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  • 1 year ago
A big financial boost for local schools, thanks to a million-dollar donation from a prominent son of the soil.
Transcript
00:00A big financial boost for local schools stands to a million-dollar donation from a prominent
00:06son of the soil.
00:07Philanthropist and former Howard University president Dr. Wayne Frederick and his wife
00:12Simone are moving to the head of the class, as they have donated $1 million to benefit
00:17students.
00:18At a signing ceremony on Tuesday, the money was officially handed over to the Ministry
00:22of Education's Adopt-a-School program.
00:27We have hundreds of responses coming in from our primary and secondary schools.
00:31We asked them to define particular areas that they would like to have input in, and so we
00:36have a lot of information from our schools.
00:38They have sent us a list.
00:40We have looked at them.
00:41There's a lot of need.
00:43It's hard to pick any one thing, and so, you know, what I've asked them is to look at what
00:48is the most critical need that the gift can support, and more importantly, can we get
00:54others to also match that gift?
00:56Can we get corporate finance to be able to match that gift so that we can support what
01:00the ministry does?
01:01The minister and her team know, you know, they know what the greatest needs are, and
01:06so I trust them hard to make those decisions.
01:12The education minister echoes the call for more corporate sponsors to step in and help
01:16schools.
01:17While Dr. Frederick says he continues to visit local schools every month, and he has no plans
01:22of stopping those visits any time soon.
01:26It's great to give them that opportunity to get to meet someone who's been through the
01:30system.
01:31The day went through, I've given a lot of them my numbers and email, and as they progress
01:37and are going through the system and asking questions, you know, I see the potential starting
01:43to, you know, turn into the outcomes that we want to see, and so I certainly want to
01:48help mentor as many of them and be supportive, but also to give them an opportunity to ask
01:53questions, and those visits are great.
01:55A lot of schools have alumni associations, they have PTAs, very strong networks that
02:00give back to them.
02:01There are schools without that, so even as we build those institutions and we support
02:05the principals in doing that, we also have to look to see how we can provide, and so
02:11this allows us, when we have the information, to provide some equity, because there may
02:15be a corporate entity, and there have been, who say, okay, what's a school that doesn't
02:18usually get?
02:19And we can provide that information, and we can provide the things that, in priority,
02:24that they really want the most.
02:28The U.S. presidential election is just one week away, while Trinidad and Tobago's general
02:32election is due next year.
02:34But philanthropist Dr. Wayne Frederick, who has interests in both countries, has no plans
02:39of running for office in any of those elections.
02:43You know, it's funny, because as soon as I get back to the U.S. in, what, three, four
02:49days, my alum, Vice President Kamala Harris, who attended Howard, she was on the search
02:56committee that appointed me.
02:58I'm sure there's going to be a reporter there who's going to be speculating about whether
03:02or not I'm going to have anything to do with her administration as well.
03:06I think people are always going to infer things, you know, from your interests, the people
03:12you know, things like that.
03:14My goal is just to make this place a better place.
03:17Whatever mechanism is best to do that, that's my goal.
03:21Right now, Howard does not involve politics.
03:23It involves not just my philanthropy in terms of my resources, but it involves the most
03:28important resource, which is my time.
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