Accomplishments

Arts for Kids

A new initiative allows approximately 3,500 preschool children and teachers throughout Pittsburgh to benefit from a new arts education initiative launched by the PNC Foundation and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, bringing music and dance to children.

Our Kids and the Arts - A Great Early Start - Cleveland Grant

The PNC Foundation is pleased to announce Our Kids and the Arts – A Great Early Start, a $2 million investment in four Cleveland arts and cultural institutions to establish new programs and help underserved preschool children succeed in school and life. The grants will be shared among the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Orchestra, PlayhouseSquare and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Add It Up For Families

A unique, comprehensive collaboration between two federal agencies and a public company to enhance early childhood math education and to help lower-income families become financially self-sufficient. This pilot initiative served approximately 450 preschool children and their families at the North Philadelphia Head Start program and several other area locations. It will be evaluated as a model to introduce in other Head Start centers.

PNC employees collect 30,000 supplies for Grow Up Great

PNC employees in Philadelphia collected more than 30,000 new preschool supplies in September, and logged more than 1,100 volunteer hours.

Grow Up Great Mobile Learning Adventure comes to
PNC Field

PNC’s Mobile Learning Adventure (MLA) teamed up with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees and stopped by PNC Field May 18. The MLA offered entertainment, with one asking the children what they wanted to be when they grow up. “Rock star” was the runaway favorite.

PNC releases study of early childhood education

Harris Interactive conducted national surveys of teachers and parents to provide them with quantitative information for the PNC Study of Early Childhood Education. The study was commissioned by The PNC Financial Services Group, and included a total of 1,001 interviews with parents, and 516 interviews with teachers. While 25% of parents felt children are extremely well prepared for school upon entering kindergarten, the same percentage of teachers felt children were not prepared very well, if at all.

Download PNC Study Parent Teacher Findings (PDF)

Download PNC White Paper Parent Teacher Findings (PDF)

A $36,500 PNC Grow Up Great grant gives children a head start in science

A $36,500 PNC Grow Up Great grant recently gave preschoolers at the Fredericksburg Regional Head Start Center in Virginia a jump start in science. The grant is funding a collaborative demonstration project of the Head Start center and Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR) to enhance science education among children ages 3 to 5. FOR is a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to advocating, restoring and educating the community about the Rappahannock River.

Princeton preschoolers sample balloon festival

Sponsored by PNC’s Grow Up Great school readiness program, in support of the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning, the field trip took the preschoolers to view a 75-foot hot air balloon.

Wilmington Head Start centers’ students attend live theatre

The old show business adage “the show must go on” was certainly true April 16 as PNC Delaware sponsored the performances for local Head Start children as part of Grow Up Great Week activities.

Grow Up Great volunteers team up for greater impact

Starting in 2006, eight PNC employees teamed up to volunteer as a group, creating an opportunity to make an even greater impact. Everyone agreed the team atmosphere made it more fun and easier to organize transportation to the Head Start center. Rebecca Stauffer was one of the employees who helped out. For her, the one-on-one interaction with the children is one of the factors that sets PNC’s program apart. In her words, “I believe I can make a difference in a child’s life.” PNC offers eligible employees up to 40 paid hours a year to volunteer at early childhood education centers–40 hours to make a difference.

PNC funds professor in early childhood education

Strengthening a long-standing commitment to improve the literacy and school readiness of preschool children throughout Philadelphia, Temple and PNC have entered into a partnership to endow a professorship in early childhood education in the College of Education. Dr. Barbara Wasik, who joined Temple from Johns Hopkins University, was nominated to be the PNC Professor of Early Childhood Education.

PNC advocates school readiness at DC Summit

PNC Chairman and CEO Jim Rohr highlighted the importance of school readiness and the PNC Grow Up Great investment in a keynote speech to 275 educators, business leaders and others during a first-ever early education summit, the “Building the Economic Case for Investments in Preschool” conference in Washington, D.C.