BUGS Awards Third Year of Alumni Scholarships to Support Transition to College and Inspire Sustainability Thinking on Campus
BUGS is thrilled to announce the winners of the BUGS Class of 2018 Alumni College Scholarship to provide support in the transition to college. Congratulations to Princeton-bound Sicile Naddeo-Gjergji, who will receive $1,500, and runner-up Sam Mintzer (Hamilton College), who will receive $750. We applaud the contribution and achievements of the 16 students who submitted applications and are excited to support our sustainability change makers. Please see excerpts from Sicile’s and Sam’s applications below.
The scholarship was launched by the BUGS community to provide financial assistance to a student who embodies our C.A.R.E.S values and has taken the seeds sown at BUGS to continue to explore and fight for a sustainable future. The scholarship program was open to all members of the BUGS graduating 8th grade class of 2018 who are enrolling at college in fall 2022. Our many thanks to board member Jamal Deek for leading and also helping to fund the scholarship program and to BUGS alumni mother Ann James for her generous support.
“Thank you to all of the students who submitted applications for the scholarship program and to the teachers and board members who volunteered to serve on the scholarship committee. All of these incredible students inspired us when they were in middle school and it means so much to us that the values and commitment to sustainability that they learned at BUGS stay central to who they are and what they want to achieve. As BUGS celebrates our 10th anniversary, I am so honored and grateful that we have the opportunity to support these thoughtful, caring, and compassionate BUGS alumni.” -- Susan Tenner, Executive Director, Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School.
Sicile Naddeo-Gjergji (Princeton University)
“My time at BUGS, and the deep commitment to sustainability that it helped nourish in me, pushed me not only to completely change the way in which I lead my life, but also inspired me to educate myself and my community about the real-world obstacles to low-carbon lifestyles, as well as seek to resolve them.”
Sam Mintzer (Hamilton College)
“The BUGS value of sustainability spurred my interest in the intersection of economics and politics and how to price things in order to protect the environment, which I intend to study in college. More specifically, what I most want to study in college is the viability and real world impacts of a carbon tax. This relates to what I learned at BUGS about the intersection of economics and environmental challenges, as well as the core value of sustainability, which can be achieved in part by reducing the emission of greenhouse gasses.”
About Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School (BUGS)
Since BUGS was founded in 2013, we have been on a mission to provide middle school students with the skills and mindset to tackle social and racial inequity, address climate change, and build systems so that people and planet can thrive. Now at the forefront of sustainability education, diverse-by-design and the community-based schools movements, BUGS is a national model for how schools can reimagine teaching and learning to prepare students to become doers, makers, and sustainability change makers.
Created by community members, educators, and families, BUGS not only provides a small, safe, and inclusive middle school for 300 students from across Brooklyn, but it serves as a landmark of what Educating for Sustainability should look like in our school systems. BUGS students graduate prepared to succeed in high school, college, and the 21st century workplace.