We Can Help Union City Schools Meet 21st Century Needs
Here are pictures worth a thousand words. Students K-12 once carried a few books in a backpack. Now they need computers, programmable robots, and will face emerging technologies such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence, data science, and latest internet infrastructure.
Hands-on knowledge of these technologies is vital for students to prepare for advanced education and the future job market where tens of millions of new jobs will be created.
For a small public school, teaching emerging technologies is required to assure students will be competitive with students from large-city school districts. Here is blunt reality:
Without additional financial assistance, small-town school budgets simply cannot afford the curriculum updates and related support infrastructure necessary to assure fully competitive students.
Our Foundation will build funds that proactively support the curriculum upgrades and related infrastructure and teacher effectiveness programs that allow Union City to compete with or outperform schools of any size.
Our Teachers, the Heartbeat, Then and Now
In good economic times and bad, School leadership has maintained a can-do culture and our teachers have delivered quality education that has helped UC students accomplish great things in their lives and careers.
It's a tough job. Our teachers are not highly paid. Our Teacher Grant program was inspired, in part, by the truth that many teachers spend their own money to bring ideas to life in the classroom. The Covid-19 pandemic has added new demands and new stress.
The Foundation was inspired by awareness that teacher skill and dedication is not enough. Our teachers must have curricula, tools and training that assure they are able to prepare students for the changing needs of 21st Century education.
The Teacher Grant program was a start. Now we need to climb higher, whether our individual goals are to pay it back, pay it forward, or make a difference in our home town.
Making a Difference in Our Old Home Town
Visiting alumni who remember "the good old days" in Union City are saddened by the evident impact of the plant-closing era. But our historically resilient town is making a spirited comeback, and the educational system is a vital element of the revitalization effort.
Shown here is the rendering for Vision Corner, planned replacement of the long-time eyesore at the northeast corner of Columbia and Pearl. Multiple high-school entrepreneurial activities, including downtown studios for KISS-TV and an Apache Design retail center. Students will have an incredible live learning opportunity in multiple aspects of communication, business operation and entrepreneurship. A Ball State Letterman Center working partnership has been established.
The city owns and is refurbishing the building. The build-out of education equipment and infrastructure is an excellent example of a Foundation's ability to make a major difference. In this case, including the possibility of a regional vocational center.
Help the Foundation Launch !
The LAUNCH Phase Allows Immediate Action and Establishes Momentum:
- Goals: $100,000: within 3 months / $250,000 6 months / $750,000 Year
- Although large donations are important, we welcome engagement at any level...
- Support at any level earns "eternal" recognition as a Legacy Founder
- Giving levels are shown in the Legacy Founders Circle table below
- ACTION level funds will flow into the Alumni Association ACTION fund for Teacher Support, Encouragement Scholarships and Small Staff Projects
- IMPACT and VISION level flows into the R&D, Image, and VISION funds.
The LAUNCH Phase Provides Flexible Seed Dollars, Usable as Needed
- We will run a lean operation, no more than $35,000 first year for infrastructure (legal/accounting,, announcement costs, part-time executive director)
- We anticipate that responding to the COVID-19 crisis will be important support at both Teacher and School infrastructure levels.
NEXT STEPS: The form below supports donation by credit card or mailed check.
Just as importantly, it includes an invitation for dialog:
Your questions, comments, goals and ideas.
