2007 has been a big year for IPC-NY. We had several wonderful events(Alvin Ailey, Health Panel, Young People Reception). These events all led up to our most ambitious event to date, a Benefit Concert to help support the lofty scholarship goals of the Ethel Tremaine Robinson Foundation.
Though we would have liked to have maximum participation in these events—there are an estimated 800 Black Alums in the NYC Metro Area, and we seldom get more than 50 folks to come out—we’re extremely appreciative of those that took part in any IPC activities.
Which leads us to the crux of the matter.
On July 16, 2007, Professor Carlos Aizenman, of Brown’s Neuroscience Department, applied for an NSF grant. Dr. Aizenman's grant has a HUGE community outreach component, and this is where IPC-NY helped. Because of our success in sending inner-city youth to Brown's pre-college summer programs, these past two years, Dr. Aizenman was inspired to apply for the grant. If funded, it will teach 2 inner-city high school students the field of Neuroscience over the course of 5 weeks in the summer. The program will run for 5 years.
In the first year, students will be selected from the Trenton, NJ public schools. Since we've been so successful with our Marie Moses and Onyx grants in Trenton, we've gotten total buy-in from Rodney Lofton, Trenton's Superintendent of Public Schools, and his input was an important part of Dr. Aizenman's grant proposal.
Some of us may read this and say, so what. Why is this a big deal?
Good question, and the answer is a simple one. We all are aware of the dearth of educational and economic opportunities in our inner cities. Our work with Dr. Aizenmen represents a model that can be replicated with different Professors, different fields of study and different Black communities throughout the country.
The encouraging part is, this relationship has been forged with about five percent Black Alumni participation. Imagine if even 10 or 20 percent of Black Alums throughout the country put their heads together to create more University/Community partnerships? At a minimum we could bring significant educational opportunities to many of our young people nationally, at a maximum, the sky is the limit.
So what do we need now? Two things really.
1) Please send out good thoughts, prayers and vibrations, so that Dr. Aizenman's grant is funded. We'll find out sometime in early January whether the grant will be funded.
2) Look at getting involved with IPC and the Ethel Tremaine Robinson Foundation, Inc. Your input is needed. It’s not simply a way of reconnecting with the University and old friends, but it’s a way of leveraging your relationship with the University to bring resources and opportunities to our communities and ourselves. And, it's a lot of fun and not as time-consuming as it sounds. The more the merrier.
Stay tuned...
Welcome to the Boldly Black page. These are challenging times for our people and wherever possible, we'd like Brown University to be a resource to and a beneficiary of our individual and collective efforts in the strengthening and empowering of our community.
Great Things On The Horizon