Gray Collins ‘25 | Theo Engelman ‘25
Horizons at EA has partnered with a new partner school, the Overbrook Educational Center (OEC), to increase the program’s reach and impact. The selection process for the new partner school involved the consideration of many different factors.
According to their website, Horizons is a nationwide nonprofit organization aimed at reducing the disparity in education between underserved communities and those with ample resources. Horizons has found that two-thirds of the educational gap can be attributed to the learning loss that occurs in the summertime. Horizons at EA is one of many affiliates of this national organization.
Photo courtesy of the @eahorizons Instagram
Horizons at EA features a six week program during the summer. The program works with students on key subjects like literacy and mathematics as well as offering extracurricular and enrichment activities like art and swimming.
In the summer of 2022, the program will work with 135 students from underprivileged partner schools. Courtney Delaney, Executive Director of Horizons at EA, describes the partnership aspect of this program, saying, “You take a school with a lot of resources, like Episcopal, and they partner with under resourced schools. We have two partner schools already. The other partner schools are Frederick Douglass Mastery in North Philadelphia and Ardmore Avenue Elementary in Lansdowne. We really wanted to add another partner school and serve students from another underserved school.” The former partnered with EA in 2013 and the latter in 2016.
Horizons at EA decided to partner with OEC, a kindergarten through 8th grade school located in West Philadelphia. “It’s an interesting partner school because a third of their students are visually impaired,” says Delaney.
Many people were involved in choosing the new partner school. Delaney explains, “I was involved, and then the chair of our Horizons board, Bonnie Lo, did a lot of research for us into possible choices. Mr. Learn was also really instrumental in the process.”
The Horizons leadership considered many factors when choosing their new partner school. Lo comments, “We wanted to serve students from the city of Philadelphia, so the new partner school needed to be in the school district of Philadelphia. That was really important to us.” In addition, Horizons wanted to select a school that was “not far from our Ardmore Avenue partner school and a manageable distance to the EA campus.”
Lo adds, “We wanted a partner school where the teachers and the leadership were invested in the partnership because we rely on them to recommend students who would benefit from our program.” A key figure in the OEC administration is Principal Meredith Foote, who, according to Delaney, has a strong desire for her students to participate in the Horizons Program in order to create opportunities for her students, making OEC an ideal choice.
The final consideration in the decision was the students’ financial situations. It was a major priority for Horizons at EA to help a school like OEC where “100% of the students are economically disadvantaged as defined by the Philadelphia school district,” according to Lo. In addition, 98% of the student body are children of color, which was a significant factor in the decision-making process. Finally, about one third of the students at this new partner school are visually impaired in some way.
The Horizons at EA Program will be crucial for the OEC students to maintain grade level proficiency in reading and math; Delaney states that “70% [of the students] are below grade level in literacy and 90% of the students are below grade level in math.”
When asked if she envisions Horizons at EA partnering with any other schools in the future, Delaney says, “I don’t. Because we take 15 students per class, we don’t want to have too many partners. We want [the Horizons students] to meet new kids but also have some from their own schools.”
Upper School EA students can get involved with Horizons over the summer. Each Form Dean sends out an application to sign up for two, non-consecutive weeks of volunteering between June 21st and July 29th. The application is due March 11, 2022. Delaney explains that the EA student volunteers would “come to our program from 8 to 3. They assist the teachers. They help with instructing the students. They help them swim. They eat lunch with them. They really build great relationships with our Horizons students.”
Clare Collins ‘23 has been involved with the Horizons program at EA and says that it was “the highlight of my summer. I was with second grade and the kids I was with were so incredible. Horizons is such a great program and it gave me the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with hardworking, kind kids.”
Collins adds that “one moment from last summer stands out to me in particular. It’s definitely one that I will remember for the rest of my life. It had been several weeks since I had been at Horizons, so I decided to swing by for half a day just to pop in and say hi to second grade. I was walking down the hallway as they were leaving their classroom, and one boy sees me and shouts ‘CLARE’ and all of a sudden all 13 smiling and screaming 2nd graders sprint towards me and jump into my arms. It was a feeling like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”