One grant, 10 years of Jemicy

towsontimes.com

by Diana Bae
Decemebr 11, 2007
 

The Jemicy School for students with dyslexia and language-based learning disorders recently received a $367,000 grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Most of the award will be used to fund scholarships. Although the school has received grants in the past, this is the first specifically for so-called twice-exceptional students -- those with learning disabilities who excel in one subject but have difficulties with others. According to Marilyn Powel, director of campaigns and special projects for Jemicy, the grant also requires that students receiving the scholarships come from public education backgrounds and low-income families. The grant will be given to the school over four years. It will pay for 10 years'  worth of full scholarships for four students. Any leftover money will be used for the private school's outreach program, in which Jemicy faculty inform the public about the school's programs for students with learning disabilities.
 
Jemicy was one of four schools nationwide to receive the grant from the Lansdowne, Va.-based foundation, which was established by the former owner of the Washington Redskins football team. The foundation provides scholarships and grants to help students complete their education, including those without learning disabilities.

"We feel very honored," said Ben Shifrin, head of the school. "It is a validation that what we do we do well."

Ten-year-old Ghadir Smallwood of Pikesville will enter sixth grade at Jemicy in the upcoming school year as the first student selected for a scholarship. Ghadir's mother, Chanagra Smallwood, said that she and her husband knew they wanted their daughter at Jemicy after realizing that Ghadir was not getting the accommodations she needed for her dyslexia from her public school. The Smallwoods were uncertain about how they would be able to afford the $26,850
annual tuition.  "But come heck or high water, she was going," Smallwood said. Ghadir was picked after informal assessments by the school. "I'm glad she will be in a place where she can shine," Smallwood said. "The scholarship symbolizes doors opening and more opportunities for her."

With a 3-1 student-teacher ratio, Jemicy creates programs for students rather than placing them in set curriculums that might not work for everyone, Shifrin said. "They are based on areas of strength and growth; it is very individualized," he
said. Those programs provide a multisensory education, Shifrin said. Instead of simply lecturing the students on a subject, the curriculum allows them to "experience it, hear it, feel it, do it," he said. Jemicy has about 280 students with a lower and middle school campus in Owings Mills and upper school campus in Towson.