Preparing Students to Succeed Inside the Classroom

Back to School season is a happy, but hectic time. Entering new grades, meeting new teachers, seeing old friends. Parents are excited as well for their children to reach new milestones. However, what is less exciting for some is having to obtain the required supplies if they are in a financial need. There may be other financial demands that parents have to keep up with such as school, lunch, and extracurricular fees that can place burden on families.

Last year, IBSS donated items for the Heart of Tabitha Foundation, where they provided local DMV 350+ children from pre-K to high school with backpacks and supplies.

Though an impressive feat, I could not help but notice that there were certain materials were low in quantity for children. This included notebooks, pencils, crayons, and more. There were few boxes of colored pencils that we had to distribute the individual pencils, which was disheartening to have to do so. The thought of having to sit in class while having 3 or so colored pencils while everyone else had a full set is distressing. No child should have to endure that, especially when it can affect his or her education.

What is the importance of school supplies?

School supply lists are carefully planned for the classes throughout the year. For many, having the necessary supplies are essential in keeping students on track. Having the essential tools needed in the classroom improves grades and facilitates excitement about school and learning.

15 million children don’t have money for school supplies.

Annually, teachers spend $500-1,000K on supplies from their own salaries without expecting anything in return. This is also a problem when teachers are not properly compensated.

Here are the top supplies students use:

Filler paper – essential in completing everyday tasks
Glue sticks – vital for hands-on learning and projects
Colored pencils & Crayons – aid and spark creativity and imagination and provide better focus and improve concentration
Pocket Folders – gathering and organizing homework assignments and important papers
Markers – helpful for art and creative projects
Pencils – needed the most and depleted the quickest
Scissors – improves fine motor skills and aid in assignments
Composition Notebooks – required to complete writing assignments

*Supplies IBSS provided through employee donations and company match for local students.*

How We Helped

This year, I brought my observations to IBSS and collectively we obtained monetary donations of 1K within one week from our employees with a company match of 2K! Using our networks, we got discounted items on wholesale prices so we can adequately allocate funds to provide for more children.

“My biggest hope is that the students continue to believe in themselves and not be impeded by not having the tools they need to succeed.” – Saeed Z, IBSS Systems Engineer

We gathered our volunteers to help distribute the items at the Veterans Center Plaza in Silver Spring, MD for the Heart of Tabitha. This time around, we had more employees participate to organize tables of supplies for children to take a backpack and take what they needed.

Needless to say, no one had to share colored pencils (: