$14.2M Gift Endows Adam Education Fund for Clark University's Acclaimed Urban Education Partnerships and Teacher Training

WORCESTER, Mass., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Clark University President John Bassett today (April 29) announced the establishment of the Ruth and John Adam Education Fund, a gift of more than $14.2 million made to enhance Clark's nationally recognized model for urban secondary education and reform, teacher-training  and community education partnerships.

"Clark is ecstatic about receiving this extraordinary bequest," said President Bassett. "Jack Adam came to believe that Clark University, with its splendid Education program, was the right institution to improve the chances of our least privileged youth to have, through education, a chance to be a success."

The Adam Education Fund will support Clark's Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education, which offers an intensive, full-year Master of Arts in Teaching program for Clark students interested in elementary, middle or high school teaching in urban settings. The Center provides support to schools in the surrounding Main South neighborhood and other Worcester Public Schools, exemplified by the highly acclaimed University Park Campus School, and also through use-inspired research and education reform initiatives such as Innovation Schools.  These are integral parts of the expanded collaboration supported by the fund, which will enable Worcester Public Schools and Clark to promote this successful urban education reform on a national scale. 

John "Jack" Adam Jr. established the fund before his death in 2009 at age 94. The former Clark University trustee and CEO of the Hanover Insurance Company was a highly respected business leader and philanthropist. He also was a sharp observer of the American education system and the "fundamental connection between education and the underclass." 

The bequest will provide new capacities for Clark University to:

• Strengthen graduate programs in education;
• Build on the success of the University Park Campus School with a particular focus on promoting college-readiness among underrepresented students;
• Undertake initiatives to strengthen Clark's research profile around issues of urban education within the overall framework of use-inspired research.

This $14.2 million gift is an endowed fund that must, as a condition of the donor, be invested in perpetuity by Clark University with its other endowed funds.

For more about the Adam Education Fund and Clark University, visit https://news.clarku.edu/news.

SOURCE Clark University