Here at Greenhouse Scholars we’re incredibly close with our community. Today, with a heavy heart, we would like to share the obituary of Libby Kirkpatrick, a long-time Greenhouse Scholars supporter and inspirational philanthropist:

Elizabeth (Libby) Tieken Kirkpatrick, 71, of Denver, Colorado died May 24, 2018 in her home, surrounded by her family.

Libby was born in Chicago, IL, the youngest daughter of Betty and Ted Tieken. She is predeceased by her eldest sister Nancy and older brother Teddy. Libby attended the Latin School, Miss Porter’s School and Bradford College.

Libby lived in Denver for her adult life and leaves a great philanthropic legacy in the city. While many of us demonstrate devotion to our causes, Libby followed through on a level that few ever attain. Whether it was building homes for Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver, starting the “Furry Scurry” dog walk for the Denver Dumb Friends League, reviewing applications annually for Greenhouse Scholars or giving generously and persistently to dozens of organizations whose progress she carefully tracked, Libby leaves an indelible mark on the community. In addition to the aforementioned organizations, Libby supported many others including: Compassion & Choices, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Metro Caring, Colorado Children’s Chorale, and Colorado Ceasefire.

While Libby loved Denver, her favorite spot in the world was the porch at her ranch in Toponas, Colorado. At “Flat Tops Ranch” she could be seen fixing barbed wire fences, tending to her Rhode Island Red chickens or advocating for her hayfields at irrigation meetings. Libby grew up a 4H girl and operated her cattle ranch very successfully for 44 years. She cared deeply about land, about Northwestern Colorado and its preservation, and was active in her support of both. She was a reader and a contributor to High Country News, in pursuit of important issues that define the American West.

Family was always first for Libby. A devoted daughter and sister, Libby had great memories of her childhood in Chicago and Libertyville, Illinois. Unceasingly selfless, motherhood came quite naturally to Libby as she spent much of her twenties and thirties at athletic practices and school events. She was very proud of her three sons and celebrated their differences while recognizing their devotion to her and to each other. Libby loved being a grandmother and her maternal instincts and teachings returned as she imparted her wisdom and values to the newest generation of Kirkpatricks.

Libby is survived by her sons David (wife Mary Jane, daughters Mary Elizabeth and Sarah), Taylor (wife Molly, son Henry) and Tim (wife Cho). She was married Alexander (Sandy) Kirkpatrick in 1967 until they divorced in 2000.

Memorial gifts can be made to The Denver Dumb Friends League or to Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver.

In December, more than 320 high school seniors submitted their applications to Greenhouse Scholars in the hopes of creating a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Over the course of the next 6 months, 350 volunteers spent over 4500 hours reviewing applications and interviewing candidates to identify those who best exemplified our core values of leadership, relentlessness, accountability, and community.

We are incredibly proud to introduce the newest Greenhouse Scholars! Please click here to read more about these 27 exceptional young leaders and role models.

Facts about the Class of 2022

• These 27 students held a collective 74 leadership positions in high school as Student Board of Education board members, Founders of Debate, Service & Mentor programs, Presidents of their class and/or National Honor Society, Founders of nonprofits, Founders of Environmental Club, Battalion Commanders of JROTC and captains of sports teams
• Their average household income is $36,500 for a family of 4
• Their average high school GPA is 3.8 (unweighted)
• They held 30 part- or full-time jobs and internships while in high school; 5 Scholars worked 20 or more hours per week to support their families
• 18 are first-generation college students
• 4 are entrepreneurs who have founded their own nonprofits or filed a patent of a scientific research finding
• 100% are poised to create positive, lasting change for generations to come

A generous donation of $500,000 – the organization’s largest single pledge to date – has allowed us to build upon our success in Colorado, Illinois and Georgia and establish our first program for North Carolina students to help maximize their impact on their communities during college and beyond.

“We are truly honored and humbled by the level of support that has enabled us to expand to North Carolina,” said Pete Burridge, President and CEO of Greenhouse Scholars. “Our goal is to help our Scholars in North Carolina become catalysts for lasting change in their families and communities.”

