Welcome to The Launchpad!

A pleasant Sunday evening and happy Fourth of July weekend to you folks out in cyberland! My name is Eli Bildner - I'm one of the two eighth grade teachers working at the program this summer - and I write to officially welcome you to the blog of the U.S. Grant Foundation summer program.

For the uninitiated, I might direct you to our website (www.yale.edu/usgrant) for a more thorough introduction to the program, but in short, the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation is an academic summer program for talented and motivated middle school students from New Haven. "An educational partnership between Yale and New Haven since 1953," the U.S. Grant program provides high-achieving youngsters with a top-notch enrichment program by drawing on the academic experience of Yale undergraduates, who design curricula and then present it to their students. The program is particulary unique in that it is a mixed-income program; U.S. Grant not only provides an affordable enrichment experience for low-income New Haven youth, but also welcomes students of all economic, ethnic, and geographical backgrounds.

The U.S. Grant program incorporates a diverse array of stakeholders. For our students, we hope to provide an inspiring productive learning experience, one that students may carry with them for the rest of their lives. For you parents, we hope to provide a safe and enriching complement to the education that your children receive at home and at school. For us teachers, this summer provides us with an opportunity to explore academic passions, engage with the community, and practice the craft of teaching. The entire program is possible only with the sustained commitment of the U.S. Grant Board of Directors and other funders.

Due to the constraints of time and geography, it isn't often that all these diverse stakeholders join together to reflect on the program, our joint creation. We hope to use this blog as a forum for doing just that. We teachers hope to share with all of you some specifics of what is going on inside our classrooms; we hope that you - the U.S. Grant community - will not only follow along with us, but also interact by posting comments.

It is our hope that this process of communal reflection and sharing may enrich the program, both this summer and in the future.

All my best,

Eli Bildner

Teacher, Eighth Grade