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Touching All the Bases: Gifts to R&F Impact Every Area of Student Life Beginning in May 2010, gifts and pledges to Rise & Flourish: The Campaign for Newark Academy have helped revitalize NA in myriad ways. Having reached the halfway point of this effort to garner $30 million by the end of 2015, it seems fitting to review the impact made by the generous, early gifts to the campaign and to review the initiatives still to be funded:
THE NEWARK SCHOLARS PROGRAM
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Described by Head of School Don Austin as “a challenging but achievable dream,” the Newark Scholars program is the centerpiece of the endowment portion of Rise & Flourish. Initially conceived as a program that would not be launched until the end of the campaign (due to the daunting task of raising $5 million to fully endow it), the Newark Scholars program captured the attention of a loyal NA alum who is passionate about finding solutions for the achievement gap that exists between New Jersey’s largest city and its surrounding suburbs. The alum, who has chosen to remain anonymous, fully embraced NA’s goals to maintain its link with its founding city by offering full scholarships to some of Newark’s best and brightest students. Distinguished through outstanding school work, test scores, extracurricular activities and drive, top students from Newark have typically accepted generous financial aid offers from the nation’s top boarding schools. One of the goals of the program is to enable these students to remain in their own community while benefiting from the outstanding educational experience offered by Newark Academy. Believing that the program was worth starting immediately, the NA alum made a $1 million gift that will cover all expenses related to the Newark Scholars Program while the funds to fully endow the program (ensuring its existence in perpetuity) continue to be raised. Thanks to this incredible gift, five stellar students entered Newark Academy in Fall 2012 as
the first class of Newark Scholars. The inaugural class includes a sixth-grader, a seventh-grader and three ninth grade students. Ninth-grader Asia Moore proudly shares that she is a Newark Scholar at NA. “This is such a great school and the Newark Scholars is a great program,” Asia says. “Being a Newark Scholar has given me the chance to pursue my educational goals under my own power. For me, it is like winning the lottery!” Asia notes that while the financial support is “amazing” her experience as an NA student has exceeded her expectations. “Several of my friends from Robert Treat Academy are now attending boarding schools. We stay in touch and not one of them is having as great an experience as I am having. Everyone at NA is so accepting of other people – regardless of their background. It was not a difficult transition at all for me – it feels like I’ve always been here. It feels like home.” To date, alumni, parents and friends of Newark Academy have contributed nearly $1.7 million in gifts and pledges toward the overall goal of $5 million.