Message from The Board of Directors
As children across our nation face so much uncertainty as they continue their education, the Children’s Educational Opportunity Foundation of Connecticut, Inc. (CEO) is so grateful for the continued success of our CEO Scholars. Our gratitude extends to our partnership with parents, scholars, participating schools, and the extended family of CEO supporters.
368 CEO Scholars are once again attending their chosen school in-person. The CEO partnership is making the dream of so many low-income parents come true. “No matter where we come from, what we look like, or how much money our family has, our children should have what they need to learn, grow and thrive”.
Our CEO parents understand what their children need to reach their full potential. Parents are willing to invest in a private school education. Parents often work multiple jobs to meet their responsibility for the balance of tuition not met by their CEO Scholarship.
CEO Scholars are thriving and continue not only to achieve academic success but are unafraid to work to achieve future goals of higher education and meaningful careers. Our scholars understand the importance of their CEO Scholarship and are ready to reach-out in service to fellow students and their communities. The commitment of our Scholars and their siblings is evident in the year-to-year retention rate of 80 – 93%.
School partners realize the importance of CEO Scholars in their schools and work closely with CEO to identify and support our children with excellent curriculum, individual attention, discipline, safety, and a foundational education that will lead to continued educational achievement and social responsibility.
The CEO Board, Committees and Administration are working in each of their areas of experience and expertise to help the foundation continue to be sustainable well into the future. CEO continues to seek ways to assist parents throughout Connecticut who seek scholarships.
Faithful donors made it possible for CEO to provide over $22 million dollars in scholarships to more than 10,000 students over the past 26 years. We believe the leadership of our donors will encourage others to support the additional 200 qualified applicants who applied but could not be funded for the current academic year.
In February 2021, CEO announced we would be providing scholarships to Waterbury residents. Once announced to the public, 74 online applications arrived in 8 hours. All told, we were proud to welcome 79 new Waterbury CEO Scholars, but were unable to fund an additional 76 qualified Waterbury applicants due to exhaustion of available funds. We are currently exploring ways to fund more scholarships and to expand eligibility for scholarships statewide.
In honor of our 25th Anniversary in 2021 and the leadership of Founder, President and Chair of the Board, the Dr. Lewis Andrews Fellowship was created by CEO to recognize the accomplishments of 8th grade CEO Scholars and provide incentive to strive for academic and future success. You can learn about the inaugural class of Andrews Fellows here as well as our recently selected 2022-23 Andrews Fellows here. These very special students are thriving in the private school environment and all are attending or planning to attend high school and are already thinking about college!
“Providing educational opportunity is the one activity that most perfectly unites caring for the single individual while improving society as a whole. If we can help but one child from a low-income family to receive a safe, high-quality K-8th grade education, we radically improve the trajectory of his or her life forever. And, if we can do this for more than one child, we begin to spare tomorrow from so many of today’s social ills.” Dr. Lewis M. Andrews
We CELEBRATE the achievements of the past few years, yet clearly understand the challenge that lies ahead as CEO works to serve as many low-income families as possible. Many who are now urgently requesting assistance to provide their children with a K-8 education that best meets the needs of their child.
For the 2022-23 school year, CEO received over 750 applications within the first 30 days. In previous years, it took 6 months to receive that many.
We invite you to join the CEO family to meet this life-changing opportunity for our low-income children of Connecticut.
With sincere appreciation,
The Board of Directors