More than 700 leaders of Miami’s social and corporate communities will gather Saturday, February 22, 2020, to  support student achievement by raising funds for new and innovative public education initiatives and to honor the 2019-2020 inductees into the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Alumni Hall of Fame. We are proud to announce that among this year’s class of honored alumni are Mitchell Kaplan, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Sam Moore and Stephen M. Ross. It will be an elegant evening dedicated to our love of learning with exquisite food, live entertainment, and a few surprises, too!

Chaired by Maria and Alberto M. Carvalho, Superintendent of Schools, and Trish and Dan Bell, the gala committee members include Brenda Alfaro, Natacha and Bart Bastian, Nancy and Jon Batchelor,  Debbie Benitez, Heide and Jose Dans, Swanee and Paul DiMare, Patricia Fuller, , School Board Chair Ms. Perla Tabares Hantman, Kristi and Dean Jernigan, Roberta and David Lawrence, Jr., Marile and Jorge Luis Lopez,  Phyllis and John McHenry, Claudia Puig, Ruth Robinson, Brigid Cech Samole, Leslie Miller Saiontz, Wendy and Peter Salomon, Susan and Robert Shelley, Riva Steinman, and Dale Chapman Webb. Attire for the evening is black-tie. 

Gala sponsorships are available ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, and individual tickets are $600. Proceeds from the For the Love of Learning Gala will be used to support critical programs and initiatives that provide the neediest of students with an opportunity to succeed in school and life. 

Join us in our endeavor to make a change for the better in Miami-Dade County, one student at a time.

About The Foundation for New Education Initiatives, Inc.

The Foundation for New Education Initiatives, Inc. (FNEI), founded in 2008 by The School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida,, is a 501(c)3 direct-support organization of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). FNEI supports critical, otherwise unfunded, programs that motivate students to stay in school, graduate, and continue on to higher education. M-DCPS is the fourth-largest school district in the United States, and it comprised of 467 schools and 356,000 students. In the 2018-2019 school year, nearly 65,000 students directly benefited from the foundation’s support through innovative programs such as Cultural Passport to the Arts, the Together for Children Initiative which aims to eliminate youth violence, paid summer internships for students ages 15-18, mini-grants for teachers and schools, student scholarships, The Parent Academy, Project UP-START (serving the over 8,000 identified homeless students in M-DCPS), and bringing computers, technology, and devices to all classrooms in the District.