A partnership between Alexander School, Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church, Campau Park School, New Hope Baptist Church and Calvin College has earned a $63,000 grant (over the next two years) from Worldcom and Brown University.
The renewable grant is one of just 20 given nationwide. Over 160 organizations applied for the funds. 
The Grand Rapids project aims to improve student literacy with Internet-based teaching and tutoring. The project is an extension of Pathways to Possibilities, a collaborative venture between Calvin College and urban churches which aims to keep young people on the educational pathway all of the way to college entry. Rhae Ann Booker (above) is director of pre-college programs at Calvin and heads up Possibilities. 
As such, this project involves two of these churches, New Hope and Neland, and each has, in turned, extended the partnership to the elementary school in their neighborhood. 
For New Hope and Campau Park School, the plan is to develop an extensive collection of Internet-based curriculum materials and then pair members of New Hope and Calvin students with local elementary students in after-school technology mentoring relationships. Students will visit Web sites that encourage them to perform integrative tasks in ways that contribute to the construction of their own Web sites. In particular, African American cultural sites on the World Wide Web will be the focus for reading and writing projects. 
For Alexander and Neland, Neland members will work with Alexander teachers and Calvin College Education Professor Dr. Arden Post to develop internet-based curriculum materials. Dr. Post's college courses will be held at Alexander School, so her college students can immediately move from theory to practice as they use the internet materials with 1st through 3rd graders. 
All of the 20 programs nationwide link public schools or community organizations with local colleges or universities to develop educational technology projects for youth in underserved areas. 
Thousands of students in grades K-12, will benefit from grants awarded through the Making a Civic Investment program. That $5-million program, funded by WorldCom and administered by Campus Compact at Brown, goes beyond funding for computer hardware and software. 
"This effort brings together community groups, the private sector, higher education, and schools to help build stronger, more vibrant communities," said Jonathan B. Sallet, WorldCom chief policy counsel. "Our purpose is to improve learning through technology, not just through the provision of hardware and software, but by teaching students to use technology to learn and thrive in the today's technology-rich environment." 
Leaders of the 20 programs qualify for annual professional development programs at Brown. WorldCom and its UUNET subsidiary will ensure that each project has high-speed Internet service, MMDS, for the term of the grant. 
Although the size of individual projects varies, most grants will total more than $200,000 over five years. More than 160 community-based programs applied for grants. 
"The projects we are funding were developed by partnerships between community organizations and local colleges and universities," said Elizabeth Hollander, executive director of Campus Compact. 
"As a national coalition of nearly 700 college and university presidents committed to improving America's communities, we are enthusiastic about this program because it will help communities raise a generation of students who can not only use technology, but can use it to improve their own neighborhoods." 
See http://www.compact.org/