COMMUNITY IMPACT REPORT NORTH MIAMI MIAMI SHORES GREATER MIAMI
2013
M
iami Country Day School has a long history in this community. Founded in 1938 as an all-boys day and boarding school, Country Day has grown into a coeducational college preparatory independent day school. Our 16-acre campus is located on the corner of Northeast 6th Avenue and 107th Street, also known as LB Sommers Drive, in honor of the co-founder of Country Day. Faculty, staff, students, parents, grandparents, alumni, and alumni parents are active participants in the community.
Recent graduates Country Day’s College Counseling Office facilitates the college admission process through individualized and personalized guidance so that students are able to matriculate to a college that is a good match for them. Accordingly, graduates attend a wide variety of schools, including highly selective colleges and universities throughout the country. Two-thirds of the graduating class of 2013 qualified for a Florida Academic or Medallion Scholarship with Florida Bright Futures.
Although the scope of the school’s impact is hard to measure with the many day-to-day occurrences that are too numerous to tell here, this report aims to share with the community its effort to make a difference. Miami Country Day School attracts engaged and involved families to the community. These families patronize Miami area businesses and restaurants throughout the year. The school is tuition-driven and requires charitable gifts to meet budgetary needs. Parents pay tuition and make charitable gifts to finance Miami Country Day School. As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit institution, the school solicits gifts and grants.
Learning Resources Program The Learning Resources Program of Miami Country Day School is designed for college-bound students with a documented learning difference. The LRP develops those personal and intellectual strengths that enable students to succeed in its college preparatory curriculum. Self-advocacy training is an integral part of our curriculum. Our program is designed to prepare our graduates for a college or university education suitable to their needs and demonstrated abilities.
EDUCATION IMPACT Prestigious Scholarships, Class of 2013 1 National Achievement Scholarship Program Award Prestigious Awards, Class of 2013 3 Silver Knight nominees 15 National French Exam Awards 6 National Spanish Exam Awards Enrollment 1100 students
Abess Center for Environmental Studies The Abess Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) is an enrichment program unique to Miami Country Day School. Under the direction of Monique Moyer, Rowena Gerber, and John Barbick, students JK through 5th grade explore Earth’s biodiversity and environmental issues through exciting hands-on activities. A variety of animals and gardens and a greenhouse provide a living laboratory for our budding “avant-gardeners.” Students participate in projects as scientists, researchers, journalists, nutritionists, mathematicians, authors, illustrators, poets, gardeners, teachers, script writers, cooks, and young, socially conscious entrepreneurs. The students are actively involved in local and international projects as they develop skills like collaboration, communication, and presentation. Minimester Minimester is a one-week program for all Miami Country Day Upper School students. Minimester affords our students the opportunity to explore exciting and innovative courses that are not part of the regular curriculum and, at the same time, courses that we recognize as vehicles to provide them with the necessary skills to be competitive as 21st century learners. The Minimester program is a model for authentic learning and education and, in the process, allows students to develop their passions through a variety of multisensory approaches.
Matriculation for the Class of 2013
Comprehensive Outdoor Education Program The Comprehensive Outdoor Education Program (COEP) offers a unique experience that contributes to the school’s overall mission of educating the whole child. COEP challenges students in three major areas: academic skills, outdoor and physical tasks, and individual and group leadership development. All in-class curriculum lesson plans are based on outdoor challenges in the following field experience areas: camping, backpacking, and canoeing. COEP aims to complement and enhance traditional education by offering hands-on experiences and life skills that provide the student with the tools necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century. 340+ new LED lights
Auxiliary Programs Our Auxiliary Programs encompass a variety of camps and activities beyond the traditional school program. During the academic year, we offer after school clubs for our younger students, as well as programs that are open to the community, including Miami Country Day Aquatics, Chess Competitions, a basketball clinic called MCDS Hoop Academy, and occasionally youth or adult sports leagues and adult Spanish classes. We also coordinate facility use on our campus with local organizations like the Rotary Club, the Board for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, the Children’s Bereavement Center, and others. Miami Country Day currently offers over 15 summer programs to boys and girls ages 3-18. Besides our comprehensive Day Camp, students can pursue their interests through our travel, sports, and specialty camps or participate in remediation or enrichment classes through our Summer Studies program. Our summer programs created over 65 jobs in the local community and provided ample volunteer and intern opportunities for local high school and college-aged students.
