Members of Taft’s Class of 1970 were looking for ways to support the Taft community while connecting with current Taft students. The result is a fund rooted in the school motto—Non ut sibi ministretur sed ut ministret; Not to be served but to serve—which strengthens their legacy while helping current Taft students build their own.

        The Class of 1970 Live Our Motto Fund helps support student-led initiatives that reflect Taft’s mission and motto—to educate the whole student and encourage leadership, service, and meaningful engagement with community. The fund empowers students to design and manage projects, sharpen leadership and fiscal skills, and create lasting, positive change on campus and beyond.

        In fall 2024, the fund was introduced to the Taft community. By January, students were actively applying for grants, gathering weekly to share ideas, collaborate, and refine proposals. Under the guidance of Assistant Head of School for Student Life Jeremy LaCasse, they learned how to align their visions with the school’s values while navigating the grant application process. LaCasse noted the “immediate impact [the fund] has had on the campus and local communities,” and praised students’ thoughtful engagement.

        The Class of 1970 Live Our Motto Fund is already making a meaningful difference. In its first full year, the fund awarded nearly $20,000 to 10 students and student groups working to effect change on campus and beyond. Here is a quick snapshot of just a few:

GLI Project Support

The Global Leadership Institute (GLI) is a competitive and rigorous co-curricular program that brings students from Taft and Waterbury public schools together both for shared learning and leadership training experiences. The program’s mission is to develop a generation of global leaders with a genuine concern for world problems, multiple perspectives on global issues, and the knowledge and skills needed to contribute to worldwide change. For more than 10 years, each program cohort has identified a global problem they wish to address locally, then spent 18 months developing solutions. Three GLI projects received funding this year from the Live Our Motto Fund:

        - Taft’s Heidi Li ’26 partnered with Zahixa Deboulet-Lopez from Crosby High School on a project they named, Hope for Tomorrow: Empowering Survivors. Their work focused on support for survivors of sexual harassment and assault. In coordination with Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury and with help from a grant from the Taft Class of 1970 Live Our Motto Fund, Heidi and Zahixa provided clothing for survivors, whose own clothing is often taken into evidence by police at the time of the assault, as one component of their project.

        - Through a project entitled Addiction Does Discriminate, Taft’s Vi Vu ’26 and Crosby’s Amani Bien-Aime studied the role poverty and stigmatization play in substance abuse disorders. In addition to detailed academic research, Vi and Amani spent time with in-house clinicians at a residential treatment facility and partnered with CT Renaissance, a nonprofit organization providing comprehensive behavioral health services, as well as housing, case management, and skills training for individuals transitioning from incarceration back into the community. Live Our Motto Fund dollars helped Vi and Amani create gifts and essentials bags for those receiving residential services.

        - Kaylee Graham ’26 worked with Braelyn McDougall from the Waterbury Arts Magnet School on a project dedicated to helping families in greater Waterbury find and access after-school programs. They explored the advantages of after-school programs and looked at access to local programs, then presented their findings to Waterbury Public School families. Through a Live Our Motto Fund grant, and other initiatives, Kaylee and Braelyn raised $1,000 to provide financial assistance for families looking to enroll in after-school programming.

Radio Tower and Bird Housing
Yuqi Qian ’27 is leading an innovative project designed to advance science and learning while growing wildlife habitats. In addition to installing a Motus radio tower on campus to track bird migration using automated telemetry, birdhouses with live-feed cameras will pop up around campus. Funded in part by the Class of ’70, both components will expand wildlife habitats and create new opportunities for scientific observation and the integration of data in science classrooms.

Community Arts Program
Funding provided art and craft supplies for an after-school program at a local elementary school. Taft students volunteer weekly through Taft’s community service program to lead creative activities and build relationships with younger students.

Live Our Motto Fund grants also helped amplify student voices and the arts by defraying the cost of publishing Red Ink, Taft’s literary magazine; sharing critical health information and providing critical resources to the community through Taft’s Public Health Club; supporting service travel to Costa Rica; and developing Taft’s climbing program. The largest grant to date was awarded to Eleanor Lemon ’26 for her work on the Ukrainian Refugee Book Project (more on her important work to come.)

Well done, one and all!