President's Message

Dear friends of Perkins,

At Perkins we believe knowledge is most powerful when it is shared. As part of our ongoing effort to bring Perkins’ growing collection of information and resources to a worldwide audience, we are proud to introduce the new and improved www.Perkins.org.

Our new website has been reorganized using feedback from the people who use it most - making it easier for you to access valuable online resources and find the information you’re looking for about our work on campus, in the community, and around the world.

Highlights of our Revised Website:

• Homepage Feature Items: Large images with descriptions on our new homepage highlight exciting Perkins news, upcoming events, new products, and other opportunities to get involved. Click on one of three smaller images along the bottom to see additional timely features.

• Teaching Resources: In this expanded section of our website, you will find professional training opportunities; on demand webcasts given by experts in the field; advice on adapting lesson plans for students who are visually impaired; and much more.

• Submit Your Story: You will find this new interactive feature in the Scout and Accessible Science sections of our website, inviting you to post your own comments, resources, and teachable experiences.

Construction Projects Layout New Vision for Perkins Campus

While we have been making over our website, exciting new developments are taking place on the Perkins campus.

• New Lower School: In a forward thinking initiative, our Board of Trustees voted to renovate Perkins’ 100-year-old Lower School building, including the construction of a new classroom building. The $30 million project will result in a building that better serves the needs of students with multiple challenges and lays a foundation for the next 100 years. Learn more.

• New Student & Technology Building: A generous $10 million grant from the Grousbeck Family Foundation kicked off a fundraising effort to build, staff, and equip the Grousbeck Center for Students and Technology. The $25 million, 17,000-square-foot center will vastly broaden Perkins’ ability to integrate technology into every phase of a Perkins education. Learn more.

In the Community and Around the World

Our 2009 Discover Conference offered transformative information and resources to more than 80 attendees including families of school age children who are visually impaired, blind, and deafblind including those with additional disabilities. Everyone left with new skills, strategies and, above all, hope for their children’s success. Across the globe, our mission to improve the lives of children and adults with visual impairments, with or without other disabilities, continues.

On a recent trip to Nairobi, Kenya, I joined Perkins International leaders at the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new African Braille Centre Perkins Brailler Workshop & Parts Depot. This new facility will help advance our mission to provide access to braille writers for every child in the world who needs one. With your support, we continue to invest in the future of 94,000 individuals and create new possibilities for the people we serve on campus, in the community, and around the world.

I invite you to discover Perkins many online resources as you enjoy the new www.Perkins.org and take advantage of opportunities to get involved.

Sincerely,

Steven M. Rothstein
President
steven.rothstein@perkins.org

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