PUTNEY — The Grammar School (TGS) has announced the creation of The Otis Fund, designed to enhance student diversity at the school's pre-K through eighth-grade campus.
Named for TGS graduate Otis Jacobson (class of 2018) and initially funded by a generous $50,000 donation from his parents, Candace Damon and David Jacobson, the scholarship is intended to support students from BIPOC communities throughout their years at TGS.
According to David Jacobson, the donation is part of "an ongoing drive to increase diversity in the student body" in the small, independent day school. Situated on a sprawling campus, TGS encourages outdoor education, a strength that helped the school weather the Covid pandemic in unique and long-lasting ways.
Damon and Jacobson adopted their son from Kazakhstan in 2005, hence their interest in diversity and cultural exchange.
"Otis has always had a diverse group of friends and classmates, and has benefitted from interacting with different cultures," Jacobson said in a news release.
The Otis Fund is just one effort on the part of TGS to maintain this cross-cultural interaction with students from many different backgrounds.
Otis has weighed in on the creation of this fund in his name.
"My time at The Grammar School built an excellent foundation for a well-grounded perspective," he says. "I chose The Grammar School after moving to Vermont from New York in the sixth grade. One of the most immediate changes was that my athletic elasticity expanded almost exponentially - swimming through caves in Ecuador [on the eighth-grade trip], hiking mountains, and snowboarding twice a week. Being able to try a plethora of sports in local nature environments gave me lots of chances to build meaningful connections and friendships, and the outdoor education assisted me in learning about the wildlife and ecosystem around the campus."
TGS gave Otis not only an opportunity to immerse himself in nature, he says, but also a love of language, specifically French. Now a college student studying fashion design in France, Otis says that his French language instruction was integral to his broader education. At TGS, he "secured lifelong familial friendships and skills I never would have otherwise."
TGS Head of school Nick Perry sees The Otis Fund as a welcome addition to the school's continued efforts in recruiting a diverse student body.
"TGS has always welcomed students and families from different ethnic, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds. Now, with the Otis Fund, it is possible for TGS to extend to more families who would not otherwise be able to make a TGS education work financially. At TGS we nurture a culture of kindness and educate students to contribute to a more just and compassionate world. The Otis Fund will help us with this mission," Perry said.
The Grammar School (thegrammarschool.org), a close-knit community of 120 students from preschool through eighth-grade and 25 teachers and staff, was founded in 1960 by a small group of families with the understanding that a child's elementary school years provide the foundation for all future learning.(1)TGS is the oldest of the independent elementary schools in southern Vermont.
Located on 60 acres of fields and forest in Putney, TGS's families are from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Programming includes the arts, service learning, and nature-based education.
This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.