A Letter from the President

Change is inevitable. One need only look at the adoption of digital technology as a means of communication in today’s world to see that evolution is a reality. When we look at the HCEF 20 years from now, it will look much different than it does today . . . just as today, it seems much different from 20 years ago. What would be fantastic to see is our Foundation as continually adapting to each new environment. What would be great to see is our Foundation never growing stagnant but always trying new ideas, still pushing ourselves to continue to be creative. What would be nice to see is our Foundation making progressive steps in lockstep with the academic community. What will be necessary to see is continued community-wide support for this vision.

Working with children in developing their future commits us always to stay positive. Staying positive while working in a system of diversity is challenging. Our value system must be one that embraces the challenges and continually looks for an ethical compromise among the academic community we depend on for ideas, the children we wish to educate and the public we need to involve.

Our mission statement is very clear and provides the path we need to follow to achieve our vision. However, concepts like changes and challenges and innovation require us to continually re-invent the way we walk this path. To provide focus and flexibility we have created two separate but interconnected bodies – The HCEF Board of Directors and the five individual Committees they oversee. The Board of Directors is a small group of dedicated individuals who act like a compass, providing the decision-making skills required to keep us in line with our Vison. The Committees are comprised of energetic and responsible members of the community who work in an environment of independent thought under the guidance of a Board member. These two bodies work in sync to provide the focus and the flexibility required to build a synergistic relationship between the academic community, the students, and the community.