During the month of March, the BNI Global Support Team collaborated with the BNI Foundation to activate a Business Voices™ initiative by adopting a local North Carolina school.
On February 1, Good Morning America featured a segment about a 5th grade English teacher, Barry White, Jr, at Ashley Park School in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After reading about this incredible teacher and the high needs of this school, Stephanie Starr, BNI Executive Director, and Meghan Polovick, Global Training Operations Manager, met with Mrs. Cheryl Laster, Vice Principal of Ashley Park School, to inquire how BNI and the BNI Foundation could help her school. Mrs. Laster provided a list of needs.
Ashley Park is a Title I, PreK-8 School serving approximately 600 children from a low-income part of Charlotte. As of 2016, the percent of students at this school who pass the North Carolina End of Grade Tests across all subjects is significantly lower than average for North Carolina: Ashley Park (37.1%) and North Carolina average (62.3%). Parent participation and Resources are low and the school is working very hard on improvements.
After presenting this to Graham Weihmiller, BNI CEO, he enthusiastically agreed that the GST should adopt this school as a Business Voices Initiative and approved supporting their needs.
Do you have what it takes to start a Business Voices Initiative? Let the BNI Foundation assist you in your community! Please invest in our future leaders by helping us to Bridge the Gap in Children’s Education.
Reach out to Stephanie at stephanie@bnifoundation.org for more information.
