Scholarship America's Blog

Dr. Irving Fradkin founded the organization that would become Scholarship America in 1958, in Fall River, MA. Today, he's just as dedicated to our work as ever. Just last month, Dr. Fradkin joined chapter and student representatives of the Dollars for Scholars chapter in Fall River to do some time-honored grassroots fundraising.



That's Dr. Fradkin with chapter representative Delores Mello and a young donor; below, student fundraisers help ensure community support for their future education.



The dedication of the Fall River community to Dollars for Scholars is second-to-none, from our founder to our current volunteers to the city's student population. We applaud not only these volunteers, but all of our Dollars for Scholars volunteers across the country. Check out more photos on Scholarship America's Flickr page!

“Volunteering for a cause [could be] in everyone’s life. Fit it in somehow and make sure it gets in there … there’s always something you can do."
–Lisa Fox, Gananda Dollars for Scholars

For Lisa Fox, volunteering isn't a pastime: it’s a way of life. She first came to appreciate volunteering when she moved to Gananda in upstate New York and married into a family that, in her words, “are so involved in … the community that volunteering could be their middle name.” With this influence, Lisa too was bitten by the volunteer bug, and she works daily to give back to the community.

Lisa first got involved with Dollars for Scholars when the Guidance Director at Gananda's high school approached her and a few other local parents in 1991 about starting a chapter. The parents were sold on the idea, and the benefits that come with having a community scholarship fund for local students, and immediately got to work. In their first year, the small group organized a phone-a-thon and distributed $3,000 in scholarships ($160 to each recipient). Last year, the phone-a-thon alone raised over $6,000; combined with the chapter's other fundraising, Gananda Dollars for Scholars was able to give out over $900 per student. And while Lisa acknowledges that $900 doesn’t cover tuition, the chapter allows students a unique way to make the most of their award – not only can recipients use their funds on books (an expense that can certainly add up), but they can spread out their scholarship to cover as many semesters of books as possible, as long as they prove continued enrollment.

Earning this unique and beneficial scholarship takes a great deal of effort on a number of fronts. In addition to demonstrating outstanding achievement in the classroom and through activities, students are also required to perform five hours of community service for each year of high school, with a quarter of that time spent volunteering for Gananda Dollars for Scholars (stuffing envelopes, working on their pumpkin carry fundraiser, calling for the phone-a-thon, etc.) It’s a win-win for the chapter and the students: the chapter gets help in organizing and running fundraisers, and students learn how much work it takes to create these incredible scholarship opportunities, hopefully inspiring more of them to give back later in life.



Pictured above are the 2009 recipients of Gananda's "Foundations of the Future" scholarship. The award was presented by the husband and daughter of chapter founder Sue Alexander, who passed away in 2007.

Lisa is incredibly proud of the progress her volunteer-driven chapter has made toward becoming a staple in the community over the past 18 years. Raising scholarship money for students has been incredibly rewarding, encouraging students to attend college and giving them an added vote of confidence to succeed in school. But such progress has not been without a lot of effort. Finding the time to balance chapter duties and life is always a challenge, and because the community is largely residential, soliciting sponsorships and funds from businesses has been limited. Instead, the chapter has solicited scholarships, sponsored by individuals and organizations, that reward achievement in different areas of high school activities. It may be extra work, but in Lisa's words, “You make the effort for activities you’re passionate about. Life has many distractions but if you can focus your attention, even 15 minutes a week, on something worthwhile for students, it can make a huge difference.”

The persistence and optimism of Lisa and her fellow volunteers have definitely paid off. Gananda Dollars for Scholars administers several endowment funds for scholarships that have grown to $120,000, and just last year, the chapter received a matching grant of $20,000 for its endowments. Both have greatly enhanced the number and size of scholarships Gananda can offer students, and all it took was a little remodeling and a few tweaks of their chapter practices to have such fantastic success. (Dollars for Scholars volunteers – head over to the Chapter Portal to discuss Chapter Remodeling with Lisa in this month's 24/7 Roundtable!)

Once community members understand the importance and impact of a Dollars for Scholars chapter in their community, it's also easier to convince them to spend some time volunteering as well. And Lisa makes this point to community members every chance she gets. (She even has tips for some fabulous opening remarks when recruiting new volunteers; current volunteers can check them out in this month's inTouch newsletter!) It’s all about getting people hooked on the concept of Dollars for Scholars and pointing out how their time makes a clear and direct difference to the community.

