INVESTMENT At a fun event in September in Klyde Warren Park – which is the place to be in Dallas where family and friends gather regardless of age, race, religion, or sexual orientation – the firm, thanks to a connection forged by Dallas partner, John Dickey, launched the Barnes & Thornburg Student Enrichment Fund. The goal: to invest in the students of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts (Booker T), a nationally acclaimed institution dedicated to multiculturalism and known for its academic achievements and contributions to the arts community. Through the Booker T. Advisory Foundation, Barnes & Thornburg invests in enrichment grants that support these highly talented students. By providing life-enriching opportunities that help them further develop their artistic gifts, the grants have a positive impact not only on those individual recipients but also on the larger Dallas community as well. Our relationship with Booker T., the foundation and, ultimately, the students continues to grow with each of our grants. “We started with seven enrichment grant scholarships and are working toward more than 20 this school year,” said John. “With each grant award, we see how these students’ future opportunities are enhanced and how their success lifts our community in return.”
Booker T. is named after Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – Nov. 14, 1915), who was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and was viewed as the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. He was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to multiple U.S. presidents between 1890 and 1915. The Booker T building was built in 1922 as the first African American high school in Dallas.
Whether for travel expenses to attend competitions, conferences, performances, auditions or college visits; for academic and artistic supplies and accessories; for college application expenses; or for extracurricular intensive training programs; the Barnes & Thornburg Student Enrichment Fund allows students to move forward with the goals and aspirations they’ve already set for themselves and affords us the opportunity to partner with Booker T. in our shared goal of giving back to the Dallas community in which we are privileged to serve. Outreach certainly isn’t new. But by creating this fund, we are doing something different here, in that we are using our resources to deliberately bridge longstanding racial and socio-economic divide in the Dallas community, one student at a time. “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” – Coretta Scott King Learn more about the Barnes & Thornburg Student Enrichment Fund and some of the amazing students already benefitting from this investment.
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