By George Yatchisin

The Kresge Foundation has awarded a $500,000 challenge grant to the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education (GGSE) to help complete construction and assist in fundraising for a new facility that will house the school and its clinical outreach programs.

The challenge requires that the GGSE raise an additional $1.7 million in private support by September 1, 2009, toward the $7 million capital project. This is the first time the prestigious foundation has awarded a grant to UCSB.

The new building will greatly enhance the Gevirtz School’s mission to become a hub of scholarship, research, and service, and a national leader in developing the expertise to solve the most serious educational problems.

“We thank the Kresge Foundation for their generous support and challenge to raise funds in support of our Gevirtz Graduate School of Education,” said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. “The new building will be a showcase for the outstanding research and teaching by our renowned faculty and dedicated students in education, as well as an important facility for clinical outreach to the community. We are most grateful to our campus friends for their continuing generosity to support this critically needed facility.”

The capital campaign coincides with the Gevirtz School’s yearlong celebration of “100 Years of Preparing Educators.” The Santa Barbara State Normal School –– UCSB’s progenitor –– was established in 1909 as a two-year college program for training manual arts and home economics teachers. The Gevirtz School has been educating teachers for nearly a century.

“We are very grateful to the Kresge Foundation for their confidence in our mission to make a difference in the lives of Californians,” said Jane Close Conoley, dean of the GGSE. “This challenge grant enhances our fundraising efforts to create a home for our marvelous programs that serve the local, state, and national needs in teaching quality, mental health, educational and policy research, and for capacity building in our schools to eliminate the achievement gap.”

The new building will be dedicated to the healthy development and educational success of children, adolescents, and adults in schools and society at large. It will feature academic and research centers, “smart” classrooms, clinical and conference spaces, faculty offices, a lobby and atrium, a fourth-floor balcony and patio, and a learning garden.

The building’s bell tower, which will be named in memory of Julie Goldrich Warner, the daughter of Marilyn Gevirtz, is reminiscent of those that once topped community schoolhouses across the country. The graduate school is named in honor of Marilyn Gevirtz and her late husband, Don, a former U.S. ambassador.

Established by Sebastian Spering Kresge in 1924, the Kresge Foundation supports communities in the United States and around the world by strengthening the nonprofit organizations that serve them. It has helped build the nation’s nonprofit infrastructure –– libraries, community centers, schools, hospitals, art museums, food banks, and countless other facilities.