Park Stewards Grant Brings Students to National Park

Date: August 7, 2014
Contact: Jane Cowley, 215-597-0060

Abraham Lincoln High School will work with Independence National Historical Park

Philadelphia - Independence National Historical Park is one of 28 national parks selected to receive a 2014 Park Stewards grant from the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's national parks. This grants will be used to team up with students at Abraham Lincoln High School to design a virtual exhibit and educational materials for the park.

Now in its sixth year, the Park Stewards program gives high school teachers and students the opportunity to explore the relevance of national parks to their lives, and enables them to become civically engaged stewards of their national parks through year-long service-learning projects.

"With our Park Stewards program, teachers and students are able to explore science, nature, sustainability, and more through America's largest living classrooms - our national parks," said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation.

The students at Abraham Lincoln High School will create two projects over the course of the school year. They will design a "traveling trunk" interpretive program, which will provide educational resources for teachers to use in the classroom before a visit to the park or for schools who cannot visit the park. The students will also create a virtual exhibit to offer visitors a chance to see behind the scenes of various historic sites that are not often open to the public.

"The Stewards Program provides a great learning experience for some of Philadelphia's students and it also helps the park by making connections with the next generation," said acting superintendent BJ Dunn. "Both of these projects will be useful to the park and visitors, including other school groups, who come here to learn about the stories we tell."

The University of Phoenix is now serving in its third year as the program's official educational sponsor. The University is committed to opening opportunities for education and workplace readiness, and supporting sustainable solutions for environmental health. Its support of the Park Stewards program helps both teachers and students built a deeper connection to and sense of stewardship for America's national parks, while offering students the chance to explore new career horizons.

"University of Phoenix is proud to once again support the National Park Foundation in helping build future generations of national park enthusiasts and supporters," said Pat Gottfried, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility for Apollo Education Group, parent company of University of Phoenix. "The University has long supported environmental stewardship in our operations, offered sustainability-related degree programs and engaged in environmental philanthropy across the nation. We welcome the opportunity to continue to reinforce this commitment through our support of the National Park Foundation and the teachers and students it impacts."

The National Park Foundation also wishes to thank Subaru of America for their generous support of the Park Stewards program.

A listing of the 2014 Park Stewards grantees and their project descriptions can be found on the National Park Foundation website, www.nationalparks.org. The National Park Foundation is the official charity of America's national parks and nonprofit partner to the National Park Service. Chartered by Congress in 1967, the National Park Foundation raises private funds to help PROTECT more than 84 million acres of national parks through critical conservation and preservation efforts, CONNECT all Americans with their incomparable natural landscapes, vibrant culture and rich history, and INSPIRE the next generation of park stewards.