African Dream Academy Chronicle MAY 2014
A LETTER FROM ADA FOUNDER REV. SAMUEL ENDERS
NEWS & EVENTS
Independent School Children Help African Dream Academy (ADA) – page 2
New ADA Video by NYU Filmmaker Adam Abada premiered April 28, 2014 – page 3
April Benefit, Dance for a Chance to Change a Life, a rousing success – page 3
March Family Benefit, a pre-release screening of the Muppets Most Wanted movie draws over 340 parents and children to support ADA students – page 3
Collegiate School Sophomore Thomas Li Creates ADA Collegiate School Club and makes March visit to ADA in Liberia – page 3
Making Books About Where We Live, a report of her March 2014 visit to ADA in Liberia by Brick Church School teacher Katherine Gregory – page 4
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Rev. Samuel Enders with ADA students
WE GRATEFULLY RECOGNIZE OUR AMAZING VOLUNTEERS:
Lucy Cary;; Alison Chase;; Ann Darmstaetter;; Freeda Farah, Co-Chair Concert Benefit;; InzataFofana;; Christine Garrison;;Ashley Gramins;; Anne Huneke;; Monica Keany;; Paula Krzystan;; ElizabethPorteous, Co-Chair Concert Benefit;; Andre Ranawat;; Catherine Rowland;; WibbySevener;; Pam Thorpe;; Jorie Widener;; and Paul Williams, Web Master.
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HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT ADA
AMAZONSMILE
A simple and automatic way to support ADA– page 2
Make a Gift—on ADA’s website at www.africandreamacademy.org
continued on page 2)
African Dream Academy Foundation
Volunteer—time, skills or in-kind donations by calling ADA Foundation at 888-865-5217 or send an email to: [email protected]
www.africandreamacademy.org
African Dream Academy Chronicle MAY 2014
Independent School Children Help Their Friends at African Dream Academy
Founder’s Letter (continued from page 1)
By Lydia Spinelli, Ed. D
Since the African Dream Academy first opened in September 2012 with 140 children in Grades Pre-K – 4th, the children of The Brick Church School in New York City have been learning a lot about the children of ADA in Liberia and how much they have in common. In addition to making a book about New York for the ADA children, as described by Brick Teacher Katherine Gregory in this newsletter, the Brick Church School students made watercolor bookmarks and attached photos of themselves, which were sent to ADA students as gifts, along with a book for each child in the Nursery through First Grade classes. The ADA children were as excited with the idea of having an American friend as they were with the books they received and which they will be able to take home. Brick Church children have also been busy saving up their pennies, nickels, ADA student showing off and dimes to fill up special ADA her new bookmark “Small Change for Big Change” piggy banks, discovering yet one more way they can help their friends in Liberia. Betty Noel, Science Teacher and Director of Diversity at The Browning School, attended the April 28, 2014, concert to benefit ADA and is thinking of ways Browning might get involved. She hopes to go to Liberia with the Brick team in 2015.
Rev. Samuel R. Enders
AMAZONSMILE AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way to support ADA every time you shop with Amazon at no additional cost to you. When you shop smile.amazon.com, you will find the exact same low prices, selection, and convenience as on Amazon.com with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to ADA. You can use the same account on Amazon.com and AmazonSmile.com.
On your first visit to AmazonSmile.com, you need to select a charitable organization to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. Amazon will remember your selection of ADA, and every time you make an eligible purchase on AmazonSmile, your purchase will result in a donation to ADA from Amazon.
African Dream Academy Foundation
After meeting ADA Academic Director, Weata Korfeh and her 11 year-old son, Saron, when they visited Olivia Waterman’s photo on New York last fall, Spence School ADA’s bulletin board
student, Olivia Waterman, decided to make Rainbow Loom bracelets for every child at African Dream Academy—and she did, 270 of them! Her picture with the bracelets is posted on The African Dream Academy Bulletin Board at the entrance to the School, and she has inspired many of the ADA children to take up this craft! On ADA’s field day, all the children wore bracelets reflecting their team colors.
