Sarah Hill Stone '12, '16 MSEd works with a student on an explorer lesson during a previous Soaring Stars Program session. (SUNY Geneseo file photo/Kris Dreessen)
SUNY Geneseo's Soaring Stars Program recently earned a $20,000 award to help fund its 11th year of summer programming for at-risk, K–5 rural school children.
This is the third year the program is being run virtually. Thirty students from Genesee Valley Educational Partnership districts are participating in the three-week program, which is supported by weekly home visits and project kits for each of the children. Additionally, by partnering with Foodlink and Campus Auxiliary Services, Soaring Stars also delivers shelf-stable breakfasts and lunches for the enrolled participants and other children in their families.
Three Geneseo School of Education alums serve as Soaring Stars teachers—Sarah Hill Stone ’12, '16 MSEd, Alyssa Cole ’15, and current School of Education graduate student Michael Masetta ’19.
Founder and program director Associate Professor Annmarie Urso earned the $20,000 award from the Feinbloom Supporting Foundation to help fund payroll salaries, fringe benefits, mileage, and program supplies. Soaring Stars is also funded by United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes and the Ella Cline Shear School of Education. The grants are supported by the SUNY Geneseo Office of Sponsored Research and managed through the college’s Research Foundation.