Fairfield Prep held a very successful School Supply Drive, collecting more than 3,000 items that were then distributed to Catholic and public schools in the Bridgeport area. The drive was coordinated by Ruben Goodwin, Director of Diversity and Academic Support Services, and Ashley Woodworth, Director of Christian Service.

"Ruben and Ashley are adept at taking action and making explicit connections between our Jesuit mission and Christian service, social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion," said Dr. Donna Andrade, Director of Mission & Ministry. 

Students assisted in the delivery of items directly to the area schools in early February.

This initiative caught the eye of one of our academic partners, YTeach. And, because animating the mission requires action, YTeach was inspired to “pay it forward” and donated an additional 500 school supply items to Prep's drive.

Commenting on the motivation for her donation, the CEO and Co-Founder of YTeach, Lourdes Aviñó said:

“We definitely felt motivated to contribute towards the Bridgeport school supply drive for a number of reasons. I'm not sure if you know the complete background of YTeach; however, my son is, in fact, the one who came up with the idea because I would ask him every day what he did to help someone that day. He thought of creating an app where every day students can connect to help each other in exchange for community service. So when I saw Prep's post and Mr. Goodwin's desire to help Bridgeport's students who may not have resources like YTeach (yet), it was a no-brainer. We knew it was something we could do to help and it connected very much with our mission.”

Prep is excited that YTeach recognizedthe connection between their mission and ours.