Incline Education Fund

Incline Education Fund Brings Highly Successful Dean’s Future Scholars Program to Incline Village this Summer

THE INCLINE EDUCATION FUND announced that it will be sponsoring a collaboration with UNR’s Deans Future Scholars (DFS) & the Nevada First-Gen Network (NFGN). They are launching a new chapter of the DFS in Incline Village this summer for incoming 6th & 7th graders at Incline Middle School. This pilot program will provide students with the opportunity to gain college exposure through University of Nevada, Reno college visits, tours, and programming. Students will also receive year-round mentoring and check-ins in order to better meet the needs of each individual student. DFS follows the students at their respective schools throughout middle school, high school, college and life.

Mary Danahey and Sharon Schrage, co-founders of Incline Education Fund (IEF) are passionate about students receiving the best education possible and approached DFS late last spring about bringing their mentoring program to Incline Village. Their goal is to bring more support and wrap-around services that focus on long-term, near-peer mentoring, academic tutoring, assistance with college entrance and financial aid opportunities for our students.

The program begins with a summer camp open to all rising 6th & 7th grade Incline Middle School students. It will run four days/week from 9 am–4:30 pm, July 18th-August 4th. Students will be bussed to Reno two days/week to take part in activities on the UNR campus and will be in Incline the other two days. Students will spend half of the day participating in STEM projects and learning about the many colleges at UNR and the other half learning about leadership, team-building and just having fun. IEF is also working with IVGID and Pet Network to create engaging outdoor activities while here in Incline.

The Deans Future Scholars (DFS) program was established in 2000 by Dr. William Sparkman and is housed under the College of Education & Human Development at UNR. Through the support of Dr. Donald-Easton Brooks and the guidance of Dr. Mariluz Garcia, DFS has grown and continued to impact the lives of thousands of students in Washoe County.

To date, 1,511 students have been served and supported through the DFS program. When students join in the 6th grade, they become part of the DFS family. This long-term approach fosters a family feel which is the “secret sauce” of the program. DFS strives to create and implement the best programming and activities so that each student has a rigorous, meaningful education that will help them be career and college ready.

Dr. Garcia received ARPA COVID-19 funding from a grant written by Heidi Seevers Gansert and created the new Nevada First-Gen Network (NFGN) to alleviate the effects of COVID-19 by creating a professional, first-generation network in the State of Nevada.

A special thanks to the Parasol Foundation and the Boy and Girls Club, North Lake Tahoe in Incline Village, for their collaboration.

If you would like to donate to this program, please go to our website and choose Dean’s Future Scholars under the Donate tab: www.inclineeducationfund.org/donate