Friends School Receives $100,000 Anonymous Gift

The recently received a large gift that will benefit the highly-recognized school.

A generous donor has recognized this in a very practical way. In appreciation for what the K-8 Quaker school of 250 students has meant to their children and thousands of others over the years, an anonymous gift of $100,000 has been received from the parents of graduates of the school. 

Head of School, Dana Harrison, said “This is fantastic!  Elementary schools sometimes receive gifts this large for special campaigns for endowment or capital expansion, but this $100,000 is to supplement our operations and enhance our current programs. We’re thrilled!”

When asked about the donors, Harrison said, “These are parents who believe that early education is critical for success later in life.  Their children have been highly successful in college, graduate school and the ‘real world.’  They said their children’s experience at Newtown Friends School was instrumental in giving them the confidence, the critical thinking skills, and the tools they needed later in life.  They said they wanted to say “Thank you.”

Clerk (Chair) of the governing board, the NFS School Committee, Linda Heinemann of Newtown, added “This is a wonderful tribute to the outstanding faculty and program we have at NFS. The School is already talking about ways we can best utilize this gift to make our outstanding programs even better.”

Last year, four eighth graders were chosen as one group from among 2,200 applicants to make a presentation at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Annual Conference in Philadelphia attended by 17,850 educators from 63 countries. The innovative and rigorous academic program applies proven curricula such as Singapore Math and The Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College at Columbia University to build creative interest and a solid foundation for a child’s later success in math, reading, writing, science and technology

Harrison said he’s not surprised by the success of NFS graduates.  “We try to teach lessons, practices, habits and values for life-long education.” he said.

Some of the secondary schools which have attracted recent graduates of NFS include: George School, The Pennington School, Solebury School, Princeton Day School, The Hun School, The Lawrenceville School, Germantown Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy, Hill School, Abington Friends School, Westtown School, Holy Ghost Prep and Peddie School. 

Colleges include: Harvard, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Cornell, Bucknell, Colgate, Columbia, Dartmouth, Earlham, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Haverford, NYU, Oberlin, Chicago, Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, West Point, Stanford and Vassar.

Newtown Friends School (www.newtownfriends.org), is a pre-K to 8 elementary school located on the edge of the George School campus. NFS was founded in 1948 by Newtown Friends Meeting and emphasizes academic excellence, Quaker values, community service, and independent thinking.  Newtown Friends School is currently accepting a limited number of applications for fall 2012 classes. Contact: Becky Niszczak, admission director, at RNiszczak@newtownfriends.org or call 215-968-2225.