The children of St. Luke’s School hold an outdoor bake sale every year St. Luke’s Bake Sale
to benefit a charitable cause. This year, they decided to donate the proceeds to African Dream Academy. It’s a good guess that students John and William Bergreen influenced that decision, since last spring, they and their friends set up a lemonade stand and raised enough money to sponsor an ADA student’s education for a year. Let’s hope the weather cooperates for the Bergreen Team!
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African Dream Academy Chronicle MAY 2014
ADA is a Rare Patch of Sunshine In Liberia
Independent School Children Help Their Friends at African Dream Academy (continued from page 2)
By Gracey Stoddard
The Nightingale-Bamford School’s Fifth Grade Community Service Club has caught the ADA bug in a big way. The Club made a power point presentation for the whole school about ADA and raised funds to sponsor an ADA student’s education by selling bracelets, and holding Nightengale-Bamford’s Community a bake sale and pancake
Service Club makes ADA presentation
breakfast on Family Service Day. At press time, more than $750 had been raised with funds still coming in. The Nightingale-Bamford School teachers and staff have also donated many cartons of books, supplies and uniforms to ADA students. Look out! You might see the Nightingale uniform in Monrovia! All these New York City children do not see “the starving children in Africa” as an abstraction. They are real to them, and they know they like the same things that American children like. They are also learning that they can make a difference. New ADA Video
A new video of the African Dream Academy created by NYU Filmmaker Adam Abada premiered at the ADA April 28, 2014, Benefit Concert, making a moving impact on everyone. Featuring an interview with ADA Founder Rev. Samuel Enders, the film also includes interviews with ADA Academic Director Weata Korfeh and ADA students. Mr. Abada made the 8-minute video when he visited Liberia in March 2014. It can be viewed on ADA’s Facebook page and at www.africandreamacademy.org April 28th Concert Benefit
ADA’s April 28th Benefit Dance for a Chance to Change a Life with 80s band Rubix Kube and singer extraordinaire Ashley Gramins was a great foot-stomping,
swinging success with over 300 tickets sold and more than $94,000 raised for ADA, with pledges still coming in. ADA Founder Rev. Samuel Enders thanked everyone for their generous Benefit participants and Rubix support, as did Brick School Kube dance the night away
Director Lydia Spinelli and Brick
Church Senior Pastor Rev. Michael Lindvall.
Thomas Li, a current sophomore at the Collegiate School in New York City, is in many ways a typical New York independent school student -- studious, often busy with extracurricular activities, and well supported by a loving family. But in one way that I know of, he is unusual and stands out from his peers;; that is, he cares for people who live on another continent and lead lives of extreme poverty. Additionally, he feels moved to ADA Collegiate School Club with ADA do something about it. He Academic Director Weata Korfeh attributes this to the many years of Sunday School attendance at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, where he learned Christian theology – love justice, and compassion.
A few years back, Thomas learned about the African Dream Academy from a conversation with ADA Founder and Executive Director, Rev. Samuel Enders. He listened intently as Rev. Enders explained what had inspired him to spend years trying to raise funds to open the tuition-free African Dream Academy and what his vision was for the school’s future. When Rev. Enders mentioned that learning English was a special problem in Liberia where it is the official language, but competes daily with 24 tribal languages, Thomas suddenly had an idea. Since Collegiate School places a particular emphasis on teaching English language skills, it would make a great extracurricular activity to help ADA students learn these same skills, even from as far away as New York City. And thus, the African Dream Academy Collegiate School Club was founded in September 2013 by Thomas Li, President, and 19 student members. Meeting once every two weeks, the Club organizes the writing of pen-pal letters to ADA fifth graders four times a year and plans to support ADA in other ways, such as holding a bake sale to raise funds. When asked why his Club is motivated to spend so much time helping ADA, Thomas tells me that it gives members a rich cultural experience;; it gives them another great way to support ADA through building friendships;; it encourages reading and writing skills among both American and Liberian students;; and it provides a one-of-a
-kind opportunity to broaden world views for everyone. The Club started its first year with an eye-opening discussion when ADA Academic Director Mrs. Korfeh visited Collegiate in November 2013. According to Thomas, this meeting was very important, because Mrs. Korfeh explained why and how Club members were changing March 13th Family Benefit