While the region is experiencing tremendous growth, many students in North Carolina still face an uphill climb: one in four children in the state live below the poverty line. Charlotte ranks in the bottom 3% nationally for economic mobility and Durham County ranks in the bottom 6%, according to a 2015 Harvard study. Dozens of community members in North Carolina have already stepped forward to help Greenhouse Scholars through donations, corporate sponsorship and volunteer service.

Greenhouse Scholars’ approach has shown dramatic results. The organization boasts a bachelor’s degree graduation rate of more than 90%, significantly higher than the national average for low-income students. In addition, the more than 220 Scholars the program has served have a lasting impact well beyond their own academic success, mentoring more than 12,000 middle and high school students. The inaugural class of Greenhouse Scholars in North Carolina will be announced in spring of this year. For information on becoming a volunteer or mentor in North Carolina, please email Allison Wallace at awallace@greenhousepartners.org .

Click here to apply.

Greenhouse Scholars 
Job Posting: Associate Position – Programs
Location: Boulder, CO with limited travel to Illinois, Georgia, and North Carolina
www.greenhousescholars.org

This position is currently open. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Greenhouse Scholars cultivates leaders to change low-income families and communities.  

Our vision is to create a community of leaders who will evolve the communities of the world. Our values are leadership, accountability, community, and relentlessness.  We support high-performing, under-resourced students during and after college with a Whole Person program that includes 8 components: mentorship, peer support, internships, professional networking, Summer Symposium, financial support, skills modules, and impact.  Greenhouse Scholars has an innovative, hard-working, results-driven culture with a high-performing team. Together with our 200+ Scholars, we are effecting generational change for thousands of individuals, families, and communities locally and across the globe.

The Opportunity:

We are looking for a hardworking, high performer to join our Programs team in implementing our 8 program components and building trusted relationships with our Scholars and community members. This is a full-time position working out of our Boulder, Colorado office.

Responsibilities may include:

• Flawlessly execute and manage several of our Whole Person program components.
• Coordinate detailed logistics for our new Scholar Selection process, involving nearly a thousand students, volunteers, counselors, and schools.
• Implement a robust alumni and young professionals program.
• Develop trust, confidence, and a strong rapport with Scholars, volunteers, and other community members to ensure they feel personally supported, informed, appreciated, and engaged.
• Track, analyze, and communicate results via compelling reports and storytelling.

Ideal candidate will have:

• A strong ability to establish trust and build quality, trusted, confidential relationships
• An entrepreneurial spirit
• An unrelenting positive attitude and work ethic
• Excellent communication, presentation, and follow up skills
• A collaborative mindset and approach
• Project management experience
• 3-7 years of work experience
• A Bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university is mandatory

Click here to apply.

While Jessica was working to become valedictorian of her class and the first in her family to attend college, her father was diagnosed with a life threatening heart condition. Jessica was inspired by the doctors and devices that helped save her father’s life and has been deeply passionate about medicine ever since.

With the help of Greenhouse Scholars Flex Funding and donors like you, Jessica established a nutrition education program in New Haven elementary schools. She is also gathering data to test the program’s efficacy and viability for expansion. Her project aims to make students healthier by increasing their awareness of what they eat and giving them more agency over what they are served at school.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

We rely on donations from you and other members of the Greenhouse Scholars community to support this program. Today, you can provide life-changing opportunities for deserving and high-performing students like Jessica.

$10,000 – Sponsor a Scholar for one full year (like the Brickman family does for Jessica)

$2,000 – Cover the cost of Jessica’s elementary school health education program

$1,000 – Allow Elizabeth Lazarus, a Greenhouse Scholar from Georgia, to present her research at the American Public Health Association

$500 – Send Greenhouse Scholar Ellie Ellis to the Geologic Society of America Conference

Any amount – Become a valued member of the Greenhouse Scholars community by supporting our Flex Funding Program

Donate Now

Through our Peer Support program, Greenhouse Scholars come together to celebrate each other’s accomplishments and support one another through the challenges they face. This creates strong connections between Scholars that last throughout their time in the program and long after. Sana and Prav have been close since they became Greenhouse Scholars and each praises the other for the care and support that they have received from the friendship. As they both pursue careers in medicine, they help to motivate, inspire, and guide one another toward success.