The tile at left is part of the "Foundations of the Future" wall at Gananda's high school, where permanent tiles are purchased as fundraisers for Dollars for Scholars and placed as honors and memorials. The Class of 2007 purchased this tile in memory of chapter founder Sue Alexander.

In the future, Lisa wants to help ensure that the chapter capitalizes on every chance to apply for grants and matching grant opportunities; after their recent $20,000 matching grant award, who wouldn’t? She is also hoping to build their relationships with high school alumni and Dollars for Scholars scholarship alumni. Through those relationships, the chapter can build more awareness in the community, eventually establishing multi-year scholarship awards: the goal would be to have an alumni scholarship fund for giving second, third and fourth year scholarships.

Of course it will take time for these future goals to come to fruition, but Lisa is optimistic. With the success they have had in the past two years, she’s confident that they can achieve these goals and more, especially if everyone in the community takes her advice and makes volunteering a small but important part of their lives.

Yahoo Finance and Kiplinger.com have put together their annual ranking of the Best Value Public Colleges in America; if you're out there looking for universities that will help you make the most out of your college funds, these are a great place to start. The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill tops the list, and there are public universities in the top ten that will fit plenty of geographic and size requirements.

According to Kiplinger, "Our definition of value begins with academics: No school is a bargain if it skimps on quality. All of the schools in our rankings perform well on measurable criteria, such as student-faculty ratios, academic competitiveness and on-time graduation rates. The schools on our list also deliver an affordable education, our other measure of value, by keeping the sticker price low, offering plenty of financial aid or both. Of the colleges in our rankings, 39 charge about the same or less than the average annual in-state sticker price ($15,213) for four-year public institutions, and many come in well below that amount. Those prices look especially attractive compared with the average cost of a private-school education, which this year hit an average total of $35,636, according to the College Board."

Check out the full top ten list and much more here. The article is a part of Yahoo and Kiplinger's "Financially Fit" series, which is pretty good reading across the board if you're looking to learn a bit more about personal finance. You can find the series homepage here.

Paul Revere earned his living as a silversmith. But what do we remember him for? His volunteer work. All activism is volunteering in that it's done above and beyond earning a living and deals with what people really care passionately about. Remember, no one gets paid to rebel. All revolutions start with volunteers.
-- Susan J. Ellis

Hoover High School in San Diego, California has changed dramatically since John Baker was enrolled. John and his fellow members of the Class of 1952 were uniformly expected to go to college or enter the military, and college was in the realm of affordability for most students.

Today at Hoover, the student body is 98 percent minority, and at least 27 different languages are spoken. And while similar college expectations still exist, it's become much harder for students and families to invest in higher education, with 90 percent of Hoover's students living below the poverty line. These circumstances leave students and parents wondering whether attending college is an achievable reality, or just a lofty dream.

John paid for his education at San Diego State by working while in school; in his own words, "That’s what we did to pay for school: worked.” He went on to graduate school, then served in the military and returned to start his own insurance business. He retired in 1995 after working in insurance for 35 years, and began thinking about how to give back to his community.

John's Hoover classmate, former Chicago Bears player Bill McColl, inspired John to turn his energy toward students. He explained that their alma mater was facing a myriad of problems that affected students' access to higher education, and John jumped at the chance to get involved. He first became a mentor to students; he quickly realized that they were in need of college help, and that his own method of paying for school by working doesn't always work today. The rise in tuition over the last 20 years has been too steep for wages and financial aid to keep pace; at the same time, many states are reducing government aid, and the economic downturn has made student jobs harder to come by.

Seeing firsthand the need for scholarships, John and fellow alum Harry Cook helped start Hoover High School Dollars for Scholars. Like most chapters, they started out with a big goal: helping any and all students who were determined to earn a postsecondary education.

An initial $2,500 gift from the ARCO oil company provided a base, and John and Harry quickly found many alumni eager to donate scholarship funds, volunteer time or both. And thanks to this support, the chapter has awarded over $300,000 to Hoover High School students over the last 15 years, including more than $30,000 in the past year. They haven't been too adversely effected by the economy, either – while some donors are cutting back a bit, John says that any donation still helps, and the chapter is on target to meet or exceed the 21 $1000 scholarship they gave last year.

Currently, the chapter has a full board -- mostly Hoover High School Alumni, ranging from the class of 1943 to the class of 1972 – who are all deeply passionate about ensuring a brighter future for students, the school and the overall community. One of the major keys to their success is the ability of the chapter to partner with the high school's excellent alumni association. The alumni association and Dollars for Scholars work together to cultivate strong relationships between donors and scholarship recipients, which has in turn created a cycle of receiving and giving back.

