Supporting Education
The Rotary Club of Chestnut Hill supports education by providing both grants for educational initiatives and through direct hands-on service projects to nearby schools that are part of The School District of Philadelphia.
Elementary schools
At Jenks Academy for the Arts and Sciences (grades K-8) of the Philadelphia school district, members individually volunteer time to read to students and take on larger-scale projects like refurbishing and painting classrooms in cooperation with other community organizations. Funding provided by Chestnut Hill Rotary recently helped reopen the school’s library, one of only a few dozen in The School District of Philadelphia.
“THE CHESTNUT HILL ROTARY HAS PROVIDED OUR SCHOOL WITH A STRONG LITERACY PARTNERSHIP THROUGH BOOK DONATIONS, DICTIONARIES FOR OUR THIRD-GRADE STUDENTS, SERVING AS READING VOLUNTEERS AND BY “ROLLING UP OUR SLEEVES” TO BEAUTIFY SPACES FOR OUR CHILDREN.””
The club also purchases and distributes dictionaries and books to 3rd grade students at Jenks, Eleanor C. Emlen, and Henry H. Houston schools each year. These basic books are often the first that the students own. The club also supported the purchase of a much-needed science teaching module for students at Emlen.
High schools
Chestnut Hill Rotary also has a strong partnership with the Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice.
Members worked with the school’s science students to design and erect a “peace pole” for the entire school as well as ongoing mentoring students.
The club also sponsors several Parkway students to attend the Rotary Young Leadership Awards program (RYLA), an intensive three-day leadership experience for high school students. Participants experience life-changing results from this intensive program that focus on communication skills, conflict management, and community and global citizenship.
Chestnut Hill Rotary provided funding to establish an innovative Youth STEM & Aviation program at The Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School. The program is in collaboration with Angel Flight East and The Business Center that provides special educational programs for women, minority, and youth-owned businesses in the Northwest section of Philadelphia. The collaboration provides aviation training as a vocational option in addition to classes on financial literacy and youth entrepreneurship.
Supporting education is one of Rotary's seven areas of focus. Why? More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. That’s 17 percent of the world’s adult population.
Rotary’s goal is to strengthens the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender-disparity in education, and increase adult literacy.
