Friday, June 27, 2003 in Philadelphia Inquirer
by Martha Woodall
Fifteen years ago, Main Line businessman Winston J. “Win” Churchill stopped by the Gesu School, a private Catholic school in North Philadelphia to talk about helping to put a playground cage atop the building.
But what began with a simple visit evolved into a mission to improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in Philadelphia.
Churchill, a resident of Wayne and managing partner of SCP Private Equity Partners in Malvern, established a board of directors and helped raise $10 million for the Jesuit-run Gesu School. He worked with the Children’s Scholarship Fund of Philadelphia to obtain money for 800 four-year scholarships so low-income city children could attend private schools. And he founded the Young Scholars Charter, a middle school in North Philadelphia.
Yesterday, the Children’s Scholarship Fund presented him with its first citizen of the year award.
“His critical support has created educational opportunities for thousands of disadvantaged families in the city,” said Evie McNiff, president of the scholarship fund board.
Churchill told scholarship recipients, families and teachers gathered at the Center City awards ceremony: “I really want to accept the award on behalf of all of you, and the 4,000 teachers in nonpublic schools and the 30,000 teachers in public schools” in the city.
The goal, he said, is improving the education levels for all city students whether they attend public, private or religious schools.
“I think what we are showing here basically is that there are no monopolies when it comes to solving the problem of how we educate our inner-city children,” he said. “And the leverage that comes from demonstrations like this [scholarship program] of what can be done so successfully with our children sitting here today should be an example and a signal to the public schools that all of this is very, very possible.”
Born in Mayfair and reared in West Oak Lane, Churchill, 62, graduated from St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, which is adjacent to Gesu. His own educational path – Fordham University, Yale Law School and Oxford University by way of a Rhodes Scholarship – was forged with the help of scholarships.
But Churchill said it was his visit to the Gesu School that drew him into supporting inner-city education.
Churchill recalled that in 1988 a Jesuit leader at Georgetown urged him to visit Gesu, noting that the elementary school “needed some pretty serious financial help.” So Churchill went.
He stood on the roof with the Rev. George W. Bur, the school’s president, and talked about putting up a cage for a playground. “But I said let’s go down and look at your books because I would like to know the dimensions of the problem.”
He saw that, although the Jesuits and the Immaculate Heart of Mary sisters put money into the school, the tuition did not come close to meeting the operating costs.
With facts about Gesu’s enviable track record preparing its mostly non-Catholic, African American students for high school and college, Churchill established a board whose members came from a range of religious backgrounds and began raising money. He and his wife, Barbara, donated $1 million to the school and challenged others to contribute. A total of $10 million has been raised so far.
“One thing sort of leads to another,” Churchill said as he explained how he helped the fledging Children’s Scholarship Fund of Philadelphia get off the ground. He has been on its board since the nonprofit organization, an affiliate of the Children’s Scholarship Fund of New York, was founded in 1998.
After the state’s charter school law was enacted in 1997, he founded the Young Scholars Charter School to educate sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Students test scores there are rising.
Churchill, who has a son who will enter Georgetown next fall, has recently been working with Paul G. Vallas, the Philadelphia schools chief executive. Vallas is seeking additional business support for the district.
Churchill said he was more encouraged about the prospects for the city’s public schools than he had been in years.
“Ultimately, the really important piece is the public schools,” he said. “That is the hardest part of the puzzle, but it is in the process of being solved, in my opinion.”