City Bridge connects inner city schools to The Island School and gives them the chance to step out into a whole new world. We know that leadership emerges when young people are placed outside of their comfort zone. The Island School has been working with urban partners for more than a decade and attest that even a short, week-long immersion program on Cape Eleuthera can produce life-changing effects. This opportunity to expand horizons and think about how expeditionary education inspires learning is also there for teachers. City Bridge seeks to link The Island School to like-minded inner city charter schools with the goal of helping young people believe that they can make a difference.

This program was born out of The Island School’s dedication to expanding our program’s reach and making it available to anyone who wants to apply. For the upcoming 2013-14 academic year, 23% of The Island School’s entire financial aid budget was dedicated solely to students at one of our City Bridge affiliates. As a result, outreach financial aid has enabled The Island School to enroll 6 Bahamian students through BREEF, and 1 Summer Term student from each of the following partnerships: African Leadership Academy (Africa), College Track (San Francisco), KIPP (Houston), Quest Scholars (NYC). We are excited about adding these new partnerships like College Track, KIPP and Quest Scholars to the City Bridge program, which already includes schools like New York Harbor School, Bronx Lab School, The SEED School of Washington, DC, and Harlem Children’s Zone.

Aside from the commitment The Island School has made for students during the fall, spring, and summer semesters, City Bridge also supports shorter trips, like the annual week-long SCUBA and marine science expedition with New York Harbor School and summer program with the Boys’ Club of New York. The Island School also hosts a Teacher Conference every August and City Bridge makes it possible for inner city school teachers to attend under full scholarship.

Although our outreach efforts can be difficult to support financially, we value City Bridge as one of the most important aspects of our organization, helping ensure education for sustainability is not just a suburban opportunity. We are committing over $100,000 annually to support this specific effort and hope to increase our efforts to reach these goals:

• Providing a minimum of 5 full scholarships to inner city students annually for the fall and spring Island School semesters
• Providing a minimum of 2 full scholarships to inner city students annual for Island School Summer Term
• Providing 2 full scholarships to teachers from the inner city programs for our annual Teacher Conference
• Running summer and winter programs for inner city organizations at cost, plus an additional 20% discount to ensure affordability
• Increasing opportunities outside of summer and semester programs to bring students to Cape Eleuthera to experience life beyond the city

If you are interested in learning more about City Bridge, please contact Director of Admission, Sharon Jarboe at sharonjarboe@islandschool.org. If you would like to support the City Bridge program, please visit our giving page here.