The first Family Benefit for ADA was held on March 13th for ADA students’ lives. To cap off the year, the ADA Collegiate School parents and their children at 86th Street City Cinemas, where they Club invited Rev. Enders to speak to members when he visited the were treated to a pre-screening of the Muppets Most Wanted movie. U. S. this spring. This meeting not only gave the students, but A total of 383 tickets were sold and over $9,000 raised. Special also Collegiate teachers, an opportunity to hear Rev. Enders’ personal thanks go to our volunteers and to Robert Smerling, President of story, leaving everyone inspired by the new bonds of friendship Reading International and his wife, Dr. Kathryn Smerling, who formed between Collegiate School and ADA. (continued on page 4)
donated the theater for this event. African Dream Academy Foundation
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African Dream Academy Chronicle MAY 2014
ADA is a Rare Patch of Sunshine in Liberia (continued from page 3) In Liberia we had a wonderful time meeting students and teachers, In addition to his Club and visiting classrooms. We had the opportunity to read our book activities, Thomas Li in a number of classrooms, both to made a special trip teach about our city, and to share to Liberia to visit another way of learning. We saw that ADA over four days ADA teaching methods involved in March this year. repetition, recitation, and orderly March. Thomas met students progression through predetermined both at school and in material, and we wanted to show their homes, and techniques that invited input from observed observed what an children, creativity, and critical enormous enormous difference
thinking. We appreciated the open ADA is making in mindedness of the ADA teachers who without ADA, would the lives of its allowed us to carry out this small students, who withBrick Church School experiment in project work in their Thomas Li surrounded by ADA students
out ADA, would not student studies photo to be classrooms. And we were surprised to drawn
be able to afford to go to school. Now instead of crushing rocks to learn that Liberia seems to have nearly help their families eke out a living and having no hope for a future, as many pigeons and taxis as we do!
ADA students are learning to read, write, and become educated, so that they might build a better life for themselves, their families, and ADA students were asked to draw things about their school and their country. In Thomas’s own words, “The African Dream Liberia that they would like to teach children in New York. It was Academy truly works mini-miracles. It is a rare patch of sunshine in clearly a new experience for them. Some were uncertain, most seemed to enjoy it, and they were quick to copy any idea they saw Liberia.” praised by an adult. Water pumps, flags, animals, food, and Making Books about Where We Live
Liberian homes were carefully depicted. Once back in New York, By Katherine Gregory
we organized and bound copies of the book to share with them and [Brick Church School Teacher Katherine Gregory traveled to with our preschoolers. We hope that some ADA teachers may Monrovia, Liberia in March 2014 with Brick Church School begin to feel the power of the child's voice and find times in their Director Lydia Spinelli and made this report.]
As we prepared for our trip to Liberia, we wanted to give our class curriculum to collaborate with children on real communication of four and five year olds an and problem-solving – skills that will help students make useful opportunity to participate contributions to their country and community in the future.
meaningfully in the cultural and educational exchange. We decided to have the children make a book about New York City. First we gathered their ideas: "We have pigeons. We have elevators. We have taxis. We have ballet..." We consulted pictures in our ADA book to figure out what might be the same and different, while trying to avoid merely economic Brick Church School children differences. Children picked making pictures of New York which idea they would like to ADA child draws a Liberian ADA students discuss their illustrate. They each got a page with text and a photograph, and truck
ideas for drawing
added their artwork with permanent marker and watercolors. Then the teachers organized and bound the book.
African Dream Academy Chronicle
The African Dream Academy Chronicle is published bi-annually in May and November by the African Dream Academy Foundation (ADAF) to foster support for the African Dream Academy and its students. ADAF Board of Directors: Founder: Rev. Samuel R. Enders;; Chairman: Kurt W. Roeloffs, Jr., President: Gracey Stoddard, LMSW;; Vice President: Lydia Spinelli, Ed.D;; Corporate Secretary: Rev. Thomas Smith;; Acting Corporate Secretary and General Counsel: Daryl Davis, Esq.;; Members at Large: Natasha Bergreen;; Dr. Naznin Karsan-Khimji, Heidi Leiser, and Dr. Kathryn Smerling. Editor of The African Dream Academy Chronicle: Gracey Stoddard. African Dream Academy Foundation, 1617 Third Avenue, #286102, New York, NY 10128, Tel: 888-865-5217.
African Dream Academy Foundation
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