Skip to main content

Commitment to Education in Ethiopia


Each year since our 60th anniversary in 2011, Saint David's eighth graders and teacher Tom Ryan have led school-wide fundraisers in support of the Kalina School, a primary school which we built through our partnership with Save the Children, in Tigray, Ethiopia. When Saint David's Kalina School opened in 2013, it welcomed boys and girls in Grades One through Four.  By 2018, it had expanded to include Grades Pre-K through Eight, making it a full scale, fully funded elementary school.


Saint David's boys remain committed to education in Ethiopia. Recently, Aaron Fossi of Save the Children visited with our seventh and eighth graders during Chapel to kick off this year's project: the construction of a two-room block addition to a new school in Ala'sa. When completed, it will serve 188 boys and girls in Grades Five and Six. The Class of 2019 is organizing and planning a host of school-wide spring activities, from walk-a-thons, to shows, to ice cream sales and pay-to-play matches to fund the project.


The boys are excited about working to make a difference in the lives of boys and girls in Ethiopia. Our work in Ethiopia and through the Horizons at Saint David's summer program closer to home, provides our boys and alumni with the opportunity to help children beyond 89th Street realize their potential through education.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Fascinating Art Talk by Michelle Marder Kamhi at Grandparents Event

Yesterday evening, independent scholar and critic Michelle Marder Kamhi ( www.mmkamhi.com ), co-editor with husband Louis Torres of Aristos , an online review of arts; author of Who Says That's Art? A Commonsense View of the Visual Arts ; and grandmother of two Saint David's boys, gave a thought provoking talk on art for our grandparent community. An advocate of objective standards in arts scholarship and criticism, Ms. Kamhi focused her talk on the ways in which art critics such as Clement Greenberg promoted the shift from representational art to abstraction. Kamhi argues that the abstract and post-modern art prevalent today, which often requires explanation by docents in order to be understood, goes against art's purpose. Taking issue with Greenberg's contention that representation is an expendable convention of painting, she quoted the late art critic John Canaday: "Art is the tangible expression of the intangible values that men live by." ...

NE Patriot Tom Brady at Saint David’s

Last night, Saint David’s was honored to have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, four time Superbowl champion and three-time MVP winner Tom Brady, as the guest speaker for our Alumni Parents Council Lecture Series. Tom, who is the father of one of our Saint David's boys, addressed a standing-room-only audience in Hyman Hall comprised of our eighth graders, alumni, alumni parents and faculty. Friendly, introspective, witty, and wise, he directed his talk to the delighted eighth graders in the front of the room, and focused on the topic of leadership. “You are the young men and leaders of Saint David’s,” he noted. Tom debunked the perception that leaders are born not made, and credited his leadership abilities to “standing up to and facing fears” and to “cultivating a mental strength,” which he cited as “more important than being physically strong.” He also stressed the importance of working hard, honoring teamwork, believing in oneself and being a good lis...