Member notes philanthropy group's support of mentorship program

(This opinion column by Janie Richardson, of Shreveport, was published in The Times on August 28, 2010. Richardson is a member of the Women's Philanthropy Network.)

Women's Philanthropy Network targets education efforts

It was wonderful to read Melody Brumble's front-page article Aug. 16 on Southwood High School's BioStart Mentorship Program, a rigorous four-year academic program, initiated by Susan Rogers, high school science supervisor for Caddo Parish.

The program prepares dedicated high school students for college and medical school. And, as Melody described, the capstone event of this outstanding high school program is an internship with LSU Health Sciences Center under the leadership of Heather Kleiner-Hancock.

As a member of The Women's Philanthropy Network, I was privileged to vote to fund the pilot program for the internship held during the last school year. Our group of more than 100 women awarded $45,000 for the first class of 14 students to participate in this unique, hands-on internship at LSUHSC.

 All 14 of those students graduated from Southwood High and are attending college this fall. Many of them are the first in their families to attend college.

Additionally, our grant for this pilot program helped the Biomedical Research Foundation leverage the grant of $1.3 million awarded by the National Institutes of Health to expand and continue the program.

 The Women's Philanthropy Network, founded in 2005, is an opportunity for women in the Shreveport-Bossier City area to come together to pool their charitable gifts in order to make strategic, high-impact grants in our community.

With a focus on lowering the dropout rate, we have awarded more than $400,000 to elementary, middle and high schools for a variety of projects, including reading programs, math instruction, mentoring, teacher and student incentives, field trips and more. We also have accumulated more than $190,000 in endowment funds, managed by The Community Foundation, of which we are an advised fund.

In May, The Women's Philanthropy Network voted to award $75,000 — again to the Biomedical Research Foundation — for the Classroom Performance System Project, which will provide software and professional development for teachers at Keithville Elementary/Middle, Southwood High and Ridgewood Middle schools. Using student clicker technology, the goal is to increase academic success by helping teachers to immediately identify students who are having difficulty with classroom instruction.

Again, congratulations to The Times for helping to keep our community aware of the good news stories at our public schools.