Mission: The horizons national student enrichment program, inc. (hn) mission involves changing the life trajectory of low-income students by instilling in them the joy of learning, the skills for success, and the inspiration to realize their dreams. The vision of horizons national student enrichment program is "all children have the opportunity to realize their potential". Horizons national student enrichment program, inc (hn) is the central organization for an award winning network of academic enrichment programs. Since 1964, hn has served low-income, public school, k-12 students, in summer learning programs supported by school-year components. Hn provides affilitiates centralized support services such as evaluation, communication, marketing, pr, and consulting services; planning and funding for affiliate program initiatives; other discretionary grants and expansion.
Programs: The leveraged learning initiative provides an academic framework for all horizons programs, funding reading specialists, student assessment software and training, a comprehensive data base and data analysis, as well as support for curriculum development and stem programming. This initiative has been critical to consistent program quality and model fidelity across affiliates, and to consistent academic gains of 2-3 months improvement each year in reading and math skills for horizons students over the last ten years.
hn identifies and develops new sites, and provides seed funding which serves as the funding bridge while the new affiliate's board establishes itself in its community. Affiliates quickly achieve financial self-sufficiency.
I have been involved with this program one way or another since I was a child. My mother (Lyn McNaught) spent over 30 years as executive director of this program at the New Canaan Country School in New Canaan, CT. I worked there as a counselor as a teenager and Horizons was in integral part of my life until my mother retired. She has gone on to serve on the board of Horizons National as Horizons now has programs all over the United States.
I have seen first hand how this program helps inner city children. It is an opportunity for them to get out of their environment and spend 6 weeks in the summer learning and interacting with others. The academic program is outstanding and children enter school in the fall ahead of their peers (or all caught up if they were behind). They also have the opportunity to swim and do outdoor activities. The friendships they ofen make there can last a lifetime. It is truly unlike any "camp" experience that a child can have.