Teachers College Launches $300 Million Campaign at 125th Anniversary Celebration Gala at the Historic Apollo Theater in Harlem

NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Teachers College, Columbia University launched an unprecedented $300 million fundraising campaign on Tuesday evening to mark the College's 125^th anniversary and to bolster its capacity for transforming education and learning throughout the 21^st century. The college announced that it already had raised $144 million – nearly half – toward that goal.

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President Susan H. Fuhrman kicked off the campaign – the largest ever for a graduate school of education – at a gala event at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem. The gala celebrated Teachers College's century-long legacy of pioneering new fields in education, health, psychology, and leadership, its thriving partnerships with public schools in Harlem and throughout New York City, and visionary philanthropists who have supported those endeavors.

"Tonight is about the future," Fuhrman said to the assembled crowd. "That's why I'm so thrilled to launch our historic $300 million campaign that sets our course for the next 125 years."

The evening was highlighted by an announced bequest intention to Teachers College from the singer and actress Barbra Streisand. The bequest will enable Teachers College to create the Emanuel and Barbra Streisand Scholarship Fund, a general fund that will support TC master's degree and doctoral students. Streisand's father, Emanuel Streisand, was a lifelong educator who was working toward a Ph.D. in Guidance and Personnel at Teachers College when he died.

"Creating the Emanuel and Barbra Streisand Scholarship Fund is Barbra's way to ensure that her father's legacy lives on through the work of future teachers and educators" Fuhrman said. Teachers College honored five leaders, advocates and philanthropists for their contributions to education, the arts, and the betterment of humanity. The honorees were:

• Husband-and-wife team, legendary singer Tony Bennett and educator Susan Benedetto '98, for their contributions to arts education through their nonprofit organization, Exploring the Arts;
• James P. Comer, M.D., Child Psychiatrist, Associate Dean of the Yale School of Medicine and member of the Board of Trustees of Teachers College, for his work in psychosocial development as a key factor in children's educational success;
• Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, who will receive the Cleveland E. Dodge Medal for Distinguished Service to Education for his and GE's exemplary support of education and impact on the next generation of learners; and
• Laurie M. Tisch, President of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Teachers College, for her philanthropy and leadership in education, health, the arts and nutrition.

"Tonight, we will honor five remarkable individuals in a distinctively TC way," Fuhrman said to the crowd assembled at the world-famous Apollo. "You know, the best approach to learning is to engage, immerse, and, yes, entertain the class – or, in this case, all of you. And what better venue to do that than in this spectacular and storied theater?"

The benefit event featured a cocktail reception, followed by dinner, a tribute show and performances, and a post-show party on the storied stage of the Apollo, where performers from Count Basie to Prince have performed, and where Bennett himself once performed a show honoring Billie Holiday. The gala event raised $1.25 million, all of which will support student scholarships at Teachers College, the oldest and largest graduate school of education in the country.

Information and photos of the gala follow.

Susan Benedetto holds a master's degree in Social Studies from TC, where she became a certified and licensed New York state teacher. In a career spanning more than six decades, Tony Bennett has won 17 Grammys (including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award) and seven Emmys, and sold millions of records.

James Comer, M.D. is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center, an associate dean at the Yale School of Medicine, and a trustee of Teachers College. In 1968, he created the Comer School Development Program (SDP), now viewed as the forerunner of most modern school reform efforts. He co-chaired an NCATE National Expert Panel on Increasing the Application of Knowledge About Child and Adolescent Development in Educator Preparation Programs.

In 2008, with Jeffrey Immelt leading GE, Teachers College received a $5 million grant from the GE Foundation to create The Harlem Schools Partnership (HSP) for STEM Education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), dedicated to building the partner schools' capacity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics instruction.

As Vice Chair of TC's Board of Trustees, Laurie M. Tisch has been a critical agent of positive change. The annual Tisch Lectureship features visiting scholars whose work enhances important TC initiatives. TC's Office of School and Community Partnerships was established in 2007 with a gift from the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, leading to the creation of the TC Partnership Schools Network in Harlem and the Teachers College Community School. Most recently, Tisch's foundation awarded $10 million to establish TC's Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education and Policy, to seed capital projects and to match TC Trustee contributions in support of the Campaign for Teachers College.

Teachers College, Columbia University, is the oldest and largest graduate school of education in the United States, and also perennially ranked among the nation's best. Its name notwithstanding, the College is committed to a vision of education writ large, encompassing our four core areas of expertise:  health, education, leadership and psychology. It has been located in Morningside Heights, near Columbia University just south of Harlem, where, for more than a century Teachers College has continued to:

• Prepare the next generation of education leaders
• Engage in research on the central issues facing education
• Educate the current generation of leaders in practice and policy to meet the challenges they face
• Shape the public debate and public policy in education
• Improve practice in educational institutions

There are 5,205 students enrolled at Teachers College for the 2013-2014 academic year. Approximately 76 percent are women, and among US Citizens, 11.5 percent are African American, 14.2 percent are Asian American, 11.6 percent are Hispanic / Latino/a, and 4.0 percent have identified with two or more ethnicities. The student body is composed of 17.4 percent international students from 81 different countries and nearly 83 percent domestic students from 49 states and the District of Columbia. In the academic year 2012-13, the last year for which figures are available, Teachers College raised: $45 million for sponsored research.

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SOURCE Teachers College, Columbia University