitable is better than doing nothing.

Our benefactor, should we get enough support to win our contest, is Oak Park Apartments. It is a hometown, family run business celebrating its 25^th year in business. They are supporting home-grown and home-based charitable organizations. By the end of their 6 month charity contest, they will have awarded more than $12,000 to local charities. This isn’t Chase Bank money, but it is generous and I’m sure significant relative to the size of their business. I’ve met the owners of Oak Park Apartments in the little league dugouts and community organization tables around town and it is wonderful to live and work in a community with such a great philanthropic spirit.

Help Farther Foundation and the students we support be winners by voting for us at www.oakparkapartments.com.

Go Farther!

Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.

Alumni in the News

Your help needed:  We still need all of our friends and supporters to vote for Farther Foundation at www.oakparkapartments.com. You can help us win $2,000 to boost our scholarship programs and help deserving students have life changing experiences. You can vote once each month from each of your computers, smart phones, ipads, etc. So even if you voted for us in April, go to www.oakparkapartments.com again and vote.

Farther Foundation alumni in the news:

A recent story in the Chicago Tribune included news about three of our past scholarship recipients.

The story was a feature on one of our fine partnering organizations, HighSight. HighSight provides high school scholarships, academic support, mentoring and college counseling to deserving students in the Chicago area. They have had incredible success in inspiring and preparing young people for college education and life. HighSight considers summer enrichment travel experiences to be a key component of its program, and Farther Foundation has provided support for several HighSight students over the years.

The story mentions three HighSight students; two were recipients of Farther Foundation travel scholarships and one was the younger sister of a past recipient.

Michell is currently a high school senior and will be attending Vassar College next fall with a full scholarship. Last summer, with help from Farther Foundation, she traveled to Korea with AFS and participated in a program of cultural immersion and community service. Michell said of her opportunities through HighSight, “If it weren’t for this program, I wouldn’t have even known about Vassar, and I wouldn’t have gone to a school in New York. I probably would have stayed in the city.”

Ulises used his Farther Foundation Scholarship to spend six weeks on an AFS program in New Zealand studying ecology. He said that his experience helped him learn about career options that he didn’t even know existed. Ulises said his experiences, “helped me grow by challenging me and exposing me to new experiences.”

Finally, there is Odett, who’s older sister Brenda traveled to Japan with The Experiment in International Living with a Farther Foundation scholarship and is now attending Kalamazoo College. Odett said, “I wanted my sister’s experience”. This is how one student’s experience can inspire her family, her school and her community.

“HighSight helps students expand their perspective on the world,” said Maggie Caravello, the program’s personal development director. “Many of the students are reluctant to leave the city. HighSight helps broaden their horizons by giving them the chance to study abroad in countries including Thailand, New Zealand, Japan and Ghana.”

Farther Foundation is pleased to read about the success of our partner organizations and to see how the programs we offer and the students we support are held up as examples of what works to inspire eager and deserving young people to succeed.

Go Farther!

Farther Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing scholarships to low-income students to inspire them to reach their highest aspirations through educational travel experiences.