Chestnut Hill College is proud to announce that it has received a $100,000 grant from the Connelly Foundation. The grant proposal consists of four programs created by Chestnut Hill College faculty in collaboration with OMC staff that are designed to enhance OMC students’ reading, writing, STEM, and critical thinking skills, and provide OMC teachers with training from CHC faculty.
Through a place-based course taught by Chestnut Hill’s David Contosta, Ph.D., chair of the history department and professor of history, and Mia Grogan, Ph.D., director of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program abd associate professor of English, OMC faculty and staff will explore how the geography of the Wissahickon Valley shaped how people have lived on and interacted with the land surrounding the Wissahickon Creek.
A critical literacy project led by Chestnut Hill's Jamie Longo, Ph.D., director of the Writing Center, and Keely McCarthy, Ph.D., writing program administrator and associate professor of English, will provide OMC students with in-school and afterschool reading and writing tutoring sessions offered by Chestnut Hill students.
In the STEM project, Chestnut Hill faculty and students will work with OMC teachers to develop hands-on science experiments and science modules for the OMC curriculum. This project has been designed by Karen Wendling, Ph.D., chair of the Center for Natural & Behavioral Sciences and associate professor of chemistry, and Hilton Oyamaguchi, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology.
In the civic engagement project, Chestnut Hill students will be trained by Chestnut Hill's Kathleen Smith, J.D., associate professor of law and legal studies (pre-law), to act as coaches for mock-trial program for OMC students based on narratives from literature.
“We are grateful to the Connelly Foundation for its role in supporting these collaborative projects, which have been carefully tailored by Chestnut Hill College faculty to engage and meet the needs of OMC students and staff," notes Michael Reig, J.D., interim vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty/registrar. "Each project will allow OMC students and staff to work with Chestnut Hill faculty and students. We are very excited about this partnership and the opportunities it creates for Chestnut Hill and OMC students and faculty to interact and learn from one another.”
The Connelly Foundation supports nonprofits with strong leadership, sound ideas, and attainable and well-defined goals, and prefers to support endeavors which receive funding from several sources, thereby demonstrating broad interest and future viability. The Foundation’s philanthropy is directed toward 501(c)(3) organizations and institutions serving Philadelphia, the surrounding counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery, and the city of Camden, New Jersey. The Foundation provides grants toward costs associated with programs, direct services, general operations, and capital projects to nonprofit organizations and institutions working in the fields of Education, Human Services, and Culture & Civic Life.
