the project school

October 1, 2015 -- The Project School is honored to have received the Old National Bank "Tools for Schools" competive grant. This unrestricted grant was awarded to TPS after a regional voting competition. The school with the greatest number of votes in each of Old National Bank's 14 regions received $1000.

May 9, 2015 -- The Project School in Bloomington has been selected into the Ashoka’s Changemaker Schools Network, joining forty plus innovative and influential schools chosen from across the country. Ashoka – a Washington DC based Foundation – launched the Changemaker Schools Network in 2012 to identify, recognize, and collaborate with innovative, influential schools that are rethinking education. The network is a national growing community of schools that serve as models for cultivating students as changemakers, leading the way to ensuring every child develops agency, empathy, and voice.

To become a member of the Ashoka Changemakers Schools Network, The Project School underwent a rigorous site visit and interview process with members of the international Ashoka Fellows team, sharing its vision, mission, values and pedagogy. In extending the invitation to The Project School to join the Changemaker Network, Sara Hinderliter from the Ashoka Foundation said, “We are inspired and encouraged by The Project School’s commitment to cultivating empathy in its students, as well as its aspiration to ensure that all children become changemakers.”

The Changemakers Network includes schools of all demographics and geographies, demonstrating that excellence can be achieved in any environment. Changemaker schools also contribute to shifting the demand among parents and teachers from schools focused only on academic outcomes to schools that graduate students as empathic, collaborative leaders. As a member of Ashoka’s Changemaker Schools Network, The Project School will have the opportunity to influence the greater education discourse through media and presenting at conferences; connect with like-minded schools across the country; collaborate on projects that impact education; and partner with other Ashoka-recognized changemakers including universities, social entrepreneurs, and companies.

“We are extremely pleased to be recognized as a Changemaker School. This exemplifies our commitment to using heart-mind-voice education to not only change the lives of our students and families, but to also create truly lasting impact in our local and world communities. The work of Ashoka is so powerfully aligned to our mission, vision, and core beliefs that we are very honored to be selected,” said Cathy Diersing, school leader of The Project School.

Ashoka is the largest network of social entrepreneurs worldwide, with nearly 3,000 Ashoka Fellows in 70 countries putting their system changing ideas into practice on a global scale. Founded by Bill Drayton in 1980, Ashoka has provided start-up financing, professional support services, and connections to a global network across the business and social sectors, and a platform for people dedicated to changing the world. Ashoka launched the field of social entrepreneurship and has activated multi-sector partners across the world who increasingly look to entrepreneurial talent and new ideas to solve social problems.