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Skirball grant gives financial security to JEP programs
The $250,000 gift will provide funding consistency and gives JEP a flexible budget over the next several years.
By: Tiffanie Wu
Posted: 2/20/08
The Joint Educational Project has given to the
community surrounding USC for the past 36 years, and now it has
received a gift of its own.
A $250,000 donation from the Skirball Foundation is giving JEP
$50,000 a year, beginning next fall.
The Skirball foundation is a Jewish cultural institution that
places a central importance on learning.
The donation will guarantee enough funding to maintain consistency
and development within the JEP program over the next five
years.
The Skirball Foundation's gift is larger than JEP's other grants
and extends over a longer period of time.
The grant will allow JEP to more accurately project how many
non-volunteer students they can hire, which was previously a
limited amount and fluctuated based on funds received through
different grants.
The Skirball Foundation chose JEP to receive the grant because of
its nonprofit work with schools mirrors Skirball's dedication to
education, said Tina Koneazny, associate director for
Administration and Educational Outreach at JEP.
JEP is one of the largest and oldest service-learning programs in
the country with more than 2,000 USC students involved in its
various programs, Koneazny said.
JEP currently works with more than 51 different community sites,
including schools and health care facilities. Eighty-five USC
faculty members offer course credit through the program.
One of the programs the donation will help is USC ReadersPlus,
which gives USC students the opportunity to tutor students in the
surrounding community in subjects such as math, reading and
science.
The program has traditionally been federally funded, which limits
it to volunteers who have work-study as part of their financial aid
packages.
"People want to do it but can't because they don't have work-study,
but now we have the funds to pay for salaries," Koneazny
said.
The donation will allow non-work-study students to work for USC
ReadersPlus on a salary basis, which will increase the number of
tutors sent out to neighboring schools, Koneazny said.
The Trojan Health Volunteers, a group of about 70 to 90 premed
students placed in eight hospitals and medical centers in the area,
will also benefit from Skirball's gift.
The donation will allow THV to reach out to new hospitals and
different kinds of clinics, and create new medical workshops
including ones on HIV prevention, diabetes education and health
care access and coverage, Koneazny said.
The Public Service Internship Program, a program through the School
of Policy, Planning and Development that was discontinued because
of a lack of funding, will also be able to start again.
The program will allow students to work with nonprofit
organizations for course credit.
Since previous donations were smaller and for more limited time
periods, programs such as the Public Service Internship couldn't
receive the funding or dedication they deserved.
Former JEP program assistant Michelle O'Meara, a junior majoring in
communication, said that working with JEP is a rewarding experience
for both USC students and the community.
"The USC volunteers bring some legitimacy to what the younger
students are learning," O'Meara said. "It helps them not only with
the subject being taught but also if the younger students have
issues in their personal life - they really look up to us as older
teenagers."
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