ECONOMIC IMPACT These expenditures by our school community have a significant impact on the surrounding areas. The following data quantify the school’s positive economic and community impact from the 2012–2013 school year. Theater for Social Change
Jobs • $11,365,006.53 Total wage and salary income (exclusive of retirement benefits) for 223 faculty and staff • $1000 allotted to 120 teachers each year to participate in the Professional Growth and Compensation Plan Spending • $9.4 million to local vendors Financial Aid & Scholarships 2012–13 • $2,100,000 in need-based financial aid • Two students receive full four-year tuition scholarships for eligible students in the Miami area • The Trustee Scholars Program offers two seven-year scholarships to students from the Breakthrough Miami scholars program Environmental Sustainability and Conservation • Over 340 new LED lights installed across campus will help reduce lighting costs by as much as 50% in the first year Annual Giving • $821,000 raised by MCDS employees and volunteers in 2012–2013 Contemporary Music Ensemble Walkabout Autism
ARTS & CULTURAL IMPACT
SERVICE IMPACT
Arts are not an extracurricular at Miami Country Day. They are a part of our Mission. Lower School boasts a 100% participation in Arts courses. Middle and Upper School participation breaks down as follows:
Miami Country Day School has a commitment to service. Almost 20 clubs impact the community either directly with donations and volunteer work, or indirectly through education. MCDS students are required to complete 25 hours of community service per year; all meet or exceed those requirements through national and local community service groups represented on campus.
Music Visual Arts Drama Dance Middle School 231 Enrollments
Upper School 277 Enrollments
Artistic Expression in the Community and Beyond Arsht Center People of Color Conference – Knight Center Dan Marino Autism Walk Sun Life Barry University Miami Shores local schools Miami Shores Unity Day American Museum of Natural Science, New York Carnegie Hall United Nations Children’s Leadership Conference Hibiscus Festival in Vero Beach
In its fifth year, the Community Learning Partnership continued to respond to community needs based on three project goals: to expand student leadership opportunities, to foster teaching excellence, and to promote community engagement. Each year a theme is chosen that’s explored by Barry University, our community, and other local schools. The 2013 theme was “Service and Sustainability,” and Miami Country Day hosted the Second Teacher Professional Development Conference, welcoming keynote presenters, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Dr. Bena Kallick, and Dr. Arthur Agatston. Country Day is one of ten local schools that participates. The CLP is the winner of the Florida Campus Compact Community Partnership Award in 2011.
Miami Country Day School proudly serves as a site for Breakthrough Miami, an academic enrichment program that uses a students-teaching-students model to ensure that motivated, under-resourced middle-school students have access to excellent high-school opportunities, graduate high school on time, and attend college. Students participate in Exhibits a rigorous six-week Summer Institute and Breakthrough Since the Gallery in the Franco Center opened in August Saturday school-year programs. Miami Country Day’s 2011, there have been eight exhibits on campus. Among these Breakthrough site served 180 students in the 2012–2013 are: Travels with Van Gogh and the Impressionists by Lin Arison school year. and Wonderling by London Tsai. In the 2012–2013 school Miami Country Day Best Buddies chapter’s purpose is to form year, exhibits featured local artists, including Shawn Clark one-to-one friendships that foster acceptance and inclusion of and our very own faculty and staff. The exhibits also featured people with intellectual disabilities in our community. They professional artists Michael Scoggins and Peter Tunney. All organize activities and outings with the clients of Casterline exhibits are open to the community. We welcome artists from the community for consideration. Community Learning Partnership
Walk the Walk 2012
Group Home, a residence for adults who have intellectual disabilities and developmental delays. Examples of the club’s activities include: bowling, attending football and basketball games, making ceramics in the MCDS studio, tie dyeing shirts, and going to the park. Anchor Club raised funds to contribute to a playground at Arcola Lake Elemantary for physically and mentally challenged students. They organized a holiday party in December and an Easter egg hunt in the spring. Anchor Club also had monthly dinners with People in Crisis United (started by Kim Juanico ’02, Miami Shores resident) at Holtz Children’s Hospital. Among the monthly themes were a Halloween party and movie nights.
to raise awareness in order to ultimately promote tolerance and a common freedom for every individual regardless of sexual or gender identification by bringing about a better understanding and eliminating ignorance, discrimination, and harassment that impacts those who identify as LGBTQ, in addition to the straight members of our community. Throughout the year, GSA sponsors events to celebrate National Coming Out Day and LGBT history month in October, Valentine’s Day in February, and the National Day of Silence in April. They also join with sister clubs to encourage an ongoing discussion about diversity at Miami Country Day School. Girl Up, an innovative campaign of the United Nations Foundation, is designed to give American girls the opportunity to become global leaders. Miami Country Day School’s Girl Up was named the national club of the month in December 2012 and April 2013 in recognition of their inaugural “Bake Off” that raised $250. They also won the National Fundraising Challenge by raising over $10,000, which contributed to providing education for adolescent girls in Malawi and Guatemala. 10th Grade Service Day
