Nashua Students Donate $1,500 for School Budget

The Academy for Science and Design Charter School, the state’s top-performing public school and largest STEM-specialty school serving students in grades 6-12 is aimed at expanding students’ interest and ability in STEM locally and statewide.

ASD’s Student Council held a lock-in for the school’s high school students on the last day of Mid Terms in January. This night was not only a lot of fun for the participants who stayed up all night playing games, watching movies, dancing and just enjoying time with friends, but it also raised money. The members of Student Council decided that they wanted to donate 100% of the proceeds from this event to the Academy for Science and Design so that the school could purchase working clocks and light bulbs for the building.

Charter schools are responsible for filling the funding gap between the actual cost of the per-pupil education and the funding received from the state. Student Council Co-president 11th grader Tabor French said “We realized that we’d been doing all of these events for the students of ASD, but we hadn’t really been giving back to the school and helping the school with supplies to keep it running. So we used the Lock-in as an opportunity to give back to the school that has given so much to us.”

The students wanted to be sure that the money that they raised was used towards something that the school really needed. They interviewed IT and Facilities Manager James Overman during one of their meetings in order to find out what the greatest need was and light bulbs and working clocks were two areas that came up during that meeting.

“We decided that the Student Council should be doing more to benefit the entire school, instead of only being an event committee.” according to tenth grader Fiona Doyle. “We knew that the school may not be able to pay for the light bulbs on their limited budget, so we decided to chip in” Doyle continued. On Friday, March 27th Student Council Co-presidents Tabor French and Ali Cleveland presented ASD Director Jennifer Cava with a check for $1,500 on behalf of the Student Council to be used to purchase working clocks and light bulbs for the school.

The Academy for Science and Design is actively seeking to partner with local companies and businesses for student-centered things such as internships in STEM fields for our students, financial donations, and/or presenters for our school for the SPARK Conferences. Financial donations can be an outright financial contribution in the amount of your choice, or can consist of underwriting costs for installing a specific facility technology or program. The Academy for Science and Design has two more SPARK Conferences scheduled this year, and presenters from the community are always welcome. More information can be found on our website at www.asdnh.org or email Amy.Bewley@asdnh.org.