Photo Source: Montgomery County MD
Since the 2018-2019 school year, IBSS has partnered with Silver Spring International Middle School (SSIMS) in order to make a difference in our local community.
The school is located five minutes from IBSS’s headquarters building in downtown Silver Spring, MD. For many students who attend SSIMS, English is not their primary language.
During this fall semester, IBSS was able to assist with literacy needs at the school. SSIMS wanted to provide students with an opportunity to continue practicing their literacy skills, which was especially important for students who speak and read English as a second language and who were now forced to learn remotely. To help students in the fall semester, IBSS donated subscriptions to National Geographic Kids to one classroom, which included one teacher and 13 students.
The National Geographic Kids magazine includes information, educational games, videos and a variety of activities that are mostly centered around animals and the natural world. This magazine was chosen in part because of IBSS’s dedication to environmental stewardship and because the magazine supports the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) efforts.
The magazine supported efforts to provide a unified lesson for all students in the remote learning environment. As a subscription, the students are able to look forward to receiving the magazine each month during the school year and going through the magazine with their family.
Another way that IBSS assisted SSIMS this year was by spreading holiday cheer to school families impacted by the pandemic. Numerous parents are out of work or are working limited hours as a consequence the pandemic has had on businesses. IBSS chose to support the children of 7 households with holiday gifts so that their parents could keep their limited funds for meeting daily needs. These donations included the SSIMS students and their siblings, so a total of 15 children received holiday gifts.
Multiple IBSS employees stepped up to buy holiday presents for these children. Gifts ranged from coats and clothes to dolls and building blocks. An official from SSIMS picked up the gifts from the IBSS office and distributed the items to the families.
Bruce Arvand, IBSS’s President, said this about the ongoing support of SSIMS: “I always remember my father telling me: ‘You may lose everything that you have accumulated in your life but the only thing, which is truly yours and cannot be taken from you, is your education. Make learning an integral part of your daily life. An educated mind is a powerful force that shapes your life.’ It has been my passion to support others with their education. As a nonnative speaker, I’m familiar with foreign students’ challenges to build a successful life in our country. I believe we at IBSS should support our local communities and expand outward. We are committed to helping the SSIMS students to build a brighter future.”
IIn addition to these initiatives, IBSS has previously supported SSIMS by:
- Providing school supplies, including backpacks, notebooks, pens, pencils, folders (2019 Fall Semester)
- Providing food for a school Community Day (2019 Fall Semester)
- Assisting parents to use the myMCPS mobile app, which parents use to find out news and information about the school and school system (2018 Fall Semester)
IBSS is proud of the various opportunities to have provided support to SSIMS this year and in the past to create life-long learners and looks forward to assisting in the future.