Through Power of the Sun, solar cooker activists bring attention to the solar oven movement, which harnesses solar energy to cook food. In 2013, Country Day students coordinated a “Solar Q,” or Solar BBQ, to raise funds for solar ovens in Haiti. Altogether, students raised over $1,000. Country Day students broke a Guinness World Record in 2012 for “The most cookies baked in one hour using solar ovens.” The entire Miami Country Day School community comes together to raise funds and awareness for cancer through the annual “Walk the Walk” event. A Swim-a-thon has been added to the day of events to help raise awareness. The Walk and Swim-a-thon are both organized by the students. In the 2012–2013 school year, students raised $40,000 with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the Heidi Hewes Woman’s Cancer Association and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Parents and students cut their hair to donate to Locks of Love, which is a non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to children suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Over the past 14 years, the community has raised over $400,000. The Gay Straight Alliance of Miami Country Day School is a group of individuals working to create tolerance and a safe environment for everyone within our school community. Both members of the LGBTQ community and their allies seek
Bearing cupcakes and costumes, Key Club International hosts a yearly Halloween Party for disadvantaged and disabled children at Arcola Lakes Elementary. For the Thanksgiving holidays, they collect money and food items to fill boxes for nearly 100 families in need through collaboration with the Joshua’s Heart Foundation. To create an opportunity for “Christmas Shopping” for parents of seriously ill children at Holtz Children’s Hospital, toys and gifts for toddlers to teens are collected to help People in Crisis United fill a hospital room “store.” Parents unable to leave their children for long, can choose age-appropriate free gifts for their child that are
wrapped and readied for Santa to deliver to their room. Additionally funds are raised yearly to support the Leukemia/ Lymphoma society in their efforts to eradicate this disease. For nearly 15 years, Key Club has operated game tables at the Special Olympics “Olympic Village” where special athletes come to play games, and leave with prizes and smiles. Key Club members support literacy and the children of Miami Shores Elementary by staffing the “All-Aboard” Tutoring Program and partnering with a child, to instill a love of reading, math, drama, and music. The Reach for the Stars Club’s goals are to raise awareness for cystic fibrosis and educate the Country Day community, and to raise funds for those with this disease. There are over 30,000 people in this country with cystic fibrosis and the students work hard to make a difference for those in need of support. The Middle and Upper School clubs partner with the Reach for the Stars Foundation, which was founded by Miami Shores residents, Brian and Stacey Levy, parents of Ellie ’09 and Everett ’16. While other local organizations raise funds for much needed research for cystic fibrosis, the Reach for the Stars Foundation saw the need for families to receive aid to relieve the financial burden of this very expensive disease. During the 2012–13 year, students hosted bake sales, a Lower School Field Day, a Middle School Pool Party, and an Upper School Flag Football Tournament, and with the support of the school community raised over $20,000 to benefit children with cystic fibrosis. YouthCaN is a youth-run organization that uses technology to inspire, connect, and educate people worldwide about environmental issues. Lower School students at Country Day network with students from around the world at conferences, activities, and events to exchange ideas about the environment and empower others to make a difference in their own communities. Miami Country Day and the Abess Center have hosted their own YouthCaN eight times over the years and has hosted more workshops than any other school in the world.
In conjunction with the Florida Farm Worker Association, the Middle School Spanish Honor and Friendship Society served in a year-long project, in which they raised awareness and support for the migrant worker communities of Florida. Students have participated in this project at Miami Country Day School for five years. To kick off their year of civic service in 2012, students participated in a workshop that introduced them to advocacy in their communities. Throughout the year, students collected toys, clothing, school supplies, and personal hygiene items for migrant worker communities. In March the club members travelled to Immokalee to clean oranges, work at a homeless shelter, and serve in a soup kitchen. They also hosted a children’s party where students gave out donated toys and played games with the kids.
WORLDWIDE OUTREACH H.O.P.E., Helping Other People Endure, is a student-led initiative that partners with a community in South Africa to bring youth together through soccer. Miami Country Day has donated soccer uniforms and cleats. Operation Smile is an international children’s medical charity that heals children’s smiles, forever changing their lives. Operation Smile brings together medical professionals and caring hearts who provide safe, effective reconstructive surgery and related medical care for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate. At Country Day, a Middle School and Upper School Operation Smile Club fundraised over $7,000.00. Our students attended the summer Student Leadership Conference.
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS Miami Country Day School has active membership in the local Miami Shores Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, Community Learning Partnership, the National Network of Schools in Partnership, and the Miami Shores Community Alliance.
Project of The Development Office Dr. John Davies Head of School Sheryl Piper Director of Development Abra Adrabi Director of Communications Kimberly Arredondo Development Associate for Marketing and Communications This report can be found at www.miamicountryday.org/impactreport For additional print copies, contact the Development Office at 305-779-7204.
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MISSION STATEMENT Miami Country Day School is a college preparatory learning community committed to educating the whole child. Through the core values of honor, respect, wisdom, and compassion, we prepare students to be lifelong learners. We inspire our children to develop their intellectual, physical, aesthetic, social, emotional, and spiritual potentials by valuing every student every day.
PORTRAIT OF A GRADUATE A Miami Country Day Graduate will: • Be intellectually curious and independent thinkers • Demonstrate confidence in their abilities and resilience in the face of challenges and disappointments • Evidence a commitment to lifelong learning and reading in their personal and professional lives • Demonstrate good character and make good choices • Practice honor, respect, wisdom, compassion and mindfulness • Possess a strong work ethic in all aspects of their lives
Miami Country Day School 601 Northeast 107 Street, Miami, Florida 33161 305 759 2843 • fax 305 759 4871 www.miamicountryday.org