The Judith Manell Beneby Scholarship was started as a result of my sister’s untimely death. The insurance covered her funeral expenses. However, her retirement funds were allocated to the remaining kin, my brother and me. As I initially grieved her death, I began to think of how to use the money in a way that honored her. I began to take into account of how her daughter gave up her child for adoption. This would have been my sister’s grandson and the only surviving offspring after her daughter, the baby’s mother, died. I decided that I would dedicate my portion to help foster and adopted children in her memory.

The foster and adopted students we tutor need remediation for Reading and Math and are often frustrated with the subjects in school, given their past trauma. Our goal is to build blocks and fill in the gaps to create a stronger academic foundation for the students. This is done by our reaching across the aisle and teaming up with the teachers, correlating the content of the tutoring sessions with what they are teaching the students in class. Thus, we use an individualized approach in planning the lessons for the sessions, reviewing and reinforcing what is taught in class.

The ultimate goal is to not only to help the student pass the progress monitoring, preventing the student from being retained, but to help the student to achieve academic growth and build up the child's confidence in readiness for the next grade level.