By Nicole Shapiro ’18 and Seby Shuken ’18

While many see a pencil as nothing more than a piece of school supplies, those in developing countries struggle to obtain just one. The Staples club, Pencils of Promise, works to follow its mission of giving those less fortunate an equal chance to succeed in their academic endeavors.

One way the club makes a difference is by donating school supplies and funding to build schools in impoverished parts of Asia and Latin America. Dominique Teixeira ’17, president and founder of the club, said, “The purpose behind Staples Pencils of Promise is to spread awareness about the lack of opportunity for education for children in underdeveloped countries.”

Teixeira further explained the club’s mission, saying, “At the start of SHSPoP we set a goal to raise enough money to build a school, $25,000.”  Pencils of Promise is relatively new club, that started in 2014 by Teixeira in her Sophomore year. She decided to start the club after reading Adam Braun’s book, who is the founder of the nationally recognized non-profit organization. Not only is the purpose of Pencils of Promise to donate to developing communities, but to spread awareness in the Staples Community as well..

“Pencils of Promise is founded on the idea that all deserve equal access to quality education. As a teacher, this is an ideal that I truly support and believe in, and this is a club who actually is working to make this idea a reality on a global scale.” Kim Herzog, an advisor the club said.

Throughout the year, Pencils of Promise hosts a variety of fundraisers to help build schools and donate supplies to nations that lack these fundamental resources.“For the most part, the club runs a variety of fundraisers to enable our building of a school in Laos, and we will continue to be doing so to provide access to clean water.” Herzog said

Typically, meetings for the club will happen once a month. The members discuss new ways to make money through fundraisers and how they will allocate their funds to different programs that they support.

“To be apart of something that makes such a difference not only makes me feel good about myself,” Claudia Lagnese ’17, a member of the club said, “but also has helped me grow tremendously as a person throughout my time in Pencils of Promise.”