As he has proudly mentioned a lot this week, the philanthropic arm of the TGR brand, The Tiger Woods Foundation, has had many successes since its inception. Through events such as this week’s Hero World Challenge, Tiger Live and the Tiger Woods Invitational, he has raised many millions of dollars for his charity.
It Began with Golf
It all started in 1996 when the Tiger Woods Foundation was established by Woods and his father Earl. Tiger, then 20 years old, had the vision of growing golf among inner-city kids and increase their participation in the sport. Whilst they had great successes in this endeavour, Tiger wanted more, he wanted his foundation and his legacy to transcend golf.
Beyond Golf
Now in their 20th year, they’ve come a long way and have made great strides in education. Tiger and his team endeavour to provide the best educational opportunities to any child regardless of race or financial situation. During his time at Stanford, Tiger realised that the environment in which you learn makes all the difference.
“When you create atmospheres where learning is enjoyable, it’s amazing how much the mind can receive, and that’s what we’re trying to do here”, he said in an interview about the program.
TGR Learning Lab
The results have been incredible with around 150,000 students participating in seven learning centres so far. An impressive feat and a number that is set to grow further. At the TGR Learning Lab students from 5th and 6th grade classes near Learning Centres get the chance of a week of immersive study. What is even better is that when the kids are in the class their regular teacher is receiving training of their own. This way the foundation create continued learning long after the visit is over.
The Tiger Woods Foundation has many after school programs. The ethos is to help accelerate the learning of grade school children and prepare them for life ahead. In a recent survey of their pupils 91% said they felt more confident, 82% improved their grades and 87% said they had started planning for a certain career after their time at the foundation. As well as helping school children, the foundation also work to help youths get into and graduate from university.
University Education
The Earl Woods Scholarship, founded in honour of Tiger’s late father and his hero, was established to help put students through the college system. This scholarship boasts an unmatched graduation rate and continues to be a great success. The program alumni are impressive including 17 graduates from the 2015 program and it’s first from Stanford. Another stand-out student is Grace Lee, alumnus of the year in 2012 and currently an engineer at NASA.
The Present and The Future
Tiger Woods Foundation focusses on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. In order to ensure a lasting legacy provides teachers of these subjects with great training. The vision of the foundation continues to expand and increase their reach. The next step in this is offering an online learning platform so they can reach millions of students globally. After 20 years of great work, the future for the Tiger Woods Foundation looks incredibly bright. The work that Tiger and his team do is highly admirable. Here’s to continued success.
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