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W.K.Kellogg Foundation Provides $360,000 Grant to Vincent Smith School for High School Scholarships
(Port Washington, New York) The Vincent Smith School has begun to implement a pilot program entitled, Operation Outreach, whereby it will provide four-year scholarships to four disadvantaged high school students in need of special education services.
The project is being funded by a $360,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan, from April 2009 until December 2011.
VSS will conduct the program utilizing community alliances with the Hempstead School District and Our Lady of Fatima Parish Community in Manorhaven to help identify minority students in need of special education services. Once identified, students must meet the school's admissions requirements.
Vincent Smith School is Long Island's premier school that addresses the needs of learning disabled students and reluctant learners in grades 4-12. The school serves students with a wide range of learning disabilities such as speech and language impairment, attention issues, executive functioning, and academic delays. Vincent Smith School staff is constantly, as part of its social responsibility, looking for support to include children in its school who otherwise would be unable to attend due to lack of financial ability.
The grant will allow us to accomplish many of our current goals by recruiting more minority students to attend VSS and allow us to service their individual needs and create a more culturally diverse student population.
Additionally, the grant allows the school to decrease the vulnerability of disadvantaged children by providing an environment where they are not labeled by their learning disability. The program will help form additional alliances with the surrounding community; expose more students to self-advocacy and mentoring; and increase VSS brand awareness in the private school market. Each year, VSS opens its doors to a few disadvantaged students but cannot do more without financial assistance to support additional children. It is extremely expensive to secure the resources needed to educate and service a special needs student population.
Vincent Smith School provides its students with extensive related services to meet their educational needs. Its resource staff provides occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language pathology, visual training, and counseling as driven by its students' IEPs. Some VSS students require assistive technology devices such as ear pieces, laptops, magnifiers, etc.
VSS has a history of educational excellence dating back to 1924. It offers students differentiated instruction in small supportive classes, which allows them to experience academic success, emotional growth and social acceptance. Approximately 85% of its graduates go on to college.
Many parents don't know that their children are not doomed by their diagnosis, said Head of School Arlene Wishnew. At Vincent Smith School they can employ their strengths and assets to become all they are capable of being. Many of our children were not exposed to such an environment prior to coming to VSS. The level of support we provide to our students is incomparable. With the help of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation we can become the X-factor to save more of these children.
VSS is chartered by the New York State Board of Regents as an independent, non-profit institution and is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools. The Vincent Smith School is open to all without regard to race, creed, or national origin. Its school family takes great pride in being a place where it's okay to learn differently.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930. The organization supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
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