My name is Alyson Hanus and I am a founding teacher at Gary Comer College Prep Middle School. It’s hard to believe that our first class will graduate 8th grade this year! When we first opened our doors in August of 2011, the vast majority of scholars came to us from low-performing elementary schools and were years behind academically. Thanks to our rigorous college prep curiculum and hardworking, dedicated team of educators, we are proud say we are now the number one charter middle school in the city of Chicago. We are affecting real change in the Greater Grand Crossing community, and I invite you to assist us in yet another life-changing experience for a number of our graduating scholars.

The vision of our school is to “Develop Well-Rounded and Successful College Graduates”.  Considering our scholars are only in middle school, our vision may seem a bit presumptuous, but we are 100% certain that each and every one of them is on the road to and through the college of his or her choice. Our school is a community of teachers, families, and above all scholars, who are deeply committed to our vision and understand that it can only be realized through hard work.

In order to completely fulfill our mission and ensure our scholars are well-rounded, we are taking members of the 8th Grade class – many of whom have not been out of Illinois –on a nine-day international tour of Europe’s Mediterranean coast! We would like for our scholars to be able to call themselves global citizens and this will be a perfect opportunity for them to learn about different cultures and become globally aware.

To experience the global classroom will be life-changing and give scholars a new perspective and insights about the world around them. In addition, being a world traveler will make scholars more competitive as college applicants and more likely to participate in travel abroad programs. Colleges and universities want to see scholars stretch themselves to experience different cultures, so that stamp in a passport can be a ticket into the college of our scholars’ dreams!

We would like to invite you to make a great impact by assisting us in our goal to send our scholars to Europe at low or no cost to their families. Our trip comes at a price, and we humbly ask that you donate the funds needed to finance our trip. Our approximate cost is currently around $57,000. We would like to raise at least half of that total- $28,500.

While we have a number of fundraising initiatives – led in large part by our scholar-globetrotters – any assistance would be greatly appreciated. A donation of any amount would go a long way to fulfill our goal of bringing 18 scholars on the trip of their lifetime. Your kindness and generosity will change the life trajectory for countless disadvantaged yet deserving children.