Join the Family!

Greetings to family, friends, former students, and future Foundation members.

I have taught in Harlem and the South Bronx for 34 of my 36 years in the classroom.

During my career, there have been two constants in my day-to-day life as a teacher:

1. Amazing young people who show up every day with intelligence, energy, optimism, and grit; they have changed my life.

2. Yet, these same young people endure a deplorable lack of resources in all aspects of their lives: impoverished families, impoverished communities, and unbelievably underfunded schools, both private and public.

I have been teaching at the Frederick Douglass Academy in central Harlem since 1999. Simply put, this is a school situated in an economically depressed area that educates young people who have to navigate sociological and familial issues that would have overwhelmed any of us at their age. We consistently have had a core of amazingly dedicated teachers and students who come in every day to fight the fight. However, we can only do so much with our limited resources.

This is why I launched a 501(C)3: The Uptown Educational Foundation Inc. And, something amazing has happened and is happening.  

I began receiving donations!

Over the years, I have relayed to many of you case after case of young men and women who have achieved academic excellence despite incredible barriers and educational and economic inequity. These stories are always also a bit bittersweet: what else could have been done for them? And what about those young people who simply were not able to enter the game at all because of systemic disadvantages?  Through the UEF, our goal is to reach more of these kids. With your support, every dollar will go directly to the kids and we can:

1. Give students access to Foundation-sponsored Kaplan SAT prep class.

2. Pay for application fees, SAT test fees, etc. – when vouchers can’t be secured

3. Give students access to Chrome books – Most of our kids cannot afford laptops –  despite the reality that the entire college application process, not to mention most of their academic lives exist online.

4. Give students access to updated textbooks, literature, review books

5. Help teachers build out classroom libraries

6. Underwrite college visits – which few of their families can afford

7. Provides subsidies to our kids enter their freshmen year in college to offset all the hidden costs that even full financial aid packages do not cover

8. Provide emergency financial support; a few hundred dollars can make the difference between a difficult situation and a catastrophe.

9. Allow teachers to buy basic teaching supplies: paper, printers pens, and pencils

10. Support teachers in similar positions: I have two former students who are teaching in the Bronx and have just received Foundation grants for Classroom Libraries and Chromebooks.

11. Feed students after school and on Saturdays.

With these resources, The Uptown Educational Foundation Inc. will assist a cohort of committed teachers and students.

The UEF has no salaried employees. All funds will go directly to benefit the kids, and we’ll provide transparent disclosure of how your contributions are being spent and helping our kids! For now, if you can support us, please send a check or contribute using Stripe on this site.

• $300 buys two Chrome books

• $500 pays for two students to take an SAT Prep Class

• $1000 can help two incoming college freshmen with basic necessities for their classes and dorm room.

• $50 will help to feed 25 kids during an AP or SAT review session

We have already funded our first project, which will see 25 Juniors taking a Kaplan Review class this spring - and we are looking to expand. You know the difference 150 - 200 points on the SAT can have on a college application.

Just recently I gave my AP classes their copies of Frankenstein, purchased through The Uptown Educational Foundation Inc. I also bought them 5 X 7 index cards as well for an upcoming project, and it felt amazing.

Thanks so much for reading.

And, please hit that Donate Button!!!

Peace