Education

How to Get a 7th Grader to Write… in the Summer

April 1, 2013 Seventh grade. Essays. Summer school.  Any middle school kid might consider these to be various forms of short-term punishment. But for over 500 New Jersey middle school students, essays are no longer the stuff of ruined weekends and vengeful English teachers.…

Preserving a Legacy Through Education

March 18, 2013 Creating a family foundation has long been a popular and effective way for families to give back to the communities in which they live.  For Joseph and Elsie Beck, who for several decades lived down the road from Seton Hall University in South Orange, it was a natural extension of their support for the university and its students. …

New Turf Field for Morristown High School

February 5, 2013 Morristown High School has a rich tradition of excellence. The school was founded in 1869 and it played its first football game in 1901. The Poet Joyce Kilmer taught at the school in the early 1900’s, Gene Shalit attended in the 1940’s and Craig Newmark, founder of Craig’s List, graduated from the school in 1971.…

Education for Afghan Girls

In 2008, several local leaders became aware of the need to assist young Afghan women who have been denied an education in their own country with receiving a college education in the United States. These leaders came to CFNJ to establish a fund to help young women achieve their dreams of attending high school or college in the US.…

Fundholders’ Family Gives Back to the Community

John and Helen Durante established their fund to create opportunities for others to follow their dreams. Their daughter, Barbara Van Slooten, noted that her parents believed in giving back to the community. The son of Italian immigrants, John started a home building business when he returned home from World War II in 1946, and he became a successful builder in Bergen County.…

Fundholder Helps Students Find the Words to Succeed

Memorial High School in West New York has changed a lot since Jim Lynch graduated in 1948. But that hasn’t stopped him from giving back to his alma mater — and making a difference in the lives of its students. As chairman of the Community Foundation Scholarship Committee, Lynch has reviewed many scholarship applications from students at inner-city schools.…

Alternatives to Traditional Scholarships

The ways to support education are as dynamic as learning itself. The scholarships provided by the Community Foundation provide a good illustration of how donors can be creative in changing the lives of young people. The Community Foundation supplements its traditional scholarships by supporting alternative scholarships that encourage learning on many different levels.…

Education Makes a “Fearless Woman”

April 25, 2012 In 2008, when two local businessmen created the “Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund” (AGFAF) at the Community Foundation of New Jersey (CFNJ), they thought they might change the life of the first young woman selected to attend college in the United States.…

From Little Seeds Grow Mighty Oaks

Bright students with high potential who attend inner-city schools can sometimes be lost in a system unable to accommodate their aspirations. The result is trapped potential and blocked opportunities. Through an intensive, fourteen month program, New Jersey SEEDS unlocks that potential and opens the doors of opportunity to independent secondary schools by preparing them to thrive in their new environment.…

Bestfoods Educational Foundation: Making a Difference

Bestfoods always valued education. Based in Englewood Cliffs since 1968, it made corporate contributions to educational institutions in New Jersey, and Bestfoods Educational Foundation (BEF) paid toward the continuing education of its employees and the college educations of their children. In 2001, when Bestfoods was acquired by Unilever, BEF came into considerably more money — and decided to shift its focus, to support only non-profit educational causes.…