 Cindy
Skarbek
2007-08 Recipient
»Biography
»Acceptance Speech
Biography
Cindy
Skarbek has been a positive presence on Collegiate’s
campus for many years. The 2007-08 Service Award recipient
and her husband Ed have two children who are Collegiate graduates,
Katherine ’04 and Carl ’07. Since 1998, Cindy
has been a devoted member of the Collegiate community.
Cindy is “one of the most selfless
leaders that models the ideals set forth in Collegiate’s
mission: character, compassion, imagination, excellence.”
Formerly three-year President of the Parent's Association,
member of the Capital Campaign Steering Committee, member
of the Collegiate Independent School Association of the Central
States (ISACS) Committee, member of the Middle School Head
Search Committee, Co-Chair of the 2000 Collecting Event and
member of the Enrollment and Marketing Committee, Cindy is
currently a member of the Board of Trustees and serves on
the Strategic Planning, Multicultural and Finance Committees.
In addition to serving the Collegiate community,
Cindy has been instrumental in serving as a director of the
Gordon V. and Helen C. Smith Foundation. Under her guidance,
the foundation recently restored and established an endowment
for educational programming and maintenance of Reed School,
a one-room schoolhouse in Wisconsin. She currently leads the
foundation’s work with the School of St. Jude in Arusha,
Tanzania, a school whose motto is “Fighting Poverty
Through Education.”
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Acceptance
Speech
Collegiate Service Award
- May 2008
I am very honored to receive this recognition
from the Collegiate Alumni Association. Thank you very much.
I also need to thank this incredible school, which has made
a tremendous difference to our family.
When we moved here ten years ago, our top concern was finding
a great academic school. We had a good feeling after visiting
Collegiate, even though it was summer and there were no students
and teachers to observe. It was a slightly rocky start when
I sent Katherine to seventh grade wearing a knee-length kilt,
and for the first several months fourth grader Carl asked
seriously each night at dinner, “So, when are we moving
back to Pennsylvania?” But, it didn’t take too
long for us to realize that Louisville and Collegiate were
good decisions for our family.
Both Katherine and Carl graduated from Collegiate
with a love of learning, many friendships with both peers
and teachers, confidence to make their own decisions, and
passions – athletics and service for Katherine, music,
drama and environmental causes for Carl.
Ed and I thoroughly enjoy our volunteer work for Collegiate.
I am especially glad for the way Collegiate encourages volunteers
to participate in the workings of the school. I have personally
learned a great deal about the details of what makes a school
great, and am lucky now to be using some of what I have learned
here to pursue my current passion – The School of St.
Jude in Tanzania, East Africa.
In 2004, our extended family took a vacation safari in Tanzania.
The animals were incredible. But, in the end, what made the
biggest impression on us was the people. We traveled in a
safari jeep, and everywhere we went, people waved to us –
we expected that little kids would stop and wave, but everyone
waved – even teenagers and older people who were working
in the fields or watching cattle.
Our safari company wanted us to learn about the culture in
addition to the animals, so our first stop was at a public
school. We had a chance to talk with the headmaster and students,
to tour their school and to play soccer with them. The kids
hit it off right away, even though the students spoke limited
English, and our kids spoke no Kiswahili. We talked with the
headmaster and asked why they had classes of 100 students
to one teacher. He explained that for public schools in Tanzania,
it is the village’s responsibility to build houses for
teachers, and that the school district will send them only
as many teachers as they have houses for. So the real problem
for him was a lack of teachers’ houses. Five thousand
dollars was the cost of a teacher’s house.
As the trip went on, our guides and various
hotel staff openly answered our questions about their families,
their tribes, their schooling and all aspects of their lives.
They could not have been friendlier.
On the 30-hour trip home, we had plenty of
time to talk about our adventure, and as a family group, we
agreed that we wanted to make some contribution to education
in Tanzania. Five thousand dollars to add a teacher and cut
one class from a class size of one hundred to two classes
of fifty sounded like a great deal.
Fast-forward a bit. We did contribute $5000 to build a teacher’s
house for that school, but still wanted to do more. My brother
and I took a second trip and spent about ten days visiting
public and private schools. We identified one school that
had a successful program and was poised to grow.
The School of St. Jude is for bright children
from very poor families. There are two entrance exams –
one is academic – reading, writing, math and following
directions, and the other test is a poverty test. Basically,
are you poor enough? – Literally, a dirt floor instead
of a cement floor, and no electricity are the general parameters.
There is no monetary cost to students’ families –
but the parents do have to attend parent meetings, pick up
report cards in person, and occasionally come to school to
help with a harvest or to pick rocks out of the rice.
Classes are taught in English and students must take the Tanzanian
national exam after fourth and seventh grades. In most schools
there, failure to pass the national exam means that public
schooling is over for the student, unless his parents can
afford a private school, which almost no one can. Every single
fourth grade student at the School of St. Jude has passed
the exam, and last year 114 of the 147 fourth grade students
received a perfect score on at least one subject. So, the
school for the most marginalized students is definitely doing
something right!
I am so thankful that I have had some experience
working on committees and the Board at Collegiate and that
I have learned what a good educational experience looks like.
I feel very confident working with the leaders at the School
of St. Jude. One of the most exciting things that we have
done is implement a comprehensive teacher-training program.
The teachers there are so eager for new techniques and challenges
that they have fully embraced the training. In fact, in February
when the trainer offered a program on Saturday for all teachers
new to the school, almost all of the other teachers showed
up for the training as well.
An unanticipated by-product of the training is that other
school districts are informally asking our teachers to teach
their teachers. This is great for two reasons – our
teachers get better by teaching others, and the other teachers
benefit from some additional training which just isn’t
provided in Tanzania.
Great education is, in my opinion, the very best gift any
person can receive. Great education looks very similar all
over the world – Schools that challenge students to
think creatively, and surround students with caring adults
while providing good instruction, produce students who love
to learn and then have the ability and desire to become capable
family, business and community leaders. I cherish my work
with two great schools.
Thank you.
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