GROWING WITH GREENHOUSE SCHOLARS

The powerhouse nonprofit organization, Greenhouse Scholars, accelerates the change in our younger generations’ educational success stories. For almost two decades, the CEO and Founder of Greenhouse Scholars, Pete Burridge, alongside a powerful team of innovators, has influenced the lives of high-performing, low-income students across the nation. With hard work and dedication to change, Greenhouse Scholars has built effective programs that supports extraordinary students throughout and beyond college.

The organization was founded with one mission – to cultivate cohorts of leaders who will evolve the communities of the world. The organization has expanded their roots to now offer support beyond scholars’ college years, through their Community Change Model, which encapsulates their College Program and Young Leaders Program. Postgraduate scholars are equipped with not only a diploma but hundreds of helping hands who create a strong, supportive network. Greenhouse Scholars works to transform lives by providing scholars with skillful mentors, leadership training, career coaching, internship opportunities, and more throughout their college experience and beyond. Andra Pool, Chief Relationship and Community Officer at Greenhouse Scholars expresses that “We ensure that our scholars graduate from college, thrive, and are in a position to be leaders.”

Greenhouse Scholars’ uniqueness derives from their model to combine the nuts and bolts of a for-profit business with the tried and true aspirations of a nonprofit organization. “We’re able to attract really high performing, high integrity people because we have a value system and a culture that has other high performing high integrity people wanting to be a part of what we’re doing,” Burridge says. Greenhouse Scholars is heavily supported not only by their team of hardworking individuals, but by the public through a plethora of volunteer opportunities, donors, alumni, event attendees, sponsors, and fundraiser hosts.

Hinsdale has been a great catalyst for the spread of Greenhouse Scholars’ impactful mission and is beloved in the Greenhouse Scholars family. The organization’s Hinsdale community has over 600 members, who have donated over $1.5 million to Greenhouse Scholars and have volunteered more than 10,000 hours. “It’s been fulfilling for me to be able to have what we’re doing on a national scale be embraced by the Hinsdale community where I’m from,” Burridge noted.

Every volunteer is appreciated and recognized for their efforts. Hinsdale resident, and beloved member of the organization, Megan McCleary, shares her heartwarming story and the impact Greenhouse Scholars made on her and her family. Megan and her late husband Tom’s story began at a Glass Half Full event years ago. “We were really impressed with what Greenhouse Scholars does to really help the whole person,” said McCleary, “what really drew us were the scholars speaking about their backgrounds but also how Greenhouse Scholars has helped them.” The couple were eager to get involved in the organization following their attendance at the event. The two dove deeper into the nonprofit by sponsoring an upcoming Glass Half Full event through McCleary’s real estate firm. Alongside this, Tom became involved in the interview process after the couple grew a deeper connection to the mission. McCleary mentioned that one scholar, Faiz Rehman, touched the heart of Tom during an interview, and they continued to stay in contact. After participating in the selection process, Tom became a mentor to scholar Ricardo Reyes. The McCleary family grew to adore Reyes and his journey at Stanford University through his meaningful relationship with Tom. McCleary’s husband was later diagnosed with cancer, and she mentioned, “One day when Tom was sick he got three phone calls. He was pretty emotional that day, and he said he got calls from his three guys. One of them was Faiz, one of them was Ricardo, and one of them was our son Sean.” McCleary noted the joy that was brought to Tom after receiving these phone calls on the same day. McCleary deeply expressed the mark left by the two scholars, Faiz and Ricardo, and how they touched their lives. As the volunteers help to make an impact on scholars’ lives, you can expect scholars to leave a greater effect on the lives of the volunteers.

The Hinsdale community continues to be a beloved branch of Greenhouse Scholars’ supporters. “It’s the community that got us off the ground,” after the organization’s launch in Illinois, says Monica Beckford Curry, Chicago-based Director at Greenhouse Scholars. The organization is hosting this year’s Glass Half Full Illinois in downtown Chicago this fall. Greenhouse Scholars offers a handful of annual events and encourages attendance. Whether you’ve been involved or not, Greenhouse Scholars invites the community to join in on their change. “When people come to our events for the first time, they’re really surprised at how it feels like they’re at a gathering of friends and family,” says Beckford Curry. Pete Burridge and his team are in the vanguard of the revolution of future generations. Greenhouse Scholars is not just a nonprofit organization, it’s a force for change in our society.

If you’d like to become a part of the Greenhouse Scholars community, visit greenhousescholars.org.