NICK’S MENTOR Brian Weed, Janet Weed and Nick Tarleton Photograph by Jim Prisching
Photography by Tiia Norsym Photography
“I’m a big believer in the concept of ‘impact’ concept—the concept is where it starts and ends for me,” Burridge said. Greenhouse Scholars was developed out of his for-profit company Greenhouse Partners, a brand strategy and communications firm he created with the support from his wife Maria and his late mother Leslie Burridge. “For Greenhouse Partners, I looked back over our first five years in business, we have a chance to give back and make a big impact, so I thought about the things I was most passionate about, and one was the idea of leveling the playing field for young people, and the idea that everybody deserves an equal chance to build a life that they wanted. And the idea of education and its ability to span all kinds of different things came together to build our program model.’’ Burridge believed by working with the highest performing of the under-resourced young people in different communities and cities across the country, that he would be able to leverage them to make a broader impact in lower-income communities. “This was the best idea I had to make the broadest possible impact to communities across the world eventually,” he said. The evening’s event was themed “glass half full,” and was hosted by Pete’s brother Dick Burridge Jr., the founder of RMB Capital and a supporter of Greenhouse Scholars. His independent investment
advisory firm has a commitment to THERE IS A REAL philanthropy, which CONNECTION TO GROWING includes Greenhouse UP IN THE HINSDALE Scholars. The COMMUNITY. foundation expanded to Illinois in 2012 –PETE BURRIDGE and doubled in size, while cultivating the next generation of community leaders in low-income areas. According to Pete Burridge, each scholar that joins house and The Community House. My the organization is father is 88 years old, and still is involved selected based on incredible academic and lives in the area. So, there is a real achievements, demonstrated leadership connection to growing up in the Hinsdale skills, and a commitment to bettering their community, and for me, I’m a big believer communities—despite being from underin impact, and I think about how I want resourced backgrounds. n my life to look like—how I can make an Visit www.hinsdale60521.com for more impact with my interactions with people. on the following interview with Pete SCOTT: I’m sure you thought about Burridge and the Greenhouse Scholars the generational benefit of Greenhouse Glass Half Full event. Scholars program, and the long and
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SCOTT: Pete, what was the inspiration for you in starting Greenhouse Scholars? PETE: My folks (Dick and Leslie Burridge) were extremely involved with philanthropic causes, and were on the boards of national and international charities which instilled a sense of community and locally here in the Hinsdale community, such as Wellness
enduring effect that education has. Is that the reason you chose education as your impact vision?
PETE: Yes, that’s right. There are two things there. In regards to families, there is a statistic that siblings are 75 percent more likely to go to college if the older sibling went to college. Then, if you carry that forward with college educated parents, their kids are four to five times more likely to go to college. So, there is a multiplier effect. The second thing is the only way to create lasting change in low-income communities is from within. I think a lot of people have thrown a lot of money to quote: fix low income communities, and at the end of the day, you can work with the genuine role-models in those communities to go back and give back, to pull up the generation behind them to make the change become lasting. SCOTT: Your Greenhouse Scholars like Nick Tarleton have taken on the role of mentors within their own communities. Nick actually told me that during his college years, he began mentoring highschool kids that he knew, as well as fellow college students. That’s impressive that he has taken on that mentoring on his own from learning from the people that mentored him. Continued on the next page
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