For example, the chapter requires student scholarship recipients to write thank-you letters to the donor before they receive their scholarship check: no thank you, no check. This simple requirement encourages students to reflect on their scholarships and the opportunities they've been afforded, and it reinforces the generosity required for such scholarships to exist. In addition, it allows them to put a face on their community's support, and encourages them to give back in the future. In fact, John has noticed in recent years that former scholarship recipients are now becoming mentors and teachers at Hoover High School -- one student even runs the local AVID program.

John admits that it's taken a great deal of time and effort to build these relationships between chapter, alumni and recipients, but it's well worth it -- alumni have become the cornerstone of giving and donating to the chapter. As a result, Hoover High School Dollars for Scholars is still going strong after 15 years and hundreds of students helped, and John couldn’t be more proud of what they have been able to accomplish. John and Harry began the program to help students understand and achieve their potential, and it has since grown into a community staple with tangible rewards for dedication and perseverance in the classroom. John has been there since the beginning and wants to see it thrive long after his tenure at the chapter ends.

Hope: the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

Since its inception in 2005, Chicago HOPE Dollars for Scholars has lived up to its name: the chapter provides students hope for a better future, by providing not only 4-year renewable scholarships, but an entire network of support for helping recipients achieve success before, during, and even after college.

This inspired model wasn't born overnight. It took time, effort, and unbelievable passion and dedication from remarkable volunteers to create the kind of success Chicago HOPE Dollars for Scholars has experienced. Two of those exceptional people are Scott Thole and Dan Pierson.

Scott first became involved with Dollars for Scholars when a former mentor began a chapter and asked Scott to help with fundraising. Our mission hit very close to home: Scott’s dad was a first generation college student who faced an uphill battle. “My Dad’s parents never finished high school, and college to them was considered a waste of time,” he says.

Despite this stigma – and despite the fact that he had to work four jobs just to pay for school – Scott's dad earned his degree. Inspired by his story, and seeing Dollars for Scholars as the perfect opportunity to improve access to higher education, Scott found himself going above and beyond his original fundraising task. He eventually felt confident enough to start a chapter of his own, and one of the first colleagues he called in was his close friend Dan Pierson. Like Scott, Dan was impressed by the mission of Dollars for Scholars; having grown up in a household that supported his every educational effort, he jumped at the chance to give back.

Scott says it was easy to start the Chicago HOPE Dollars for Scholars chapter and affiliate with Scholarship America; the real challenge was figuring out a sustainable model and getting buy-in from the community.

To do so, Scott relied on his experience with Dollars for Scholars, coupled with the chapter volunteers' first-hand knowledge of how to succeed in college. They devised three key elements for chapter success: a close-knit chapter board made up of friends who are passionate about the mission; renewable scholarships for which students can reapply throughout their college careers; and a Role Model program where board members can serve as mentors.

This model ensures that students not only get into school, but are able to graduate, prepared for post-college success. In addition, the Chicago HOPE model builds in the student's desire to give back after graduation. Last but not least, it helps the chapter be a more stable organization in the community and reflects the Dollars for Scholars mission by helping students Get Into college, Get Through college, and Give Back to the chapter.

The results for the chapter, which spent two years fundraising and building before awarding its first scholarships in Spring 2008, have been eye-opening, and Scott and Dan are both proud of their success and confident it will continue, toward their goal of a multimillion-dollar endowment. Scott reiterates, “I love that model, and believe that chapter success relies on all parts;" Dan agrees, stating that by helping students get into college and ensuring their success during and after, Chicago HOPE is an invaluable resource to the community's students and businesses alike.

This status gives the chapter an edge when competing for funding and donor support in their community; Dan and Scott help foster that edge with unique marketing and personal relations efforts. Their annual Masquerade Ball, complete with a silent auction and fashion show, has historically raised upwards of $40,000 in scholarships, and they ensure attendees both have fun and remember why they're there. For example, Dan and other chapter volunteers compiled a video for the event, featuring the previous year's scholarship recipients expressing what their awards and their mentors meant to them. The chapter also displays wall-sized thank-you letters from past recipients at the event venue, helping keep the students and their stories front and center.

