Each year, Impact Day offers a chance to showcase the TC community’s commitment to enacting change through action. For its third iteration, the event was bigger than ever and the community mobilized for service, action and civic engagement with more than 200 volunteers participating. The community and friends of the College worked together to raise $586,195 and counting across all areas of the College, including TC Promise Scholars, academic departments, the Center for Sustainable Futures, the Hollingsworth Scholarship Fund, and more. The community met giving challenges set by President Thomas Bailey and the Alumni Council, unlocking generous gifts of $5,000 and $1,500 respectively that support the TC Fund and Student Emergency Fund.
Alumni around the world joined together for food and shelter drives, career development, community building and more in cities like Guangzhou, China, São Paulo, Chicago, Brazil and the Bay area, among others.
Closer to campus, volunteers spent time taking care of our neighborhood by cleaning Morningside Park.
The TC Impact Spotlight honors students and alumni who are making an impact through their scholarship. This year’s honorees are current student Joel Lopez and alum Jada K. John (Ed.D. ’23), whom you’ll learn more about later this month.
More than 1,400 books were collected for TC’s partner schools in Harlem as a part of the Impact Day Book Drive. A resounding success three years in a row, the book drive has resulted in nearly 6,000 books distributed to partner schools. In addition, more than a dozen volunteers, including President Thomas Bailey, showed up to read to more than 200 children at TCCS and REACH schools. The literacy theme continued with a spelling bee for REACH middle schoolers hosted on TC’s campus, followed by a book fair.
TC volunteers’ time with students in Harlem schools also included career day where volunteers spoke to students in eight classrooms.
This year’s impact day emphasized the importance of civic engagement. Almost 100 Take Action letters were written to legislators on pressing issues such as teacher pay, emissions reduction, and civic literacy. TC Take Action partnered with the Center for Educational Equity for Civic Learning Week. The virtual and in-person programming began with an event that spotlighted the real-world civic and policy impact being made by TC faculty and staff. TC Take Action also encouraged community members to register to vote.
The community came together to share more than 2,000 hand-written messages of appreciation to TC donors.
Support from alumni, faculty, students and staff from Teachers College made this year’s impact day a success once again. If you missed the celebrations but would still like to make a gift to the College, it’s not too late.