'I will donate $50.00'

Pledge “collegebound”

"I will donate $50.00 but only if 10 wonderful people who believe in social justice will do the same."

— Dena Simmons, Middle School Teacher in the Bronx (contact)

Deadline to sign up by: 1^st February 2008
5 people signed up, 5 more were needed

Country: United States
Place: 10456 (view map)

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I often think back to the life I have and the life I could have had if I did not have the privilege of attending both Westover School, a boarding school in CT, and Middlebury College. I constantly thank my dear mother, who, despite being a single mother and an immigrant of color in the Bronx, went against the grain and struggled just so that my sisters and I could have a better life through educational opportunities.

Unfortunately, most of my seventh grade students are not so lucky to have a mother like my mother who was equipped and resourceful and involved enough to help her children leave the ghetto. I have the honor of teaching 29 amazing seventh graders in an Empowerment School in the South Bronx, more particularly, in one of the poorest congressional districts in the USA.

The work I do each day as a teacher is the work of a soldier. I am fighting against social injustice. I am fighting against a flawed educational system that does not adequately educate the have-nots. I am fighting against the hopelessness that people who have constantly been failed, lied to, spit upon, looked down upon, and exploited have. I am fighting against urban plight. I am fighting against the culture of violence that surrounds many neighborhoods in the inner-city. I am fighting against the gangs that run my school. I am fighting against low expectations some students have for themselves and the low expectations that some teachers have for inner-city, brown students. I am at war, and together, we are an army.

Last year, for the holidays, with the help of friends and family, I bought my students school uniforms that said "College Student" in the front and "Class of 2017" on the back, the year they WILL graduate from college. You should see them walking around the school building proud about the promise that shirt holds for them. This holiday season, I want to raise money to take my students on a trip to my alma mater, Middlebury College. I want my students to see college, to see beyond their city blocks. My aim this year is to show my students the possibilities, the meaning of being a college student.

To work towards my aim, I took my students to Columbia University two weeks ago, and they had a lovely, lovely time, but as a biased Middlebury alum, my students have not seen anything yet if they have not seen Middlebury College. On a serious note, I am asking for you to donate towards the transportation cost of a coach bus to Vermont from the Bronx. The coach bus will cost 2,500 dollars.

I am raising money for a life-changing experience. All of us as a collective unit could make a difference in the lives of young people who have been voiceless and invisible for too long.

Learn more about what my class and I do on a daily basis at: http://class725.blogspot.com

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