Since they have been awarding scholarships, Chicago HOPE Dollars for Scholars has also made a point of providing renewable scholarships, in the $3,000 - $4,000 per year range. The only catch? Students must continue to earn these scholarship awards, by maintaining a 3.0 GPA and reapplying each year. These requirements keep students accountable, provide them with more incentives for academic success, and keep them connected to the chapter. Scholarship recipient Lee Ying Wu is just one example – in her second year at MIT, she is planning to start an ACT prep course in the summer for students from Chicago public high schools. (Read her story here.)

Chicago HOPE also keeps students connected through their Role Models mentoring program, which pairs board members with scholarship recipients in order to mentor the students throughout college. The Role Model offers support and advice to their scholarship recipient regarding academics, internships, careers, or even just personal life. The chapter makes sure they're always just a phone call away for students, and the Role Models make an effort to keep in touch, whether it’s going to lunch or baseball games or conversing online or on the phone.

In short, Chicago HOPE Dollars for Scholars is doing outstanding work. And, though Scott and Dan are humble about their roles, their efforts have been noticed. Recently, the pair were honored by Investment News's Invest in Others Foundation as finalists in the foundation's Community Leadership Awards, receiving $2,500 for the chapter.

And, despite the current economic climate, they remain excited about the future. Chicago HOPE hasn’t lost steam in their million-dollar endowment mission. As Dan explains, they have just learned to be more creative and organized in their fundraising approach; by encouraging each board member to look for charitable grants available through their workplaces, they have built further partnerships with a diverse group of companies and supporters.

As both Scott and Dan will tell you, volunteering with Dollars for Scholars means there's never a dull moment. As both role models and board members, they have unique opportunities to build lasting relationships with students. They impact those students' lives before, during and after college, helping them steer a course toward success, and providing hope throughout their community.

Students, friends, families and volunteers came together in October for the 7th Annual Walk for Education in Los Angeles, hosted by California Dollars for Scholars and Collegiate Partner Loyola Marymount University.

The Walk for Education raises money for chapters across California each year; in addition, as California Dollars for Scholars Executive Director Ann Worley points out, it aims to "bring young students on campus and get them dreaming about attending college in the future."

One of those groups of students came from the Drew Silvern Dollars for Scholars Migrant Education Foundation in East Los Angeles. Founder and president Lila Lee Silvern checked in with Scholarship America:

"Some of the heartiest of the students participating in the Los Angeles School District's Saturday Migrant Education Program boarded a bus at 6:30 a.m. for a two-hour ride across the city to Loyola Marymount University. The students and their teachers, John Holloway and Wilda Kier, arrived just in time to register for the [Walk], get their t-shirts, autographed pictures of the Laker Girls, fruit juice and energy bars.

"With water bottles in hand after a warm up with the Laker Girls, they set forth on their 5k walk around the beautiful and scenic LMU campus. Three of the students, who were seniors, were awed by the glimpse of life on a college campus. They were told that they would be eligible to apply for a scholarship given by Drew Silvern Migrant Ed Dollars for Scholars.

"Since 1958, Dollars for Scholars has helped create and support community-based, volunteer-led scholarship groups. California chapters awarded more than $2.4 million in scholarships. A loyal group of supporters of the Drew Silvern Migrant Ed Fund raised enough money last year from a Fiesta and the Walk to award $15,000 in grants to twenty students, one of whom is in his junior year at Loyola Marymount.

"The walkers returned hot and thirsty, but exhilarated from the walk. The morning ended with Pizza and a raffle drawing of Tee shirts representing the many college campuses of California .

"The students boarded the bus with their souvenirs and hopefully the seeds of interest in some day in the near future being able to attend a University like Loyola Marymount."

The Star Achievers Dollars for Scholars chapter also participated in the Walk for Education again this year. This unique chapter was started in 1992 by Ed and Lenora Dugas and Della Ford, after the tragic passings of the Dugas's daughter and Della's husband, who was also their beloved church pastor.

The three of them decided to do something positive out of their grief, and started Star Achievers Dollars for Scholars. Their scholarships go to high-achieving African-American students both from their own church and from surrounding high schools.

Each year, Lenora makes wonderful handcrafted gifts, which the chapter sells at the walk, along with raffle tickets for items donated by the Home Depot where current chapter president Louis Rubins works. Lenora checked in with our California Dollars for Scholars office after the Walk as well:

"We just celebrated our 16th [year] with Dollars for Scholars, and if anyone would have asked me prior to that if I would spend the next decade(s) fundraising to assist the children of others, I would have replied with a resounding 'NO.' Yet, I find myself writing letters and proposals annually.

