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02.25.10
Common Cents receives grant from State Farm Youth Advisory Board
On Monday, February 22nd, State Farm’s Youth Advisory Board presented $64,064 to Common Cents in support of the Penny Harvest Program. The check presentation ceremony took place at State Farm’s New York City Office.
01.29.10
Penny Harvesters are already responding to the crisis in Haiti
Since the earthquake in Haiti two weeks ago, Common Cents has been flooded with phone calls and e-mails from concerned Penny Harvest coaches wondering how their schools can help the recovery efforts in Haiti. As Penny Harvest schools enter the second phase of the program, students have begun forming Philanthropy Roundtables at their schools. The Roundtables are a distinctive feature of the Penny Harvest which give children the power and the freedom to decide how to spend their harvest funds. A key issue for our students in the coming weeks will be exploring different ways to take action and help the people in Haiti.
01.24.10
Penny Harvest Coaches gear up for Roundtable Season
Last December, Claire Streit, a Penny Harvest Coach at PS 85 in The Bronx, visited a food pantry with a group of her students. The particular group of students she brought to the pantry for a service project were notoriously difficult and had a reputation for being trouble rousers in the classroom. However, the moment they entered the pantry, Claire began to see a transformation in each of her kids. The students witnessed firsthand the need within their own community, and the dignity that the staff treated clients with as they served them hot meals. “They were being empowered to help, to do something real,” Claire said. “I just sat in the back of the room and cried, I could see my kids growing up in front me.”
01.20.10
Panel of experts tackle dropout crisis in discussion
Every 26 seconds a child quits high school. This is the dropout epidemic, and it plagues 1.2 million students a year. So far, tactics to improve graduation rates have been rather, it seems, ineffective. The graduation rate of 2007, according to some studies, is largely similar to the rate from thirty years earlier. But the world has changed since 1977. A high school diploma is no longer enough to guarantee a job, and the doors to upward mobility are slamming shut. In a panel discussion last Thursday at Philanthropy New York titled “Opening a Second Front Against the Dropout Epidemic,” experts spoke about a new tool to engage students and combat apathy— service-learning.
01.14.10
Former board chair John Hobbs dies
John Hobbs, a former board chairman of Common Cents died Jan. 3 of natural causes at his home in Charlemont, Mass. He was 73. He is survived by two daughters and a son.
John was an acutely intellectual man, with an untiring interest in creatively analyzing difficult problems – particularly the problems of human development, and of institutional development; and even more so, the problem of how the two interact. He was also an exceptionally kind and modest person.
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FEATURED VIDEO!
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100% of teachers surveyed this year agreed that participation in the Penny Harvest increases students’ self-worth as well as increasing students’ empathy for the needs of others.
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About Us
I enjoyed being a part of the Penny Harvest during my fourth grade school year at Roessleville. What I enjoyed most was being able to help groups in the community, such as The Ronald McDonald House, the animal shelter and the Juvenile Diabetes Association.
