2014-2015 New Orleans Scholars Announced
Metairie, LA (PRWEB) March 28, 2014 -- The New Orleans Scholars Program selection committee, comprised of distinguished civic, business, and educational leaders, has named five incoming juniors and five incoming seniors from both Metairie Park Country Day School and Benjamin Franklin High School as the 2014-2015 class of Scholars. Mary Dillon, William Downs, Ashley Sanders, Bennett See, and Bobby Weinmann have been selected as the Class of 2015 Scholars from Metairie Park Country Day School. Country Day’s Class of 2016 Scholars includes Larkin Holtzman, Lizzi Kehoe, Margot Melchiode, Matt Rosen, and Lael Williams.
Benjamin Franklin High School Class of 2015 Scholars are Amelia Craver, Olivia Parker, Aaron Perles, Eleanor Pratt, and Ysabella Ramirez. The Class of 2016 Scholars includes Miles Ballard, Ellye Groh, Seth Lovelace, Earnest Maxwell, and Sophia Stouse.
The New Orleans Scholars Program supports a two-year study of the economic development, the environment, politics, and culture of New Orleans. Students will develop joint projects each semester, applying their knowledge to the issues at hand. New Orleans Scholars will complete the program with a better understanding of the problems that have historically faced our community. Having immersed themselves in active community problem-solving, they will be equipped to re-engage with these very issues as adults, wherever they may live.
“We are pleased to introduce these outstanding students as our first class of New Orleans Scholars. The problems that we think of as global – ethnic strife, climate change and economic uncertainty – are in fact local. These students will actively confront these problems, and with their fresh ideas, New Orleans could become the quintessential American city rather than the eccentric other,” says the program’s director, Vanesa Gentinetta.
Dr. Timothy Rusnak, Benjamin Franklin High School’s Principal/CEO, adds, “We are privileged to have our students be part of this program and to help them reach their full potential as scholars and leaders in our community.”
In April of 2011, Metairie Park Country Day School was one of only eight schools in the country invited by the Edward E. Ford Foundation to submit a proposal for the prestigious Edward E. Ford Educational Leadership Grant. The New Orleans Scholars Program, which includes a partnership between an academically rigorous independent school and a high-achieving public charter school, was developed as Country Day’s response to the Edward E. Ford Foundation’s challenge to envision an innovative program that would address the most pressing issues facing our community. The New Orleans Scholars Program is a creative response to the need to educate a new generation of citizens who can effect a paradigm shift for the future of our city. The $250,000 E.E. Ford Educational Leadership Grant was awarded to Country Day in the spring of 2012. In the spring of 2013, the RosaMary Foundation generously matched the program funding.
The Program will begin in the fall of 2014 with students meeting weekly at designated locations throughout the city to complete the curriculum.
Visit http://www.NewOrleansScholars.org for more information about the program.
Calais Hurst, Metairie Country Day School, http://www.mpcds.com, +1 (504) 849-3113, [email protected]
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