IH New York funds a rap project and an African school

Every year IH New York donates the value of one CELTA course fee, $2,500, (£1,533) to a worthy educational cause. The donation is designed to help an organization realize a project that they would not otherwise be able to do and to support programs that involve ESL students and benefit the local community.
Last year, the school helped fund a music project for a struggling class at Kingsbridge International High School in New York. Many of the students who had been skipping class and writing assignments were found to be writing and performing their own rap music in their free time.

So, their teacher applied for an Arts-in-Residence grant that paid for an actor/playwright/teaching artist to implement a 3-month course for the students in writing, producing and performing a rap album. Not only did this encourage the students to write about challenging topics such as global politics and domestic violence, but it helped improve classroom attendance.

To listen to a track from the Kingsbridge International High School album, Cambiando El Mundo, go to http://thnewyork.com/about-teaching-house/teaching-house-grants-2010.

International project

This year IH New York is getting involved in a Build A School project in Africa. Build a School is an international charity organization focused on supporting the developing world in two key ways:

· Funding the building of classrooms in developing countries

· Providing education in sustainable living

The charity supports governments with the aim of helping developing countries provide a primary school place for every child by 2015. Build A School is aware that the building of schools is only part of the solution and that people must also have access to knowledge about the environment, sustainable building, food and the basic knowledge of how to make their world better. IH New York believes that everyone, everywhere, should have access to education and has donated $2,500 (£1,533) to Build A School to help fund an educational centre in Malawi (pictured).

Environmental project

IH New York makes an annual donation to the Arbor Day Foundation in order to offset the amount of paper they use in their office and school. So far they have donated over $1,600 (£981).

The Arbor Day Foundation was established in 1972 and is the largest non-profit organization dedicated solely to planting trees. The Foundation is responsible each year for the planting of millions of trees and fostering nature and education programs in the USA.