About / Nov 09 / 2009 Verizon Foundation Grant

November 17, 2009
For immediate release

The Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara receives Verizon Foundation grant to fund mathematics and science mentoring and tutoring in area schools

The Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara has received a $40,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation to expand a project that promotes the participation of underserved students in junior high school Gifted and Talented (GATE) and honors courses through a collaboration of the Cesar Chavez Leadership Club at Santa Barbara Junior High and the Gevirtz School.

“The Verizon Gateway Project” will support school-year and summer tutoring and mentoring of 7th and 8th grade students by Gevirtz School graduate and undergraduate science and mathematics students under the supervision of Dr. Susan Johnson, faculty coordinator of UCSB’s CalTeach program. Coordinators of the Cesar Chavez Leadership Club will work with Santa Barbara Junior High School teachers to identify students for the program, track their progress, and work with their families to ensure that students continue on the pathway to college by taking college-track classes when they move on to high school.

This funding is another example of the Verizon Foundation’s continuing support of projects that benefit underserved and underrepresented children and families in Santa Barbara. Recently the foundation funded The Verizon Family Literacy Partnership Program, a joint partnership between the Goleta Union School District, the University of California, Santa Barbara Gevirtz Research Center, Isla Vista Youth Projects, and the Verizon Foundation. The program offered integrated and targeted services that focused on the multiple literacy needs of families in Isla Vista. It was an academic preparation initiative that built on existing relationships among school, community, and university partners to provide a value-added family literacy program that included adult English language development, computer training, supportive educational training for parents, school readiness for toddlers and pre-school children, tutoring by parents, and parent involvement in schools.

Holly Cole from the Verizon Foundation presented the $40,000 check to Dean Jane Close Conoley of the Gevirtz School and Fred Rifkin and Dr. Jim Campos from the Cesar Chavez Leadership Club as part of the Gevirtz School Open House festivities on November 5.

[Susan Johnson is available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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The Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara receives Verizon Foundation grant to fund mathematics and science mentoring and tutoring in area schools