Getting away from the everyday

This past Saturday, January 24, JRF's Board of Directors and staff took a little retreat away from their usual Saturday plans to discuss the foundation's coming year.

Pictured to the right are this year's board retreat attendees.

The Board focused on marketing, communications and development, formulating a 90-day strategic plan of goals and projections. Board Secretary, Stephanie Sharp of Plexus Web Creations, brought data from the JRF website. We are excited to announce that the website has a high level of activity, especially for scholarship applications.

With the current economy, we're predicting an increase in scholarship applications this year. We need your support to continue helping low-income women reach their educational goals. The scholarships that JRF provide are unrestricted and can be used for any needs the scholar may encounter while receiving her education. This includes, but is not limited to, books, childcare, transportation, and tuition. In the same way, JRF needs unrestricted donations for scholarship program operations. Please help us to keep JRF running strong!

Seeing Old Friends and Welcoming New Faces

Our nation's new President and his administration will be meeting this weekend to plan ideas about the year ahead, and they won't be the only ones. This Saturday, January 24, 2009, the Jeannette Rankin Foundation's Board of Directors meets for their annual Board of Directors Retreat at Power Partners Manufacturing in Athens, GA. Look for a post on the minutes next week!

This new year also brought with it some new faces. Our newest intern, Claire Frost, from the University of Georgia, joins us for the semester and is excited to correspond with all of JRF's scholars, members, and volunteers over the coming months.

Remembering the founder of Pell Grants

With the backing of Claiborne Pell, a U.S. Senator from 1960 to 1997, Congress created the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants, later named the Pell Grants, in 1972. In 2008, Pell Grants provided more than $16 billion to help low and middle-income students attend college.

Pell once said, "The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people."

Pell was also the main sponsor of the bill that created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He passed away on Thursday at age 90.