In November, the two were awarded a Greenhouse Scholars Flex Funding grant to attend the AAMC’s Medical Minority Conference in Boston where they received valuable information about the MCAT and the medical school application process. After the conference, they realized that many students from disadvantaged backgrounds have limited access to such resources. As leaders, they decided to take action to help others striving for careers in medicine by sharing what they learned through a website they will launch with the help of another Scholar, Nhan Tran. In the Greenhouse Scholars community, two friends supporting each other becomes something much greater as they come together to work toward lasting positive impact.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

We rely on donations from you and other members of the Greenhouse Scholars community to support this program. Today, you can provide life-changing opportunities for deserving and high-performing students like Amadou.

Contribute today

The Growth Report is an annual newsletter created to embody the past year of Greenhouse Scholars’ work. In it we give thanks to supporters, make major announcements about our strategic direction, provide statistics about our impact, and share the incredible stories of our Scholars. This is a great way for people to get to know us better as an organization, and we’re excited to share it with you all now.

The Growth Report 2017

The freshman Class of 2021 has chosen to work with Noel Community Arts School, Scholar Joon Baang’s alma mater in the Montbello neighborhood of Denver. This community, where nearly 90% of students are economically disadvantaged and only 11% meet ACT standards of college readiness, has been prone to violence and witnessed the near closing of its middle school.

This project is an entrepreneurial endeavor designed by the Greenhouse Scholars with the guidance of our staff and a volunteer advisor, Matt Polick. The Class of 2021 will provide vital resources for students to cultivate a long-term impact on achievement and school culture. The Scholars are working with committed administrators and will volunteer in-person to provide mentorship to student body leaders, enabling those students to guide their classmates towards positive behaviors that will create lasting change in their school and community.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

We rely on donations from you and other members of the Greenhouse Scholars community to support this program. Today, you can be a driving force for change in low-income communities.

$10,000 – Sponsor a Scholar for one full year of the program
$2,000 – Help out-of-state Scholars attend a summer boot camp for their high school mentees
$1,000 – Support the creation of a mural designed to visualize education opportunities in a Montbello school
$500 – Coach Greenhouse Scholars to serve as role models to younger students by presenting their stories of relentlessness and achievement
Any amount – Become a valued member of the Greenhouse Scholars community by supporting our Impact program

Contribute today

Crystal’s family’s circumstances caused her to attend three different high schools; despite this and other challenges, her commitment to service never wavered, and as a senior at Abraham Lincoln High School she was awarded Mentor of the Year for helping a younger student raise her GPA from a 0.0 to a 3.0.

Crystal has long known that she wanted to help young people, but was unsure how. Last year, through Greenhouse Scholars’ Professional Networking program, Crystal was put in contact with Kate Brenan, Director of Teacher Leadership and Collaboration at Denver Public Schools. Through Kate, Crystal was able to connect with several other DPS employees who represented the array of career paths available to her. Crystal was thrilled with what she was able to learn from these contacts, saying, “I had never really considered being a school counselor, but after meeting with Kate, I felt excited to start researching a career path that I feel a strong passion for.”

WE NEED YOUR HELP

We rely on donations from you and other members of the Greenhouse Scholars community to support this program. Today, you can provide life-changing opportunities for deserving and high-performing students like Crystal.

$10,000 – Sponsor a Scholar for one full year (like 8z Real Estate does for Crystal)
$2,000 – Recruit, vet, and train 15 Professional Networking contacts
$1,000 – Cover the cost of 50 Scholars’ Professional Networking meetings
$500 – Enable surveys and follow up to track and improve program results
Any amount – Become a valued member of the Greenhouse Scholars community by supporting our Professional Networking program

Contribute today

In a speech that has gone viral (55,000 views on Facebook!), Amadou talks about the difficulties of growing up around poverty and violence, the passion for education instilled in him by his parents, and his role as an advocate for those in his community who have been deprived of opportunity. He also describes his relationship with his Greenhouse Scholars mentor, Stockton Croft, who has been instrumental in guiding Amadou through his challenging double major economics, pre-medicine track at Stanford. In Amadou’s own words, “I love this man!”

WE NEED YOUR HELP

We rely on donations from you and other members of the Greenhouse Scholars community to support this program. Today, you can provide life-changing opportunities for deserving and high-performing students like Amadou.

Contribute today