060117 SWB DIGITAL EDITION

Education was the opportunity for
change that took Southwest resident,
philanthropist and businessman
Harris Rosen from a rough neighborhood
in New York’s Upper East
Side to the renowned hotel investor
he is today. You can’t go very far in
Central Florida without seeing his
name attached to exclusive hotels, a
medical center, a Jewish community
center, and even a college building.
Knowing what education provided
him in a blessed life, Rosen believes
that anyone can succeed if given
the chance to get an education. He
invested into creating the Tangelo
Park Program, a three-pronged
program that includes the promise
of a free college or vocational
school education — including room,
board, books, tuition and travel
— to any youth graduating high
school in Tangelo Park, a small, rural
African-American neighborhood off
International Drive. To date, the program
has graduated close to 400
children from high school, with close
to 200 college degrees awarded.
Also, the crime rate is down more
than 50 percent during the past six
years.
His next endeavor is to contribute
to another school project in the
urban Parramore neighborhood at
the OCPS Academic Center for
Excellence, where students have
the option of attending the preschool,
then must proceed through
eighth grade and on to Jones High
School. When he announced the
program last year, Rosen immediately
provided college scholarships
to the 14 Jones High School graduates
who lived in Parramore and recently
awarded this year’s group of
scholarships. This will continue even
though the new preschool does not
open until August. It is a project that
Rosen wants others around the nation
to replicate and build upon in
FEATURE
Bright Futures for Every Student!
www.SouthwestOrlandoBulletin.com x June 1 - 14, 2017 x 3
Harris Rosen Plans for a New Preschool Program
by Debra Wood
order to give youngsters a chance to
succeed.
“We just want help in letting people
know that this is a wonderful
opportunity for schools in America;
that’s my prayer,” Rosen said. “We
have been so blessed, and that is
the reason we can help youngsters
achieve more. If I can get an education,
anyone can do it.”
Development in Parramore
Rosen’s program for Parramore
would resemble much of how the
Tangelo Park Program was established
years ago, although it will be
five times larger and have the benefit
of housing students in a preschool
building that will be open this August,
when the main school opens.
“In August, we will see students
from the inner-city neighborhoods
begin a new experience in preschool,”
Rosen said. “The students
will go through each grade in that
building, and, upon graduation from
Jones High School, they will qualify
for the full scholarship into college.”
The new school will also include
a community medical facility and attached
Boys & Girls Club to provide
children with after-school activities
while their parents work.
The school was determined because
of the fact that there were
more multifamily than single-family
homes in the Parramore community,
which was prevalent in the Tangelo
Park area, and thus justified the program’s
preschools taking place in local
individuals’ homes.
Curriculum will be the same in
the school building as it is with the
Tangelo Park Program; however,
the 48 teachers’ salaries, director’s
salary, information technology
needs, furniture repairs and school
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