Moving Innovation & Imagination Forward

 

INSPIRE SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCES FOUNDATION

The Inspire Foundation is a 509(a)(3) non-profit supporting the Inspire School of Arts & Sciences, a donation-dependent public charter high school focused on growing the students’ passion for visual and performing arts, sciences, and engineering. The Foundation funds the Angel Network program, scholarships, students activities, teacher support, program enhancement and the capital campaign.

The Inspire Foundation is in the midst of a capital campaign to build a state-of-the-art campus in South Chico that will serve as a beacon to students looking to flourish in an educational environment.

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About Our Foundation

The Foundation’s mission is provide Inspire School of Arts & Sciences with the necessary funds so the teachers can focus on motivating and empowering the students to reach their intellectual, creative, personal, civic, and social potentials. 

Read about the areas in which they fund: 

Angel Network

Every student deserves an extraordinary education so the Angel Network was created to supplement students who need supplies, food or additional resources. 

Program Enhancement

Inspire School of Arts & Sciences has incredible programs in the areas of the arts and sciences but the state funding doesn’t cover the additional funding these programs need to be successful. 

Student Scholarships

Inspire is a college-prep school that encourages students to reach their full potential by encouraging attending college and to help fund this goal, the Foundation gives scholarships to qualified students.

Capital Campaign

Raising funds to create a truly inspiring campus – with state-of-art theatre complex, cutting-edge digital and media arts studios and science and engineering labs, and creative maker spaces to enhance the intersection of art and science.

We Have the Power to Impact Our Future, and We’re Doing Something About It

Imagine a robotic hand, designed by engineering students, manufactured on a 3D printer, and brought to life by the actors and musicians on stage. In 2018, Inspire students brought “Thing” to life in the fall musical The Addams Family.

Picture a suitcase sized solar battery, built and delivered by Inspire students to villagers in Tanzania. This suitcase sized box provided light and joy during a dark African night. This is the Inspire science and engineering student experience. 

Yes, Inspire students are pushing boundaries of what’s expected of high school science and engineering students. Imagine what they could achieve with modern labs and equipment…

Happening Now

A Message from the Inspire Foundation Board of Directors

A Message from the Inspire Foundation Board of Directors

Dear Inspire Supporter, Since opening in 2010, Inspire School of Arts & Sciences in Chico has provided students with a learning experience unlike any other North State high school. Where else can a student major in subjects like theatre, engineering,...

How to #SupportInspire Through Amazon Smile

How to #SupportInspire Through Amazon Smile

While you're doing some online shopping for the holidays (or "anydays"), your Amazon purchases can make a difference for creative education! When you sign up to #SupportInspire through Amazon Smile, a percentage of every single purchase you make will benefit the...

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Volunteer

I came to Inspire my sophomore year, and if I could go back in time and do things differently, I absolutely would. I would come in my first year so that I could experience all four years of high school at Inspire. This school has changed my life in more ways than anything else I’ve experienced. Inspire offers so many extracurricular courses, and it gave me the opportunity to really find my passion; and I did. 

I completely fell in love with digital media, specifically video production, and this is something I am now pursuing as a career.
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Without the extensive list of classes and resources that Inspire offers, I wouldn’t have the slightest clue as to where my future is headed. Not only did Inspire pave the way for my career plan, but it also helped me tremendously on a more personal level. Before coming to Inspire, I had lived in four different towns and attended three different schools. It was hard for me to really feel like I was a part of anything when I was so used to moving around. Inspire was the first place that I really felt a sense of belonging. The environment at this school is so open and welcoming, it’s really just like its own little community. It’s so different from the other schools I’d been to, because you can just tell that all the faculty, they truly care about each and every kid here. You can just feel the love and support. It’s because of the environment at this school that I was able to find the strength and courage to blossom and become the person that I was meant to be. My senior year, I came out as transgender, and even though it was a really scary experience, I felt totally safe because of the support and acceptance that this school encompasses. And that experience alone has completely changed my life in so many ways. If I hadn’t come to Inspire, I honestly don’t know what my life would be like now. I don’t know where I’d be or even who I’d be. What I do know for sure, is that I am far better off having experienced all that Inspire has to offer. And far down the line when I have kids of my own some day, I hope that wherever I am, I’ll find a school that will give my kids as good of experiences as the ones that Inspire gave me.

Geoffrey Morales

Class of 2017

It has been over five years since I graduated from Inspire. Since graduating, I obtained both my bachelor’s in religious studies and my master’s in public affairs from Brown University. I’ve traveled to ten different countries on three different continents. I spent a year of undergrad studying abroad at Oxford where I spent countless hours studying monastic-like in library enclaves and exploring the alleyways that inspired C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, and Lewis Carroll. I’ve practiced Zen Buddhism in monasteries throughout Japan, marveled at giraffes and elephants READ MORE

as they stroll across the plains of Kenya, and worked in a skyscraper in Manhattan. 

I am unbelievably blessed to have had all of these opportunities. Especially to have had them as a first-generation and low-income student. I credit Inspire for building in me the confidence that I can do the improbable, for teaching me that failure is only possible when one refuses to try again, and for showing me that a caring community is an important part of learning and growth.

In these exciting years of change and of travel, I have found myself missing Inspire. More particularly, the sense of community I felt while a student there. Inspire is undeniably special. I learned many things, both from my peers and my teachers, that I carry with me each day. While a student, I often found myself humbled by the sheer diversity of talent that surrounded me. I was also humbled by the fact that I owed much of my success and my inspiration to the community of friends––both peers and teachers––who supported, helped, and encouraged me as I struggled through APUSH, memorized derivatives for Calculus, sought to qualify as a mediocre ceramics student, and applied to colleges. Inspire, to me, is special because it constitutes a community whose ethos is one of mutual support, collaboration, and concern. Inspire is a place that encourages and embraces a diversity of expression: artistic, scientific, funky, fun, poetic, musical…the list could go on. 

My experiences at Inspire have dictated how I have sought to build a sense of community while away from home and will dictate how I hope to build community in the future. Going to Inspire never felt like a chore nor a requirement, but, rather, a privilege and a joy.

Anna Lenaker

Class of 2015

Inspire School of Arts and Sciences literally saved my education career. I thought I would never finish high school, let alone go to college as I was homeless for half of my senior year. Inspire worked with me to ensure I completed high school as I struggled with my mental health and homelessness and even helped me apply for Butte College, where I later graduated with two AA degrees in Social and Behavioral Sciences and Psychology. 

The teachers there gave me hope that I could be more; even when I did not know where I was going to live the very next day. READ MORE

Inspire was a place where I learned to truly be myself, to open up to others, and gave me opportunities to learn a more unbiased education. I was able to learn dance skills, guitar and ukulele,  graphic design and photography skills, and social skills that have helped me get out of cycles of homelessness and helped my mental health.

I am now about to graduate with a Bachelor’s of Social Work degree where I am inspired to help transitional age youth that have struggled as I have. I have been working with differently abled adults, LGBTQ support groups, in mental health, and social services since I was 18. I firmly believe I would not have gotten this far in life without this high school.

Skylar Rossy

Class of 2013

Changing the world,

one student at a time

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