(From the Joplin School District)
In the wake of the May 22, 2011 catastrophic tornado that damaged and destroyed much of Joplin, Missouri, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Embassy in Washington, DC, on behalf of the people of the UAE, has pledged a significant donation to Joplin Schools (JS) to assist the school district in meeting its goal to provide all enrolled high school students with laptops at the start of the 2011-12 academic year. These laptops will allow students to attend “virtual classrooms” while Joplin High School is being rebuilt, and access educational resources, such as textbooks.
The UAE Embassy is providing an initial $500,000 donation to support Joplin Schools’ One-to-One Initiative, which aims to provide all 2,200 Joplin High School students with a personal laptop computer. In addition, the Embassy has issued a challenge grant, in which it will match, dollar-for-dollar, any funds donated to the One-to-One Initiative, up to an additional $500,000; bringing the total UAE Embassy grant to $1,000,000. The Embassy issued the challenge in the hope that encouraging others to donate will help JS swiftly meet its goal of issuing all students a laptop at the start of the school year.
“We are so fortunate to have the support from the UAE Embassy. This donation will help us reach our One-to-One Laptop Initiative goal and provide a truly interactive learning experience for our high school students,” comments Dr. C.J. Huff, Superintendent of Joplin Schools. “This contribution will not only provide technology to Joplin High School, but also help prepare our students for 21st Century jobs.”
Joplin High School, the system’s only high school, was one of three JS facilities that were completely destroyed by the tornado.As students will be housed in a variety of locations as the district rebuilds, personal laptops will allow JS faculty to deliver a continuous curriculum to students during this period of uncertainty. Further, these laptops will serve to benefit the system, and its students, as they prepare to meet the challenges of this technological age, through this recovery period and beyond.
“The entire world was touched by the devastation caused in Joplin by the May 22 tornado. Given the scale of the disaster, including the destruction of the community’s only high school, we felt it was important to provide assistance,” said Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to the U.S. “The One-to-One initiative is a truly innovative idea that will not only give current students the tools they need to start the school year, but position future Joplin Schools students on the cutting-edge of learning.”
Joplin Schools and the UAE Embassy anticipate this grant as the start of a longer-term partnership between the two organizations. JS and the Embassy hope to work together to develop programming that will deepen cultural understating and awareness between the U.S. and the UAE.
For anyone interested in helping to meet the UAE Embassy’s matching challenge grant for the One-to-One initiative by August 17th, please contact Kim Vann at 417-625-5202.
to 12:54 p.m.
ReplyDeleteBetter do your research before you offer a comment! You are the kind of people that have have flamed the fire of hate that has caused us to spend billions of dollars to kill innocent people and cost us problems with trying to meet the needs of our country here.
Well you better do your research because the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. At least two of the hijackers on United Airlines flight 175 were from United Arab Emirates. I am the kind of people that do check my facts, you better check yours. Check your facts!
ReplyDeleteFor God's sake, do you think all the people in the UAE are all evil? The one that posted this first "Anonymous" at 12:54 has to be a hate filled right wing tea party person. These people did not have to pledge a half million dollars to Joplin for anything. What a jerk, but typical of SW Missouri.
ReplyDeleteEverything is evil, because somewhere in the bible it says so.
did joplin schools sell their souls?
ReplyDeleteWhen I read about this generous gift, I was so touched. And then I feared the kind of response this would likely get from Joplin ignorants. Maybe Joplin doesn't deserve this kindness. I lived in Joplin all of my life until I moved away a few weeks before the tornado. Part of the reason I moved was that I never felt I belonged in a community that was so poisoned with intolerance, sexism, racism, hatred, and ignorance, as well as prejudice and suspicion against those who hold different beliefs. No, not all people in Joplin are like that, but I fought against it for a long, long time, and these things are deeply ingrained into the culture there--and they apparently aren't letting go. I'd think that Joplin residents would have bigger things to worry about right now, but I guess some of you would rather just spread hate. Good luck to those of you who think that's a valid and productive way in which to approach the world. You'll need it. I'm going to go back to thinking good thoughts about the kind of people who would donate this generous gift to our schoolchildren. Maybe those kids will learn something from it that their parents and neighbors have not, and if so, maybe there will be hope for a better Joplin in the future.
ReplyDeleteWhat a remarkably generous offer. And what interesting possibilities in a small city in Missouri forming a cultural partnership with a country half a world away.
ReplyDeleteIt's a win/win situation.
As for the comments, I turned comments off on all my blogs. The anonymous cowards poison the possibility of a good discussion.
This is the one true God at work. LET'S HOPE that in the dawning age, "foreign" investors sympathy, generosity and interest in working together EVEN WITH the remnant of the American people will continue to flow; so that we can all have a future together here on planet "Earth". Many thanks to God, let us not take any of his gifts for granted; no matter whom he chooses to send them through. What a glorious thing this is for God to do. He couldn't say it any clearer or at such a critical time for this generation. Fellow man is not the enemy. Ignorance, disinformation (in all it's forms), and "sin" is.
ReplyDelete