Community Service
Winchester Elementary School
Dear J.D. Seal,
My name is René Rosen-Rager and I am a second-grade teacher at Winchester Elementary School in Riverside County, California. We are a Title I school serving a wide range of ethnicities and large percentage of low socio-economic families. Based on these two factors, statistics say that we should be an underperforming school. As a staff we are committing to not accept this. We have adopted a “NO EXCUSES” philosophy that will allow our school to excel in future years.
We have decided at Winchester School to adopt the “NO EXCUSES UNIVERSITY” approach to promoting high levels of lifelong academic achievement for all. Teachers, parents, and students all play crucial roles in an effort to ensure that all of our students have the opportunity to attend college. Most of our students come from backgrounds where college has never been an option, so our endeavor is one that goes beyond academics as it speaks to creating hope for each child.
Every classroom has adopted a college to research and cheer for. I have chosen Indiana University for our classroom since I received my B.S. there, and my students are thrilled to cheer for the “cream and crimson.” Every Friday at flag ceremony each class wears their adopted school’s colors. We carry our IU banner and have homemade “shakers” to use as we sing the fight song to get in the spirit. It is exciting and fun and it is my hope that my students will see themselves as winners who have choices available to them in their futures. I want them to know that an education is a powerful tool and to value their chance to learn and be whatever they choose.
As a way of further inspiring my students, I am looking for a benefactor to adopt my class. Some of the classes have received T-shirts and other college “gear” to wear on “NO EXCUSES UNIVERSITY" day each week. That would be great, of course, but what I would appreciate most is a “real Hoosier” to take an interest in my class and encourage them in their quest for knowledge, learning, and college. I would like for the students to be able to make contact with “real people” who have gone to college to help them set their goals high and to care about their education.
I am certain you and the Alumni Association are focused on creating success and access for all to higher education. This is what lies at the heart of the "NO EXCUSES UNIVERSITY" at Winchester. For these reasons and so much more, I believe that the Orange County Indiana University Alumni Association would make an excellent partner for our classroom. I appreciate your consideration in adopting the little Hoosiers in Room 27.
Sincerely,
René Rosen-Rager, Second-grade teacher
No Excuses University at Winchester Elementary School
No Excuses University
Dear J.D.,
Here we are in our great new T-shirts. We are rockin’ and rollin’ in our shirts every Friday! The kids really like it that nobody else has “No Excuses University” on their tee shirts like we do. It was great of Phil to print them especially for us.
Thank you again for your support. I hope lots of these kids you see here get fired up about the idea and go to college. You can’t plant the seed too early, I guess!
Sincerely,
René Rosen-Rager and the little Hoosiers