to improve public schools
Two 2005 Yale graduates, Aaron Tang and Ethan Hutt, were cited as leading "Emerging Social Entrepreneurs" and received a $90,000 grant from the global non-profit organization Echoing Green to continue the work they began as undergraduates to improve the nation's public schools.
Responding to entrenched, endemic inequities within the U.S. school system and discouraging trends in the national high school drop out rate, Tang and Hutt began to develop ideas for reform early in their freshman year. Both products of public school education with experience in tutoring and student advocacy, the two came to believe that only the active participation of students themselves would effect meaningful change in their schools. In the spring of 2003, along with two of their classmates, Tang and Hutt founded Our Education, a student-driven advocacy organization.
In applying for the Echoing Green grant, the Yale seniors outlined their goals: "Our Education plans to launch a national petition campaign in support of a federal constitutional amendment to guarantee all children the right to a quality education; host a first-ever national student conference to pass a Students' Bill of Rights; develop a youth forum for national discussion on education reform; and foster local action where high school students will work to improve their own schools and districts."
Our Education was one of 10 organizations to receive the 2005 Echoing Green Fellowship from 700 applicants in 28 countries.
Founded in 1987, Echoing Green identifies, funds and supports the world's most exceptional emerging social leaders and the organizations they launch. Through a two-year fellowship program, Echoing Green helps these leaders develop new solutions to society's most difficult problems in diverse fields including education, healthcare, housing, civil and human rights, the environment, economic development and the arts. With the support of co-founder General Atlantic LLC (GA), a private equity firm, foundations and individual donors, Echoing Green has invested over $22 million in start-up funding to nearly 400 social change entrepreneurs.
Yale graduates Benita Singh '04 and Ruth DeGolia '04 previously won Echoing Green fellowships for Mercado Global, their innovative program to help women in developing countries.
T H I S
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale launches program to train urban teachers
New alumni fellow elected
Sensors won't save lives from suicide bombers, warns Yale expert
Study: Monkeys ape humans' economic traits
Richard Shaw departs for Stanford post
Tennis goes co-ed at this year's Pilot Pen
Yale co-sponsors 'City of Summer' concerts and films
Exhibit features post-Civil War works by 'artful storyteller'
Yale alumni, teachers win Tony Awards
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Philosopher Keith DeRose: Allison Foundation Chair
Phyllis Granoff: Hixon Chair in World Religions
Thomas Kavanagh: Street Professor of French
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: Crown Chair in ManagementLaw School project exploring the information society . . .
Poll shows public's distaste with foreign oil dependence
Scientists discover how plants protect themselves from infection
Team seeking 'perfume' to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes
Geologists use ancient sea algae to trace CO2 levels of long ago
Study shows how sex discrimination in job hiring is able to endure
YSN study shows effectiveness of preschool health screenings
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWSTeam to develop new system for testing potential vaccines
Senior citizens' television-watching habits affect their views . . .
Grant funds study of intestinal condition common in tiny babies
Yale center joins with Bike Across America to raise funds . . .
Alzheimer's disease patients sought for testing . . .
Scientists' discovery of protein amplification in melanoma . . .
Discovery of breast cancer growth regulator may help . . .
Patients disfigured by facial trauma suffer host of problems
Study shows how sex discrimination in job hiring is able to endure
New studies aim to benefit women's health
Study links an inherited pain disorder to specific gene mutation
Spotlight on Sports
Athletics archive now in library's collection
Three promoted to post of associate provost
Event to explore role of faith in the corporate world
In Memoriam: Dick Wittink, marketing expert and SOM teacher
Five faculty members awarded Guggenheim Fellowships for research
Event explored how libraries can benefit city schools
New alumni lauded for efforts to improve public schools
Yale Books in Brief
Campus Notes
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