Strategery

I am scheming.

Next fall, I want to take about a dozen of my students to New York. I already have the itinerary, I have activities lined up, I pretty much know which students will be going. They will take a semester-long electives class where they will learn Art History/Appreciation and also do some fundraising to get the money to go.

That's the dilemma I'm at right now. Most of these students come from disadvantaged families and have few resources.

That's where you all will come in. In a few months, I will be asking--begging, the Universe to find a way that all these students can go. One student in particular (let's call her Maria) moved to the States less than a year ago without a single word of English in her vernacular but has managed to maintain Valedictorian status at our school - the result of incredibly hard work and a brilliant mind. She's shy, always polite. She gives me 1/2 her orange in the mornings. She keeps the sticky note messages I write her and puts them on her binder. But I also know she's incredibly poor. Her family wouldn't be able to give much money toward her trip. So we need to find the money somewhere else.

I'm not asking for any money now, but I want you to think about how amazing a trip to the Met or the Museum of Natural History or a tour of NBC or a few hours on Ellis Island would be for her.