organization overview
Bronx Green-Up, the community gardening outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden, provides horticulture education, training and technical assistance to Bronx residents, community gardeners, urban farmers, local schools and community organizations. The program is the visible presence of the Botanical Garden beyond the Garden’s gates, inspiring NYC residents to get involved in improving their communities through greening projects.
Personal Bio
Jen Fong is a Central Office Administrator for the San Francisco Unified School District, overseeing College and Career Readiness. Jen is responsible for increasing high school graduation rates and access to post-secondary through concurrent enrollment in community college courses. For six years, Jen supervised instructional and support services for the district’s English Learners in Middle and High Schools, which resulted in a tripling of the High School rate of reclassification. As an Assistant Principal and Science Teacher at Mission High School in San Francisco for 11 years, Jen turned around an underperforming school, tripling the four-year college going rate. Jen earned the highest teaching honor in the United States by winning the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, presented by President George W. Bush. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Jen taught in the New York City Public Schools system and the United Arab Emirates. She converted vacant lots to community gardens in the Bronx and New Haven, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree from Yale. Jen won the inaugural Gates Millennium Scholarship to study urban school reform through a Master’s at Stanford and Doctorate at UC Berkeley.
Jen Fong has supported dozens of schools with their master schedules through her roles as Director of College & Career Readiness and Supervisor for English Learner Support Services. Dr. Fong specializes in designing master schedules to raise graduation rates by increasing personalization for underrepresented students and access to specialty programs such as CTE pathways and Dual Enrollment. Her dissertation described the master schedule reform needed to build Smaller Learning Communities.
Jen received an Echoing Green Fellowship from 1993-1995 for her work teaching environmental education and building community gardens in the Bronx.
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