TCNJ News
For Immediate Release
October 27, 2008
$10k grant from PSE&G will serve Trenton’s youth in school and sports
EWING, NJ … The College of New Jersey has been awarded a $10,000 grant from PSE&G to launch a program to aid Trenton’s at-risk youth. Twelve scholars from TCNJ’s Bonner Center for Civic and Community Engagement will work with 15 middle and high school students in Trenton.
The Trenton-area students are members of Greg Grant’s Academic Sports Academy (ASA), which is based at Trenton Central High School and Hedgepeth-Williams Middle School. Greg Grant, an alumnus of TCNJ, was a point guard and led Division III scoring on the Lions’ men’s basketball team, and 1989 he was drafted by the Phoenix Suns. Grant now dedicates his time offering numerous clinics and working with kids in Trenton.
“Like all our Bonner Teams, our ASA Team will build a bridge that connects other TCNJ students and professors to the Trenton community,” said Pat Donohue, director of the Bonner Center. “This will bring more resources to the table and help our community partners achieve their goals, while creating important learning opportunities for our students.”
For the program, the Bonner Community Scholars will help with homework, tutor the students, and serve as positive role models. Then they will bond with the students during the fall over basketball and track and field in the spring. The clinics and sports events will take place after tutoring and homework are complete.
In addition, the program will also include enrichment programs in which the students come to TCNJ’s campus for daylong “Hoop Skills Institutes” that will include basketball clinics in the morning, educational/life skills programs in the afternoon, and a college game in the evening. Some students will also have the chance participate in a 13-week urban youth entrepreneurial program.
This opportunity is excellent to not only help Trenton students, but also to expand the experiences of the Bonner Scholars. “While our students are making a real difference in the lives of the young men from Trenton, they are also deepening their own understanding of community issues and developing their own leadership skills,” said Donohue.
Along with the Academic Sports Academy and the Bonner Center, three other affiliates have collaborated on this grant, including TCNJ’s Department of Athletics, led by Director of Athletics and Recreation John Castaldo; Team NJ ABC, a non-profit AAU basketball program based in Mercer and Middlesex counties; and Matthew Pauls, an executive with Shire Pharmaceuticals, chair of the Prime Time Shootout Advisory Board and member of the Jr. Adidas Phenom Camp’s Board of Directors.
About The College of New Jersey
TCNJ currently is ranked as one of the 75 "Most Competitive" schools in the nation by Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, is rated the No. 1 public institution in the northern region of the country by U.S. News & World Report, and is one of Kiplinger's Personal Finance's top educational values in the country. In 2006, the College joined an elite group of institutions when it was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Fewer than 10 percent of the nation's colleges and universities share this honor.
