Mission of Service for Tom Grundy

Action in the World:

In 2002, Tom changed careers and became a high school teacher at an inner city school in Philadelphia, where he continually worked to make the school a more enjoyable and rewarding experience for both students and staff. He co-facilitated the Gay/Straight Alliance, a program to help kids deal with both the challenges of being gay and life in general. He is sponsoring the Class of 2012, organizing class trips, fund-raisers, and other fun activities. For the staff, he created the "Teacher Survival Group", a program to help teachers productively deal with the stress of working with inner city kids. He has also coached Little League teams, tutored kids in reading, and taught Sunday school at a local church, where he also started a youth group. He has worked with past Hering Award honoree Rich Menges in his program "Sharing Inside Time", working with men in prison.