"Because of people like [our California staff, Ann Worley and Barbara Charnock] who are always just a phone call away to answer questions, you've made it so much easier for us to keep going. The [Walk] s our only real fundraiser. We have a group of church friends who because of knee replacements and body aches, will give instead of coming out to walk. I think, this was our smallest number of actual walkers. Even Della had knee replacement the first of this year.

"However, I still enjoy doing my quilting projects and selling them!"

In addition to proceeds from Lenora's quilting -- she gives half of what she earns to the fund -- the chapter also recently received $15,000 in support from Boeing and SCE. Despite knee replacements and all, Star Achievers, like the rest of the participants in the Walk for Education, is still going strong.

Luverne, Minnesota is a small town – just under 5,000 residents – but it's got a big heart. Luverne Dollars for Scholars has awarded scholarships to more than 1,200 students in the last 26 years, including more than $111,000 to 165 members of Luverne High School's Class of 2009. With a gift this year of nearly $3 million from the estate of a founding member, things are only looking brighter for Luverne and its students. Like every one of our chapters, though, it all started from the ground up.

Specifically, it began in 1983 in the basement of a local bank. A handful of community members, including Gregg Gropel, Don Klosterbuer, Harvey Ordung and Harvey Etrim, came together to discuss a common cause: their ironclad belief that strengthening their community meant investing in education. At first, the chapter had more will than dollars. Gregg, the former secretary of the chapter, recalls that they decided to raise awareness by sending letters to local businesses, only to realize that “We didn’t even have money for postage!”

A bank donation got them their stamps, though, and by the next year the chapter had given two $500 scholarships and garnered an additional $2,000 in perpetual scholarships from the American Legion, Lions Club, Rotary Club and others, but the long hours and tireless work meant chapter morale was suffering. Searching for ideas, chapter president Harvey Etrim suggested writing to the Aaneson family -- former Luverne residents who founded the snack company Old Dutch. Gregg tracked down Curtis, one of the three Aaneson brothers, and convinced him to contribute $5,000.



Gregg Gropel (standing) and Don Klosterbuer address the local press after announcing their $2.9 million bequest from Harvey Ordung. (photo via Worthington Daily Globe)

As Gregg and Don both attest, it couldn't have come at a better time. The donation, which was followed by another a few months later, was just the morale booster volunteers needed to keep their spirits alive. It also catalyzed awareness throughout the community to such a degree that another local resident, Lava Brooks, bequeathed nearly $700,000, elevating its endowment to just under $1 million – a successful chapter by any measure.

Gregg and his fellow volunteers could have sat back and admired their work, but that's not how things are done in Luverne. In fact, Gregg decided to approach Vernon Aaneson of Old Dutch to see if he'd be interested in setting up a company scholarship. Though Vernon felt Old Dutch's reach was too national to do a single-community scholarship, he did make quite a personal donation: two checks totaling $1 million. As Don Klosterbuer jokes even now, “Talk about your all time best fundraisers; we opened up the mail.” And success has only bred more success -- in July 2009, founding member Harvey Ordung left the chapter $2.9 million in his will, building their coffers to $6 million in endowed scholarship funds.

What's the secret to the chapter's success? Is it simply a series of fortunate events? Or is it something more? Don has an idea: “He’s too modest to say, but Gregg Gropel is Luverne Dollars for Scholars. ... We wouldn’t have received our recent $2.9 million endowment, or had half the success we’ve had without Gregg. It’s easy to be the president of the chapter when you have Gregg for the secretary.”

Gregg served in that position from the chapter's founding until this past year, working to cultivate donor relationships, develop a system for distributing scholarships to students, and build a tracking system for multi-year scholarship awards. In addition, in the early 1990s, he started an awareness-raising publication called Alumni News, which goes to all Luverne High School graduates. If features class reunion and alumni events, as well as plenty of information about Dollars for Scholars -- including alumni-funded scholarships and chapter happenings. Thanks in large part to this publication, several Luverne High School alumni classes have established permanent student scholarships.

Gregg also put a premium on donor recognition, both by students receiving scholarships and the community at large. To highlight their generosity, he created the Community Scholarship Awards booklet, containing the names of each year's scholarship recipients as well as the names and a short biography of the donors. This added biography allows students to know who helped provide their scholarship, and affords them the unique opportunity to personally thank their donor either in person or through a letter. (Both Gregg and Don agree that thank-you letters to donors are crucial for any Dollars for Scholars program.)

