Case Competition at UPenn

Members of the winning team pose for a photo with TSF volunteers at UPenn.

Penn Collaborating in International Learning (PennCIL) is excited to announce the successful completion of our second annual case competition! This year, the question that high school students were asked to address was: How can TSF encourage students that traditionally underperform in Tanzanian schools to excel at learning? On February 25, six teams of high school students came to the University of Pennsylvania to give presentations that proposed solutions to this challenging question.

The day began with a short presentation by Roxana Moussavian, VP of Strategy and Development for The School Fund. This presentation included a video on the background of TSF that helped the students understand more about its mission and their role as collaborators in the problem-solving process. Then all six teams made their presentations; they proposed diverse solutions ranging from complex rewards systems to special attention for female students. After each presentation, a panel of MBA judges shared what they thought were the strongest points of the presentation and asked several follow-up questions.

After the judges deliberated, they returned to announce the winners of the 2012 case competition: a team of freshman students from Kensington Urban Education Academy! Choosing a winner was not easy given the high quality of all of the presentations, and we hope that all of our participating teams will consider returning next year. Overall, this year’s case competition was a great opportunity to engage nearby high school students in a discussion about international education while learning from their ideas about practical solutions to real-world problems. We are excited to work with another group of high school students in 2013!

The School Fund Gala at Brown University

On April 28, the air hummed with energy and excitement as the guests entered Maddock Alumni Center at Brown University to join The School Fund team in celebrating education and a year of tremendous growth. Music wafted through the air, providing a backdrop for the mingling and engaged conversation of the guest. Over 80 guests attended including such distinguished individials as Katherine Bergeron, Dean of the College, Peter Weber, Dean of the Graduate School, Roger Nozaki, Associate Dean and Director of the Swearer Center, and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar, Special Assistant to the President.   Professors who have advised our project such as Professor Barrett Hazeltine and Professor Josef Mittlemann also came to support The School Fund.

Sandra Hartkopf, Ally Chi, and Paul Hlatky came from Boston University to join the Brown School Fund team.

The evening began with a brief presentation by Laila Handoo, Saeed Hassan, Macon McLean, and Matt Severson on The School Fund: our history, website, partners, and hopes for the future.  We have had an exciting year; The School Fund is now funding students in 8 countries (Haiti, India, Kenya, Malawi, Panama, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zimbabwe) and working with 13 partner organizations.  We share with audience, our video of President Bill Clinton announcing our commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative University meeting to scale to 500 students in 11 countries.
As always, we had several computers open to www.theschoolfund.org, and over the course of the evening raised over $500, 100% goes to students’ school fees.

The School Fund Team at Brown University

The School Fund at Brown Gala was a success! We appreciate the support of everyone who came and everyone who was there in spirit. It was great to see so many people interested in supporting our efforts to make education more accessible and funding education more accountable and transparent.

Meet the Team!

The School Fund family is comprised of more than 20 undergraduates at Boston University, Brown University, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania who are determined to helping students continue their education. We believe, as our mission states, that any student, no matter where they are born, should have the opportunity to attend school and should not be impeded from doing so due to financial inability.

Meet your team:

Matt Severson, President
Roxana Moussavian, VP of Strategy & Development
Sandra Hartkopf, VP of Operations
Andrew Perrault, VP of Technology
Christi Zaleski, VP of Outreach
Tim Eisen, Strategy & Development Officer
Ally Chi, Design Officer
Ambika Roos, Research Officer
Joseph Ignas, Regional Operations Coordinator

and read more about us here!

We’d love to get to know you, too!
Email us anytime at: hello@theschoolfund.org