by Jennifer Ward, Chief Operating Officer, September 2021
With Rainier Scholars – Tacoma officially launched, our team is starting to lay the groundwork for fall. Some of our most recent accomplishments include:
- Acquiring office space at First Creek Middle School on Tacoma’s eastside
- Hosting meetings with 45+ community organizations and leaders across the city
- Securing a two-year, $100K grant from Saltchuk, the first founding funder of the Tacoma program.
- Participation in four community events, where we gave away nearly 1,000 children’s, teen and young adult books by authors of color
- Initiated staffing process for Program Assistant and Director of Recruitment positions
- Creation of the Rainier Scholars – Tacoma logo
- Launching our new webpage on the Rainier Scholars website
Spending so much time in the Tacoma community has been instrumental in our understanding of how Rainier Scholars fits into a larger context. One of the things we’ve learned about is the incredible network of community organizations that work together to accomplish similar goals around literacy, high school graduation, and post-secondary credentialing.
We’re really excited about joining this network and having the opportunity to partner with so many others committed to education justice and anti-racism work.