10 Years of Sustaining the Dreams of LION Alumni

LION Charter School’s 2025 Spring Social, Empowering Futures, aims to raise $15,000 for LION’s College Persistence Fund. We know the power of connecting students with the means to sustain the futures they envision for themselves. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Wilder Baker for fostering the idea of the College Persistence Fund, which began as the Wilder Baker College Relief Fund in 2015. Ten years later, we have issued 175 micro-grants to our alumni and raised over $150,000 for the fund.

Each semester LION awards small grants to its alumni to help defray the costs of beginning, continuing, or completing their post-secondary educational pursuits. These micro-grants are meant to fill the gap after financial aid awards have been disbursed to students to cover unexpected fees associated with collegiate studies or to provide the funding to pursue additional opportunities related to post-secondary education.

Please join us at The East Wing (306 E. 76th Street) from 5:30 to 8:00 PM on Thursday, June 12th, to enjoy refreshments and hear from staff and alumni about the impact of these micro-grants for our alumni. We hope you will join us in supporting our students and their futures by contributing to the College Persistence Fund! We look forward to sustaining this support for many decades to come.

LION's 2025 Spring Social

The 10 Year Anniversary of LION's College Persistence Fund