HILL HEADLINES
Horizons at Westminster Holds Fourth Summer Program and Receives Grant Horizons at Westminster hosted 60 first through fourth grade students from Hartford on campus this past summer for six weeks. “We were so excited to welcome them back to campus in our fourth year of operation,” said Kathleen Devaney P’19, ’22, executive director of Hartford Partnerships and Horizons at Westminster. Horizons at Westminster is part of a national network of K-8 summer enrichment programs that aims to build a “bridge” from one academic year to the next and is designed to boost educational achievement and broaden access to opportunity for students from underresourced communities. With health protocols in place related to the pandemic, the Horizons students were on campus five days a week completing academic work in Armour Academic Center, participating in enrichment activities in Werner Centennial Center and Pettee Gymnasium, and eating breakfast and lunch in Armstrong Dining Hall. Many members of the Westminster community — students, faculty, staff and alumni — served as volunteers by greeting students when they arrived, providing math help, reading aloud with students and waving them goodbye at the end of the day.
Horizons will continue to add 15 first graders each summer through 2025, when the program reaches full enrollment with 120 students in first through eighth grades. In addition to its summer program, three Saturday academies take place during the school year with many Westminster students serving as volunteers. In April, Horizons at Westminster was awarded an E.E. Ford Traditional Grant of $100,000 to provide critical support for salaries and volunteer stipends in summer 2022. The grant comes with a requirement to fundraise an equivalent amount within one year to support the long-term sustainability of the program.
“Horizons at Westminster is at a crucial juncture and acutely aware of the significant funding needed to fulfill its promise of expanding educational opportunities for students from underresourced communities in Hartford and to deliver on Westminster’s commitment to ‘service beyond self,’” said Kathleen. The Edward E. Ford Foundation helps improve secondary education by supporting U.S. independent schools and encouraging promising practices. By making traditional grants to eligible schools and associations, the foundation helps programs like Horizons at Westminster to grow and develop in pursuit of their own missions.
Fall 2021
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