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On behalf of the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, we would like to thank the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation for the very generous support we have received for the past two years. Our original grant award in 2011 allowed us to launch our first ever scholarship program, the Steiner Scholarship, that was created to allow students from a minority background to attend our school. The subsequent grant we received has helped us to grow and sustain our scholarship. As we gathered together at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year, it was truly wonderful and gratifying to look around and see that the diversity of our student body is growing each year! <br/><br/>The Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs is a nonprofit Preschool through Twelfth grade school that blends arts and academics to create a rich learning environment for each student. We hold the belief that in order to fully educate each child, we must nurture the whole child. Academics are carefully interwoven with the arts to build a curriculum that guides students not only in their academic journey but which also challenges them to achieve their highest potential as human beings. In today’s complicated world, Waldorf education serves many children well and prepares them for lives of individual initiative and service.<br/><br/>Last year, in my grant application, I shared the story of our newest Steiner Scholarship recipient, Sakeenah. Sadly, Sakeenah’s life took an unexpected and frightening turn in May of 2012 when she was diagnosed with leukemia. Throughout the summer, she underwent chemotherapy while other children played and swam and vacationed. Sakeenah sat at home too sick to go out in the heat and unable to swim because of her intravenous access port for chemotherapy. Sakeenah’s single father and brother have lovingly cared for her during these many months and each time I spoke with her dad during the summer, he would tell me that the only thing Sakeenah cared about was being well enough to start school at the beginning of the year. I am so pleased to tell you that she was present on the first day!<br/><br/>This scholarship has changed Sakeenah’s life in so many ways. It has given her family a community to love and support them during this frightening ordeal. Despite leukemia, Sakeenah went from being a struggling student to a successful, achieving one. She greets me each morning with a smile and an eagerness that always makes me smile too. Sakeenah will do great things in this world one day! <br/><br/>It is our utmost and sincere wish to sustain and nurture our current Steiner Scholarship students. In addition, we have a strong and continued interest in increasing cultural diversity in our school. We have actively sought out the wider community by sending the Steiner Scholarship application to all local elementary school guidance counselors, providing flyers to many local community centers, personally reaching out to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, YMCA, Big Brothers and Sisters programs and by inviting educators and families to parent education events. We feel strongly that we can provide a rich and unique curriculum to those children who would not ordinarily be able to receive a Waldorf education.<br/><br/>More than $38,000 is required annually to support the students currently receiving scholarships and that cost will continue to increase each year. As these students approach high school, I can imagine nothing better than the opportunity to expand the Steiner Scholarship to allow them to continue to attend the Waldorf School while actively seeking new recipients annually. The families who receive this scholarship have demonstrated a true economic need and the reality is that none of these students could be here without the generosity of others. <br/><br/>We are asking the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation for $25,000 to sustain and expand our minority scholarship program. The Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs is self-supporting through our own tuition revenue and fundraising. Our own fundraising efforts are ongoing and essential in order to maintain our existing school programs and pay our wonderful teachers who work for very little compensation. We would be unable to sustain or expand our scholarship program without the continued generous assistance from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation.<br/><br/>Respectfully submitted with gratitude for your consideration,<br/><br/>Anne Maguire<br/>Enrollment Director<br/>The Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs<br/> |
