Fremont, CA, September 20, 2010 – As a result of a $200,000 grant from the East Bay Community Foundation, a state-of-the-art computer lab and classroom for the Deaf Studies Division at Ohlone College officially opened its doors today.
Ohlone operates one of the largest and most highly respected Deaf Studies programs of any community college in the US, with almost 200 Deaf students and an additional 600 American Sign Language (ASL) students.
Only half of Minnesota's students are prepared to learn when they enter kindergarten, and children from low-income and communities of color fare worse. It's true: by age 3, the average child in a high-income household knows more than twice as many words as a child in a low-income household. Children who receive good care and quality early education are more likely to enter kindergarten ready to learn and dramatically do better for the rest of their lives.
In December of 2009, the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) at Grand Valley State University was awarded $75,000 for its FastTrac NewVenture Program, a 10-week training course for potential entrepreneurs. Dante Villarreal, Regional Director at the MI-SBTDC, had exciting results to report after FastTrac's last session under the Community Foundation grant.
Nat Turner arrived in the Lower 9th Ward from New York with $12 and a vision. His dream was to start an alternative high school in the still ravished Blair Grocery building. Now, thanks to a small but dedicated staff and hundreds of volunteers, school is in session.
Our School at Blair Grocery operates an urban organic micro-farm on its half-acre plot, growing vegetables and fruit trees and raising chickens. A truck bought with funds from the Greater New Orleans Foundation allows them to compost vegetable waste from Whole Foods, making high-quality soil they can sell.