While Gregg has long served at the forefront of innovation at Luverne Dollars for Scholars, he is now letting others lead. He stepped down as secretary this year, but continues to serve as a chapter advocate and the primary liaison for those interested in setting up scholarship funds.

Over the years, Gregg has donated thousands of hours to the chapter, and he received national recognition when he made the Scholarship America National Honor Roll in 1999. He says he doesn’t know exactly what it is that motivates him to volunteer, but that the community attitude in Luverne is relentlessly positive and focused on “doing the right thing.” This attitude coupled with community loyalty and pride certainly helped get Gregg involved 26 years ago, as it does today. Though he didn't grow up in Luverne, Gregg sees it as his hometown, and Dollars for Scholars has given him and other community residents the opportunity to invest in their hometown's future – an investment with monumental payoffs.

Scholarship America is proud to announce that we've established a partnership with Zinch.com, in support of America's youth. Zinch, whose motto is "You are more than a test score," is a network connecting young people with opportunities. Over 1 million students have created Zinch profiles to be matched with 700 colleges and millions in scholarships; these profiles allow students to showcase themselves, establish their first professional profile, complete with a personal URL for including in applications to schools, scholarships and internships. Colleges and graduate schools turn to Zinch to efficiently recruit students.

Our relationship with Zinch will link Scholarship America's services with Zinch's, to assure that a greater number of students have access to information and services that will help them navigate their way to postsecondary programs. The relationship between the two organizations assures that students have more resources at their fingertips when they are using the tools available on Zinch.com.

“Utilizing our shared resources will result in more robust information available to individual students in one place,” says Mim Schreck, President of Scholarship America. “More information means more opportunities for these students to be successful.”

“Paying for college and navigating financial aid options can be daunting. This collaboration aims to demystify financial aid programs and fundamentally improve access to money for college,” says Anne Dwane, President of Zinch.

Scholarship America is currently piloting the use of Zinch.com with one of its community-based Dollars for Scholars chapters. The goal is to match eligible students who have a profile on Zinch to specific scholarship opportunities available through this Dollars for Scholars chapter.

In addition, Scholarship America has already provided informational articles for Zinch.com’s e-newsletter to high school students, and will contribute articles each month on topics such as Scholarship Application Dos and Don’ts, Why Every Student Should Complete the FAFSA, and How to Select a College that will Treat Your Scholarship Fairly, among others.

We're excited to be partnering with the folks at Zinch.com, and encourage you to check out their site!

Congratulations to Scott Thole and Dan Pierson, who are both financial advisers with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and dedicated volunteers with Chicago HOPE Dollars for Scholars. The pair are finalists for the national Volunteer Team Award presented by the Invest In Others Charitable Foundation. The award competition annually recognizes advisers across the United States for exemplary leadership within their communities.

As award judge and Investment News editor Jim Pavia writes in his announcement of the nominees:

"Although the Bernie Madoffs and R. Allen Stanfords of the world have dominated media attention, the fact is that most financial advisers are good, honest people who put their clients' interests first and in many cases look to give back to their communities. ... These people are truly remarkable individuals. I am not just talking about the finalists; I am speaking of all 400 advisers nominated by their peers or companies."

Being selected to the small group of finalists is a terrific honor for Scott, Dan, and Chicago HOPE Dollars for Scholars, and could be a windfall for the chapter as well: winning charities will receive a $10,000 donation at the Invest In Others awards banquet September 30 in New York City.

On Tuesday, September 8, President Obama will be delivering a national address to America's high school students on the importance of education, challenging them to work hard, set goals and take responsibility for getting the best education they can. We'd encourage you to watch the speech as well, if you can; it will be aired live on C-SPAN, and will also stream live and be archived for later viewing on the White House's streaming video site.

The link above also offers a link to discuss the speech on Facebook; in addition, the Department of Education is offering tools for both teachers and students in conjunction with the President's address and the start of school. Teachers in grades Pre-K - 6 and 7 - 12 can download classroom activities at the Department of Education Web site. And students are encouraged to respond to the President's speech with a video of their own: check out the I Am What I Learn competition homepage. Details will be posted next week, but we can tell you now that students 13 and older who make a video in response to President Obama's challenge will be entered in a nationwide contest to pick a favorite.

If you're reading this, we know you care about educating our nation's youth, and we'd encourage you to watch, discuss and respond on Tuesday.