26.2 Miles for the Future of Phillips

To the many contributors, friends and supporters of Brighter Futures for Phillips:

We did it!! We met our Phase 1 goal of raising over $250,000 to create a STEM Department and Wendell Phillips Academy.  In addition to the incredibly generous donation of $100,000 from Turner Construction, the many amazing individual donations, totalling over over $62,000 from all of you, and the $6,500 grant awarded to BFFP from SAMPE; the Feinberg Foundation recently donated $100,000 to Brighter Futures for Phillips. This is incredibly exciting given the fact that is allows us to begin to make the necessary moves of creating something amazing for the students Phillips.

The program has now received sufficient funding and collateral support for us to begin making specific plans for the implementation of our dream - a new STEM department and curriculum at Wendell Phillips Academy - beginning in the upcoming 2021-22 school year! 

We now have received nearly $268,000 in monetary donations, which is over our goal, in just a few short months. Add to that the many donations of science equipment, curriculum support and career development assistance, and we are well on our way to changing the lives of countless students at Phillips.

We will now begin working with principal Sullivan and his staff to post for a full time teacher, who will then develop the initial curriculum and student registration process for next fall.

As exciting as the monetary donations, these contributions and support programs will serve to further expand learning and career pathways for our students:

In addition to the partnership with Turner, Phillips is in the process of teaming up with AeroStar Aviation to become the hub of aviation maintenance in CPS. AeroStar also brings to the table the pipeline, for our students, to college and career in addition to the curriculum they offer in all things aviation. 

Recently, Northwestern Medicine reached out to Brighter Futures for Phillips and wants to partner with us in our biomedical STEM pillar.  They too made it clear that they want to assist with opportunities for the students to college and career. NW Medicine will be offering the students access to their labs, at Lurie Cancer Center, where students will see, first hand, state of the art laboratories for research as well as what a career in healthcare can be. 

Here are some more highlights from the fundraiser:

Hitachi is talking to the head of our science department about providing access to an electron microscope for the students on a yearly basis. 

University of Alabama Huntseville has also been in conversation with the science department chair as well about a collaborative effort between our students and the undergraduates at UAH to design payloads to be delivered to space. 

There are several other irons in the fire all relating to monetary donations, computers donations, equipment donations or access opportunities for our students. At this moment the finer points need to be worked out before they are made known. 

If you know of anyone that can provide science/tech equipment, high powered computers(desktop and laptop), money or has a connection to something that is in the field of STEM and could inspire a student please reach out to me. 


We are STILL on a mission  to give underserved kids in Chicago's South Side a leg-up with a first ever STEM program.

This mission has been tiring at times but through it all we keep inching closer to our goal. 



This department will be instrumental in providing a legitimate shot for economic prosperity for the students that enroll at Phillips. If they find they have an aptitude in STEM and want to further their education when they get to college, they will need to have the skills to compete at an equal level as the rest of the student body they encounter on campus. This is what I aim to create with this fundraiser. 

The principal at Wendell Phillips has a motto for the school, it reads “We are not just a school, we are a movement.” I personally love this motto because it invigorates me when I go to work. It carries a weight. It spotlights the importance of the work that is done at Phillips and instills the belief that there is still more to do. 

We CONTINUE to ask you humbly, join the movement. Please help create meaningful change in our society. Help empower the lives of many amazing young kids and traverse the evolving career landscape that, because of you and your help, they are ready to navigate.