"SEEDS taught me to lead by example. They taught me to never feel ashamed of my economic status. They showed me that I could be just as successful as someone born with the advantages that I was born without. That first step into NJ SEEDS almost seven years ago began my journey of a thousand miles."
"SEEDS Saturday classes were no joke. While my friends slept in and watched Saturday morning cartoons, I studied Algebra and prepared for the SSAT. But it was fun too - I met the amazing peers who inspire me and would become my support system...Through thick and thin, good and bad, happy and sad, I always knew that SEEDS genuinely cared for not only my academic well-being and success, but my personal well-being. SEEDS is a family."
"What I appreciate the most about SEEDS is that so many people are putting in effort on behalf of the students - staff, teachers, parents and other scholars. You start to see the impact right away in independent school."
"Starting with my first SEEDS experience on a college campus, CPP opened opportunities for me that I didn't know existed. It gave me the ability to think outside the box. It even introduced me to the CEOs of major companies. These experiences made me realize that I too want to be in the business world. When I came to this country 10 years ago, I was placed in ESL classes. Now, I am in the Honors Business Program at the University of Hartford."
"SEEDS has been a springboard to opportunity and a support system through each new endeavor...When I graduated from NYU, SEEDS was there for me with an introduction to Barclays where I am now an analyst. Because of SEEDS, the world keeps opening up exponentially."
"SEEDS is important because it gave us the opportunity to attend schools that would have never been possible otherwise. SEEDS took us in as children and made us into scholars. It provided us the chance to learn from the best educators in the country. It showed us that true dedication to your passion is the only way to live your life. And it allowed us to see that success is attained by living every day to change the life of someone else through education, compassion and love. SEEDS changed my life."
"SEEDS taught me the importance of education and philanthropy. Education, by helping me gain admission to the Peddie School, and philanthropy, by example. SEEDS has helped so many kids become intelligent and kind-hearted adults. In the future, I wish to help people the same way SEEDS has helped me because I can honestly say that I would not be where I am today, nor the person I am today, without the help of SEEDS."
'How many of us have studied abroad, or gained a summer internship through New Jersey SEEDS? Not only does SEEDS place students in schools, it remains in their lives long afterwards. As a graduate of SEEDS, I knew it was critical to share my experience. I worked in the SEEDS Alumni Department where I helped establish the summer opportunities program and planned events that keep our alumni engaged and supported."
"...imagine me walking through Irvington at age 12; weighed down by a backpack, and the stresses of my hard-working parents who were trying to give their four children the opportunities they didn't have in Haiti. In fact, the SEEDS story is one that often begins with struggle: the struggle of students who sit in uninspiring classrooms, feeling their potential bursting within them. The struggle of parents who fret every day as their children walk through unsafe neighborhoods, only to receive a totally inadequate education when they reach their destination."
"When a SEEDS representative came to my seventh grade classroom, the possibilities seemed unbelievable. Independent school? Classes that would challenge me? The opportunity to play sports and go to a top college? Of course I applied...and I got in! Everyone at SEEDS has been a source of support and motivation. SEEDS has done a lot for me, but it's their faith in me, and loyalty to me, that I find most important."
"SEEDS Saturday classes were no joke. While my friends slept in and watched Saturday morning cartoons, I studied Algebra and prepared for the SSAT. But it was fun too - I met the amazing peers who inspire me and would become my support system...Through thick and thin, good and bad, happy and sad, I always knew that SEEDS genuinely cared for not only my academic well-being and success, but my personal well-being. SEEDS is a family."