Small Victories

Running a nonprofit organization is exhausting. The repetitive nature of teaching is also exhausting - finishing one lesson only means you must start another. Neither offers a finish line. The combination sometimes leaves me feeling quite drained. During those times, small victories really give me the energy to move forward and continue building. In the last two weeks, we have had several of those victories.

As some of you may have read, we received two $5,000 grants last week. Despite the tough choices faced by funders, the Luther I. Replogle Foundation and the CityBridge Foundation both felt that Reach's work was worth supporting. Due to the economy, I have been told on many occasions that we would not receive any early foundation funding. I'm so proud that our work is standing out in a crowded nonprofit world. Like its students, Reach loves proving people wrong.

Many of you met Brandon when he was profiled in our last blog entry. On Tuesday, he hung back, asking if he could speak with me. Looking upset, he stated his desire to join the wrestling team, but he was clearly torn due to the commitment he made to his students. I offered to contact the wrestling coach to negotiate a way Brandon could be involved in both programs. Brandon left, seemingly still struggling. I was immensely proud the next day when Brandon came back in smiling. "I'm not going to wrestle this year," he said, "I have three more years. This year, I made a commitment to my students, and it's not fair to leave them." What maturity!

Finally, I received an incredibly special e-mail this morning from my friend Luke, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Education:

So, I'm working with these three young men - one is a Junior in high school, one a Sophomore, and one a sixth grader. The Junior is working on intense Physics, the Sophomore has no homework and is watching TV, and the sixth grader has a reading assignment about The Scientific Method. The sophomore struggles with reading and has attended schools that have their own struggles (hence the lack of homework...). So, I'm trying to work with the Junior and 6th grader at the same time, when I think, "what would mark hecker do?" So, I employ the Sophomore in the task of teaching his brother how to comprehend what was a pretty difficult text for both of them. Before an hour had passed, he was asking his brother the exact questions I would have asked. Both of them learned a ton about The Scientific Method, reading for comprehension, and themselves as competent individuals and members of a family!

That e-mail made my day. It's the little things...

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark