creating compelling brands for nonprofits · 1 THE WORLD IT’S IN YOUR HANDS THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO admissions.utsa.edu/getinfo 008UTS022_viewbook_FNL.indd...

creating compelling brands for nonprofits

IDENTITY

SEVENTY YEARS oBOYSVILLEPLATINUM JUBILEE

a AUCTION

EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Seattle, WA

SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY Huntsville, TX

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO San Antonio, TX

Summer 2010Vol. 26, No.2MAGAZINEThe University of Texas at San Antonio

™

the gift of humanity

1

THEWO

RLD IT’S IN YOUR HANDS

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIOadmissions.utsa.edu/getinfo

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Innovation and customized education are part of each unique college within The University of Texas at San Antonio. These core values work symbiotically with your dreams to prepare you as a leader and entrepreneur. Intimate class settings and a wide variety of student organizations provide the opportunity for each person’s individual success. Every college offers an esteemed education accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees.

A FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION

COLLEGES

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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO San Antonio, TX

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER/SAN ANTONIO San Antonio, TX

12 TRIBUTE School of Nursing | The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

NURSING ALUMNI. WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

AND CLOSETO HOME

UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION MAKELIVESBETTER.UTHSCSA.EDU

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing is a significant component of the only Tier 1 research university in South Texas. We are creating excellence in nursing leadership through our innovative teaching, quality research, compassionate care and community service.

Diversity

* Whereas more than 10,000 alumni have received degrees from the Nursing School, current locations are not known for all of those still living.

** Atascosa, Bandara, Boerne, Bulverde, Canyon Lake, Castroville, Cibolo, Comfort, Converse, Devine, Dilley, Fair Oaks Ranch, Floresville, Garden Ridge, Helotes, Kerrville, LaCoste, Lakehills, Lavernia, Lytle, Marion, Medina, Mico, Natalia, New Braunfels, Pearsall, Pipecreek, Pleasanton, Rio Medina, Schertz, Seguin, Spring Branch

School of Nursing | The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio TRIBUTE 13

14 TRIBUTE School of Nursing | The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing | The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio TRIBUTE 15

Experiences we live through are the ones that shape who we become, and people who enter our lives do so for a particular reason. Everything I have lived through has led me to nursing. It has made me who I am today.”

When I was a little girl, I used to dream about being a lawyer or a teacher because I wanted to make a difference in the world. These professionals looked so impressive in their business attire. I imagined them having sophisticated conversations with other sophisticated people. They drove their fancy cars into the fancy garages of their summer vacation homes.

That world was far from the reality of my childhood as a migrant field worker. My daydreams of a different world were interrupted by the incessant mosquitoes that tormented me underneath the tall weeds in the fields. If that didn’t get me back to reality, the sound of my mother’s voice telling me to get back to work would.

I spent half the school year in Texas, and the other half in the northern states working the family business as a migrant field worker. I hated it back then, and I sure let my mother know. I complained that everyone else had summers off school, and everyone else was able to finish the entire school year but I wasn’t. I wanted to be a cheerleader, but cheer camp occurred in Texas during the summer, and I was always working up north.

My mother came from generation after generation of migrant workers, and it was all she knew. Back then, it was a way of life, and the family worked together to survive. She was one of 16 children who were all pulled out of elementary school to make a living working year round. My mother reinforced the fact it was hard work but it was honest. She also said if I didn’t want to end up doing it for the rest of my life, it would take a good education and determination to succeed.

With that job I didn’t see my single mom ever driving a fancy car into a fancy garage, and this definitely wasn’t a summer vacation. I knew that life wasn’t for me, and this is where the dream began.

There would be many obstacles to overcome to achieve my dreams. I am fortunate I was able to rise above many challenges.

As a child, I was a victim of abuse which, unfortunately, showed me how to be just that—a victim. Even though I helped to stop the abuse and the abuser was sentenced for his crimes, it didn’t change how helpless and powerless I felt. There was so much taken from me that I can never fully explain it. As far as I was concerned, the only thing I had that nobody could take was my brain and my heart and their contents: knowledge and desire.

However, more emotional and physical challenges were ahead of me. I fell in love in junior high and had a baby with my boyfriend just before

high school graduation. He was not ready to be a father or have a family. I still had a brain and a heart, but now I had a baby to raise. This was in 2000 and I was 17. My mother said it was my choice so it was my responsibility—not hers. I made the trip with my mother to the northern states one more time. With the first $400 I made working the fields, I bought a 1977 Ford Maverick, a bright tan clunker that looked like a banana.

During this time, I also managed to win a battle against uterine cancer with modern technology, medicine and surgery. This experience gave me so much respect for health care and all it entails because someone’s life depends on it.

The bright tan banana clunker took us back to the Texas border: Crystal City, where the only “good” jobs were teaching and nursing. At that time, I couldn’t see myself teaching because I did not enjoy the learning process. I was easily frustrated in classrooms because I had a difficult time sitting still long enough. I later was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD was another hurdle to overcome.

I then began my education to become a nurse. I worked two jobs —as a substitute teacher and a beverage barn server—and went to school. During this time, I had also fallen in love and had a very premature baby boy at 28 weeks. Desire and determination allowed me to graduate about four weeks later with my licensed vocational nurse degree in 2006.

I quickly realized I could only do so much with that license so I applied to San Antonio College’s associate degree in nursing program and was accepted through one of the last distance learning classes available. It was there that a very special instructor, Joan Garcia, noticed my niche, which is my deep passion for teaching my patients. She talked about where nursing stood in terms of education and why I needed to further my education. This two-minute conversation had a very lasting effect on me.

After graduation, I was sitting at my charge nurse desk browsing the web for suggestions on management of a rare disorder to better understand my patient’s needs when my ADHD got the best of me, and I looked up The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. This is something Joan suggested to me six months before.

I saw they were accepting applications for the Master of Science in Nursing program. It is as though it was calling out to me personally. Like it was there for just me. It didn’t cost much to apply, and I used the money I saved for a concert to pay for the application. I was so thrilled when I was accepted.

Experiences we live through are the ones that shape who we become, and people who enter our lives do so for a particular reason. Everything I have lived through has led me to nursing. It has made me who I am today.

I can’t tell you how much I love what I do, how I love my patients, and how I love to teach. I can’t tell you if I am perfect for this or whether this is perfect for me. I can tell you that it did take desire, drive and sacrifice. I also can tell you that every drop of sweat was worth the trip here to The University of Texas Health Science Center. This is where I belong.

Diversity

DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED

From migrant field work to nursing “Experiences we live through

are the ones that shape who we become, and people who enter our lives do so for a particular reason. Everything I have lived through has led me to nursing. It has made me who I am today.”

School of Nursing | The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

SCHOOL OF NURSING! !

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER/SAN ANTONIO San Antonio, TX

SUMMER 2009

SEARCH IS ON

RERESEARCH : : D ISCOVER : : CURE

THE

Y’ALL COME VISIT. Located in historic downtown in the UTSA HemisFair Park Campus, The Institute of Texan Cultures is just a short walk from the Alamo and beautiful River Walk. The 182,000-square-foot complex features 65,000 square feet of exhibits that tell the stories of Texans.

The Institute of Texan Cultures, through its research, collections, exhibits and programs, serves as the forum for the understanding and appreciation of Texas and Texans. The Institute of Texan Cultures strives to become the nation’s premier institution of contem-porary cultural and ethnic studies focusing on Texans and the diverse cultural communities that make Texas what it is.

Take part in an experience that celebrates the people, events and cultures that have shaped our legendary state. Be part of something really big—you might even say, it’s The National Museum of Texas.

BE PART OF SOMETHING BIG, BECOME A MEMBER! TEXANCULTURES.COM

EXPERIENCE THE

IF ALL YOU KNOW ABOUT TEXAS IS BASED ON

CARICATURESTHEN COME DOWN AND SEE THE REAL

CHARACTERS

Y’ALL COME VISIT. Located in historic downtown in the UTSA HemisFair Park Campus, The Institute of Texan Cultures is just a short walk from the Alamo and beautiful River Walk. The 182,000-square-foot complex features 65,000 square feet of exhibits that tell the stories of Texans.

The Institute of Texan Cultures, through its research, collections, exhibits and programs, serves as the forum for the understanding and appreciation of Texas and Texans. The Institute of Texan Cultures strives to become the nation’s premier institution of contem-porary cultural and ethnic studies focusing on Texans and the diverse cultural communities that make Texas what it is.

Take part in an experience that celebrates the people, events and cultures that have shaped our legendary state. Be part of something really big—you might even say, it’s The National Museum of Texas.

BE PART OF SOMETHING BIG, BECOME A MEMBER! TEXANCULTURES.COM

EXPERIENCE THE

YES, WE AREHOME TO COWBOYS

AND INDIANS

INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES/UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO San Antonio, TX

COLLATERAL

CHILDHAVEN Seattle, WA

THE MARKET FOUNDATION Seattle, WA

INTERCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH ASSOCIATION San Antonio, TX

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION Seattle, WA

INTERCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH ASSOCIATION San Antonio, TX

2011 ANNUAL REPORT

OPPORTUNITYMATT3RS

COMPELLING FACTS

SUSTAINABLE CONNECTIONS

COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP

Annual IDRA La Semana del Niño Early Childhood Educators Institute™

Since 1998, the Annual IDRA La Semana del Niño Early Childhood Educators Institute,™ has served as the nation’s premier gathering place for teachers, administrators and parents involved in early childhood bilingual education. Participants explore, assess, and reflect on research-based, effective practices that lead to children’s success. They attend workshops about creating opportunities for children to develop a love for reading while they are doing mathematics, art, music and science. They visit model early childhood centers and share ideas while seeing them in action. But it is a conference with a nontraditional approach. At the institute, parent participants, instead of serving as the audience to educational specialists and “experts,” present sessions on the work they are undertaking in partnership with other family leaders, teachers and administrators that is proving transformational.

Connections: School-Family Partners for K – 20 Success

IDRA’s OurSchool portal is unlike other web-based school datasets. Designed around IDRA’s Quality Schools Action Framework,™ the portal provides actionable data and poses key questions (about student engagement, teaching quality and curriculum quality) coupled with indicators and benchmarks that communities and schools use to develop joint action plans. First developed by IDRA in 2004 – 05, to inform a series of regional conversations in Texas on the high school dropout issue and graduation, the portal has been central to school-family-community conversations across the state.

In San Antonio’s Edgewood school district, a cadre of “Youth Tekies” used the portal to examine student preparation for college in their district through IDRA’s TECNO 2.0 project, which brought together a partnership among Edgewood ISD and local, community-based non-profit organizations, including the Edgewood Family Network. Through this project, made possible with support from Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation and the federally-funded IDRA Texas PIRC, Youth Tekies then went on to help their peers navigate questions about whether they should attend college and how to apply. TECNO 2.0 served more than 1,000 low-income Hispanic and other minority 11th and 12th graders in Edgewood.

With a new grant from TG Public Benefit Program, IDRA is expanding the development of the OurSchool portal as a statewide database on college readiness, college sending and participation in developmental courses for every school district in Texas and a tool to help family, community, K – 12 and higher education leaders improve academic success, particularly for low-income and minority students. IDRA’s bilingual OurSchool portal helps educators and community members find out how

well their high school campus is preparing and graduating students, what factors may be weakening school holding power, and what they can do together to address them.

Connections: Students with High-Powered STEM Teaching

IDRA works in partnership with hundreds of thousands of educators in the South and Southwest to strengthen curriculum and teaching quality for all students, including English learners. Stellar II was a multi-year partnership between IDRA, Texas State University, San Marcos CISD and the Texas Education Agency designed to improve teaching and learning in science for English learners students using IDRA’s Science Smart!™ model. With the implementation of Stellar II, science became a priority across grades. San Marcos school district is now using IDRA’s Science Instructional Strategies for English Learners—A Guide for Elementary and Secondary Grades and our seven-part Community Engagement Series for Educators, to support teachers, principals and administrators in home-school partnerships that increase graduation and college enrollment. We are also collaborating with instructional coaches to assess student strengths and needs, analyze data, and model lesson demonstrations.

IDRA’s interactive Science Smart!™ professional development model provides teachers with scientifically-based strategies to teach scientific concepts, build critical thinking skills, and improve problem-solving abilities and processes by linking into the curricula teachers are currently using, and weaving in technology and assessment tools. The impact has been significant, with schools meeting AYP within one to two years of implementation, and teacher leadership and instructional transformation evident through classroom observations and improved student achievement. Results have shown double-digit gains in standardized tests in high school science, including one school that experienced a 25 percentage point gain in its exit-level science scores.

Connections: Teachers with Communities of Practice

Bringing together in-person professional development with web-based networks, IDRA is connecting teachers to tools, resources and key research and networks of peers that strengthen and support their work. Through one such network, IDRA Teachers Network on Ning, teachers are invited to share effective STEM curricula, online resources for tech-savvy classrooms, and best practices for engaging diverse students in language, mathematics and science. IDRA’s Teachers Network on Ning is an online home for: resources for bilingual certified, mathematics, science and ESL teachers; forums and discussions that encourage collaboration and communication among teachers on how to strengthen their classroom practice; and podcasts and live feeds that share news and resources for new teachers.

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Classnotes Podcasts • Bilingual Stories

for Young Learners —Episode 80

• IDRA Annual La Semana del Niño Early Childhood Educators Institute™ —Parent Institutes for Education—Episode 89

In 2010 – 11, in the United States and Brazil, about 6,000 children were served by IDRA’s Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program.

OPPORTUNITYMATT3RS10 OPPORTUNITY

MATT3RS 11

Message from the President

We live in times of great flux, speed, connectivity and change.

This past year, from waves of human activism around the world, to natural and human-made disasters, to the ending of wars and the beginning of presidential campaigns, it seemed as if world events were converging at warp speed—and creating a greater and greater sense of interconnectivity.

Education is also changing. Our schools are more diverse, we use more technology, and education seems to be at the top of most agendas. But one thing hasn’t changed: too many children, in too many places across our country, are left out.

If we believe the forecasts, the pace of human connectivity and information-sharing around the globe is now set to double every year. Educational opportunity needs that quickening pace, that exponential growth.

At IDRA we have been focusing on acceleration through three strategies: (1) with compelling facts, we make the case for quality schools for all; (2) by nurturing sustainable connections, we seek to produce significant results for children; and (3) in promoting courageous leadership, we aim to catalyze action and change that creates quality schooling for all. We seek to expand opportunity, for example, by partnering with African American, Latino and Native American leaders, across the south and southwest to secure children’s educational rights; by preparing teachers like Tiffini Pruitt for classroom leadership; or by promoting the transformation of a region and its schools, in partnership with school, family, community and youth leaders.

One of many ways in which we continue to focus on opportunity is in our work to begin the José Angel Cárdenas School Finance Fellows Program, in honor of IDRA’s founder who passed away in 2011. In José’s memory, this program will engage the nation’s most promising researchers in investigating school finance solutions that secure excellence and equity.

We also continue to use our Quality Schools Action Framework™ across all of IDRA’s work. The framework provides a comprehensive action model for developing solutions that value young people, use data, build skilled coalitions, fund schools fairly, govern schools effectively, engage students, parents and communities, and provide high quality teaching in high quality courses.

In tough economic times, there is always a tendency toward retrenchment. But when it comes to education, effective innovation and smart investment in creating quality schools that serve all children not only pay off but are the key to economic vitality for our neighborhoods and for the country.

Opportunity matters. It matters to our toddlers, learning to sound out their first words, to our middle schoolers, as they come to know polynomials, and to our high school and college graduates, as they prepare for and work hard to define their own future.

Working together, we can make the most of the opportunities that we have each been given in life. And together, we can make sure that the door is open wider for our children, and our children’s children.

Dr. María Robledo Montecel, IDRA President

“If we believe the forecasts, the pace of human connectivity and information-sharing around the globe is now set to double every year. Educational opportunity needs that quickening pace, that exponential growth.”

Our Approach, Programs and Accomplishments:

4 Compelling Facts: Making the Case for Excellent, Equitable Education

4 Making the Case: Children’s Educational and Civil Rights

6 Making the Case: Funding Equity

7 Making the Case: Strong School Holding Power

9 Sustainable Connections: Producing Results for Children

9 Connections: Children in Quality Early Learning

10 Connections: School-Family Partners for K – 20 Success

11 Connections: Students with High-Powered STEM Teaching

11 Connections: Teachers with Communities of Practice

12 Courageous Leadership: Catalyzing Action and Change

12 Courageous Classroom Leadership

13 Courageous Community Leadership

14 Courageous Family Leadership

15 Courageous Youth Leadership

17 Opportunity Matters: A Framework for Action

18 Statement of Financial Position

19 About IDRA

Table of Contents

Funders Who Have Helped Make IDRA’s Work PossibleAdministration for Children, Youth and FamiliesThe Andrew W. Mellon FoundationAnheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.The Annie E. Casey FoundationASPIRA of New YorkThe AT&T FoundationThe Carnegie CorporationThe Challenge FoundationCharles Stewart Mott Foundation*The Children’s Trust Fund of TexasClemson University—NDPC The Coca-Cola Foundation*The Coca-Cola CompanyThe Danforth FoundationThe Edna McConnell Clark FoundationThe Edward Hazen FoundationThe Evangelical Lutheran Church in AmericaThe Ford FoundationThe General Sciences FoundationGeorge Washington UniversityThe Houston Endowment, Inc.JP Morgan Chase Foundation*The Kresge FoundationThe Lilly EndowmentLeague of United Latin American CitizensMarguerite Casey Foundation*The Mexican American Legal Defense

and Educational FundThe National Coalition of Advocates for StudentsThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesNational Education AssociationNational Institute of Mental HealthThe National Science FoundationNational Urban CoalitionThe Primerica FoundationThe Rockefeller FoundationSouthwestern BellTexas Department of Community AffairsTexas Education AgencyTexas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation*Texas Higher Education Coordinating BoardU.S. Department of Education*U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesU.S. Department of JusticeUniversity of HoustonThe W.K. Kellogg Foundation*Wachovia FoundationWells Fargo FoundationThe William Randolph Hearst Foundation

* Grants during current period.

OPPORTUNITYMATT3RS2 OPPORTUNITY

MATT3RS 3

THE MARKET FOUNDATION Seattle, WA

NATURE CONSORTIUM Seattle, WA

CAMP

LONGWEST

SEATTLE

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CU

LTF

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TU

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f e s t. na t u r e c . o r g

INTERACTIVE

REUNION RESCUE Austin, TX San • Francisco, CA

SOLI CHAMBER ENSEMBLE San Antonio, TX

MIB FOUNDATION Jackson, MS

AYA COMMUNITY MARKETS Washington, DC

SKILLPOINT ALLIANCE Austin, TX

DENSHO Seattle, WA

READ MUSKEGON Muskegon, MI

CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING San Antonio, TX

EVENTS

SAN ANTONIO WATER SYSTEM San Antonio, TX

2.07.12

QUEENS COUNCIL ON THE ARTS Queens, NY

creating compelling brands for nonprofits

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