The
Louise P. Zanar
Fund
at The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
at The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
The Louise Zanar Guitar Classes at the Levine School of Music
The Levine School of Music: This school is one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious community music schools. It offers music education for students of every age, ability and background. To maintain the school’s accessibility, it offers an extensive scholarship program that is both needs and merits based. In 2005, the school opened up a branch school in Anacostia at a new facility, the Arts & Recreational Center (the ARC).
Since its inception, the Fund has underwritten the Louise Zanar Guitar Class which is offered at the Levine School's Anacostia campus in the ARC. This year, instructor Matthew Dievendorf has had his students focus primarily on Blues and R& B, teaching the students how to listen to music and improvise. The class has been extremely successful and has sparked a growing interest in guitar at the ARC.
Beginning in 2008, the Fund will underwrite two guitar classes at the Levine School. It will continue to underwrite the current intermediate Louise Zanar Guitar Class and add a new class for beginners.
Louise P Zanar Fund Scholarships for the Theatre Lab
The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts is the Washington area's most comprehensive theatre training center, providing theatre education to more than 1,000 adults, teens and children in the DC area each year. It is a non-profit organization committed to broadening participation in theatre arts and providing theatre education opportunities for traditionally underserved populations and is currently featured in the 2006/2007 Catalogue for Philanthropy as one of the best small charities in Washington.
Since 2005, the Louise P Zanar Fund has provided more than a dozen scholarships for underserved children in the Washington area to attend the Theatre Lab's highly regarded summer programs of acting camps and theatre institutes. These program not only improve the participants' theatric skills, but increase self-esteem, strengthen communication and teamwork and stimulate creative thought. The Louise P Zanar Fund continues to underwrite scholarships so that each summer, children who would otherwise not have access to such programs can attend.
The Louise P Zanar Next Step Art Scholarship
The Louise P Zanar Fund has teamed up with the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, DC to create the Louise P Zanar Next Step Art Scholarship, a scholarship fund that provides disadvantaged youth with money to cover costs associated with instruction in the arts.
The Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) is a multicultural community-based organization that supports youth and their families in their determination to live, work, and study with dignity, hope, and joy. Through LAYC, the Next Step charter school was established in 1996. Next Step students are recent immigrants or young people who were born or grew up in the United States, but have found it difficult to achieve success in traditional public schools. For many students, personal challenges such as teenage pregnancy, the need to work to support themselves or their families and the lack of a stable home, have made it impossible for them to stay in public school. Other students have language and literacy barriers that keep them from understanding and participating in traditional classroom settings.
This year, seven Louise P Zanar Next Step Art Scholarships of $500 each, will be given to Next Step students to pay for art/music classes or to buy materials or instruments for students already enrolled in classes. Scholarships are awarded to students based on demonstrated motivation, reliability and future goals.
The Louise P Zanar Fund's Scholarship for Brainfood
The Louise P Zanar Fund has funded a full-year scholarship for a local high school student to attend Brainfood's after-school culinary program.
Brainfood is a non-profit youth development organization in Washington, DC. Using food as a tool, Brainfood builds life skills and promotes healthy living in a fun and safe environment. Local high school students participate in programs either twice a week after school or every day for five weeks during the summer. Activities include hands-on cooking classes, lectures, field trips and community service projects. Brainfood graduates are equipped with practical cooking skills, an introduction to the food industry, a framework for nutritious eating, and leadership experience that prepares them to make a difference in their community.
