GSEHD alumna Dr. Maranda Ward (Ed.D., Curriculum and Instruction) was highlighted in GW Today's article, "GW in the Community: Building Pipelines to Success for D.C. Youth."
Dr. Ward is the founder of Promising Futures, an organization that engages D.C. middle and high school students as ambassadors and peer educators with a focus on everything from health to leadership skills. She initially founded the organization in 2002 with a focus on using hip-hop to educate youth on health topics such as nutrition and HIV prevention, but she realized it was more focused on consulting than peer educating. Whe she started pursuing a doctorate of education from GW’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, she thought it was time to rework the program to better meet her goals of engaging youth as leaders and educators themselves.
The Promising Futures program is one of numerous community partnerships that GW faculty, staff and students have with nonprofit and government agencies throughout the Washington D.C., area. Partnerships like these are why GW received the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s 2020 Community Engagement Classification, an elective designation that indicates institutional commitment to community engagement.
Read the full GW Today article to learn more about the program and how GW and our community is making a difference in the lives of others.