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Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Formation | 1995/1996 School Year |
|---|---|
| Founder | Tim Stephenson |
| Founded at | Greenbrier, Arkansas |
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Tax ID no. | 71-0863568 |
| Headquarters | Little Rock, Arkansas |
President & CEO | Matt Dozier |
| Revenue | $3.7 million USD[1] (2024) |
| Expenses | $3.94 million USD[1] (2024) |
| Website | https://www.eastinitiative.org/ |
The EAST Initiative is an educational non-profit organization that oversees and trains educators and students in an educational model, EAST, that operates primarily in the United States.
The program began in 1995 in Arkansas. It offers students and teachers professional technology and software for use in a service-oriented, self-driven environment.[2]
The EAST Initiative was founded by Tim Stephenson, a former law enforcement officer turned teacher, at Greenbrier High School (Arkansas), in Greenbrier, Arkansas, in the 1995/1996 school year.[3][4][5][6]
Authors, Sarah C. McKenzie and Gary W. Ritter, both from University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, describe the origin story In their Policy Brief, titled "EAST Initiative," part of the Office for Education Policy Series from ScholarWorks@UARK:
In an effort to connect with his at-risk students, Stephenson organized an outing to a wooded area with a creek and pond, where students sometimes went to skip classes. The first EAST project turned out to be building a bridge across that creek. One of the students’ parents volunteered to help teach students how to design the bridge by using technological tools. Stephenson’s students were excited about their accomplishment and proposed more projects. To help with these future projects, Stephenson arranged a partnership between his students and an Arkansas technology firm.[5]
EAST is an acronym for Environmental and Spatial Technology.[5][6]
In 2018 after a rebranding campaign, EAST used their acronym to provide a "tag line" to better explain the model, "Education Accelerated by Service and Technology," though the original acronym still serves as the official one serving even serving as the formal name of the 501(c)(3) organization, Environmental and Spatial Technology, Inc.
The EAST Initiative was determined by the Internal Revenue Service to be exempt from income tax under 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code and have a status as a Public Charity under IRS Code 170(b)(1)(A)(vi), beginning in 2002.[7]
Donations made to EAST Initiative are tax deductible, per the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 78 Data.[8]
EAST Initiative program adoption has fluctuated over the years, since its inception, but it appears that the early to mid-2000s represented the verified height of the U.S. nation-wide adoption, with 2004-2005 marking the peak where EAST projects were in place in more than 150 schools in Alabama, California, Hawaii, Illinois and Louisiana.[9]
As of 2022-2023, EAST Initiative reports there to be "EAST Programs" in 308 educational institutions, across 4 U.S. States, including Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania.[10]
Throughout its existence the EAST Initiative, or its Program Model, have been recognized by U.S. Federal Agencies and State Governments for its efficacy in assisting students in building skills in arts, tools, and "emerging technologies", and improving independent and interdependent, self-driven, project-based skillsets in real-world and work-like settings.[11]
In 2004, the United States Department of Education stated that "[t]he EAST [M]odel has been recognized nationally as an innovative, relevant, and successful approach to education," included the EAST Modal in its nationwide examples of programs which demonstrated that "results in educational achievement often have been significant."[11][12]
The EAST Model was included in the United States Department of Education's 2004 "National Education Technology Plan".[11]
The EAST Initiative is recognized by the Arkansas Department of Education and the department continues to provide support and grant funding for the implementation of EAST Programs in Arkansas; most recently, the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education of the Arkansas Department of Education provided startup grant funding for 13 additional schools to add EAST Programs in 2026–2027.
The Legislature of the State of Hawaii have introduced multiple Bills, including SB1921 (2007) and HB1630 (2008), in attempts to codify budget allotments and state-wide adoption of EAST Initiative Programs.[12][13]
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The EAST Initiative is an educational non-profit organization that oversees and trains educators and students in an educational model, EAST, that operates primarily in the United States. The program began in 1995 in Arkansas. It offers students and teachers professional technology and software for use in a service-oriented, self-driven environment.
The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is a United States State Department program that fosters meaningful and effective partnerships between citizens, civil society, the private sector, and governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to resolve local challenges and promote shared interests in the areas of participatory governance and economic opportunity and reform. Focusing on promoting stability and prosperity in the region, MEPI supports partnerships through projects that are responsive to emerging opportunities by being field-driven, applying evidence-based decision-making, and designing results-oriented projects. Four of MEPI's most prominent leadership programs are its annual Student Leaders program that brings students from all over the MENA region to participate in an intensive leadership training course of approximately 5 weeks in the United States, its Leaders for Democracy Fellowship program that provides early and mid-career professionals from the MENA region with the opportunity to complete training in participatory governance, conflict resolution, and political mobilization and communication, and its Tomorrow's Leaders undergraduate and graduate program which provides scholarships to promising, under-served students from the MENA region through accredited regional institutions.
The Middle East Youth Initiative is a program at the Wolfensohn Center for Development, housed in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. It was launched in July 2006 as a joint effort between the Wolfensohn Center and the Dubai School of Government. The Initiative performs vigorous research on issues pertaining to regional youth (ages 15–24) on the topics of Youth Exclusion, education, employment, marriage, housing, and credit, and on the ways in which all of these elements are linked during young people’s experience of waithood. In addition to research and policy recommendation, the Initiative serves as a hub for networking between policymakers, regional actors in development, government officials, representatives from the private sector, and youth. Current fellows with the Initiative include Djavad Salehi-Isfahani.
East China Sea Peace Initiative is a proposal remarked by Ma Ying-jeou, the president of Taiwan at the opening ceremony of an exhibition in Taipei to mark the 60th anniversary of a peace treaty signed between the Republic of China and Japan following the second Sino-Japan War on August 5, 2012. It called for shelving the dispute around the East China Sea including the Senkaku (Diaoyutai) Islands and suggested to focus on sharing resource rather than claiming sovereignty. The initiative calls on the relevant parties to: 1. Refrain from taking any antagonistic actions. 2. Shelve controversies and not abandon dialogue. 3. Observe international law and resolve disputes through peaceful means. 4. Seek consensus on a code of conduct in the East China Sea. 5. Establish a mechanism for cooperation on exploring and developing resources in the East China Sea. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japanese from 2011 to 2012, Kōichirō Genba posted the message on Oct 5 2012 through the Interchange Association Japan. He said that "some parts cannot be consented though; its fundamental idea of seeking peaceful solution is corresponded to Japanese recognition". Some Japanese scholars also think the proposal is constructive. In 2015, in a written statement in response to questions from the House Committee of Foreign Affairs. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said about the existence of competing maritime claims "does not and should not preclude claimants from finding peaceful and effective ways to share and manage resources responsibly" and "this principle, which is enunciated in the East China Sea Peace Initiative, is relevant across maritime Asia".
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.