How Eagle Wings Academy Is Changing Lives Through Christian Education | Stephanie Dow

What happens when financial barriers stand between children and a quality Christian education?

In this episode of the Business & Personal Podcast, we sit down with Stephanie Dow, Administrator of Eagle Wings Academy, to discuss how the organization is transforming lives by providing scholarships, mentorship, advocacy, and wraparound support for underserved families in Syracuse, New York.

Stephanie shares:

How Eagle Wings Academy partners with Faith Heritage School
Why Christian education can be life-changing for underserved families
Inspiring student success stories
Supporting refugee families through education
The importance of mentorship, prayer partners, and community
How donors can help expand opportunities for more students

Whether you're passionate about education, nonprofit work, faith, or helping children succeed, this conversation offers an inspiring look at what's possible when a community comes together.

Learn more or support Eagle Wings Academy:
https://eaglewingsacademy.org

#ChristianEducation #Education #Nonprofit #Faith #Scholarships #Mentorship #Syracuse #BusinessAndPersonalPodcast

0:00 Introduction
0:40 Stephanie's Background
1:36 What Is Eagle Wings Academy?
3:17 Finding the Right Families
4:22 Student Success Stories
6:46 Measuring Success Beyond Grades
8:24 Mentorship & Student Support
9:36 Lessons Learned from Families
11:01 How You Can Help
12:24 Final Thoughts

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome to another edition of the Business and Personal Podcast where we bring it closer to people you do business with and share great stories of things going on out there, and we sure have a great one today. Excited to be joined by Stephanie Dow. She's an administrator at Eagle Wings Academy in Syracuse. They're doing phenomenal things for the underserved out there, providing education and opportunities for the youth in the area. So, Stephanie, first of all, uh appreciate you taking the time to join us in your busy day.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yeah, thanks for having me. This is a great opportunity. I'm looking forward to talking.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

So it's the business and the personal podcast. So let's uh learn a little bit more about Stephanie here, your background and what uh eventually uh led you to Eagle Wings.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Sure. So actually, um, so I'm married, I have four kids, and you know, I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home with my kids when they were young. And then I uh worked at a local uh adoption and crisis pregnancy center for about seven or eight years. Um and then in 2020 I left there in 2022. Uh the Lord led me to Eagle Wings. So my background is in social work. So um, but I also have um a lot of experience in education. I served as the board president in my local town, my kids' school. Um, so I have a lot of experience in education. My husband's an administrator in the Syracuse City Schools. Um, and so the two kind of melded together with with EWA scholarship. And so um, yeah, so I've been there since been with EWA since 2022.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

So tell us about EWA. What exactly are you doing for people?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yeah, so um we started out as a school in 2008, and then we pivoted in 2018 due to some uh teacher shortage and different things like that, and uh we ended up coming in under Faith Heritage School. Um, and we changed our name at that time. The people that were there changed it to a nonprofit, really. So it can be confusing because we still have the academy on there, but we're really just in a scholarship and support program, and we operate in partnership with Faith Heritage School. That's where our students attend. Um, but we provide the scholarships, which is the financial need. Um, we serve uh Syracuse City residents that want to have a Christian education, but otherwise can't afford it. So they have their income level has to kind of fall within that poverty level, if you will. Um, and then we also do a lot of wraparound supports because most of our families are refugee families. There's a lot of communication, liaison work, advocacy that that they need help with, you know, especially being in the school system. So that's a lot of what I do on the day-to-day, in addition to the administrative side of things, with, you know, we are nonprofits, so we're completely reliant on donations. So there's obviously a lot that goes into that as well. Um, but we serve amazing families and they are so grateful to have a Christian education. The alternative for most of these families would be in our city schools in Syracuse, which um you know, they have their challenges. And so if you want a Christian education, it costs, unfortunately, it just costs a lot of money in New York State. And so that's why we're here so that we can kind of bridge that gap for them.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

It's always awesome to see the underserved being served, especially uh when you look at the landscape of things going on out there right now, um, for sure. But uh when you look at the students that have thrived, are there common traits uh that you see um where okay, this is the type of student that's a perfect fit for this?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Yeah, you know, for us, it's really a partnership with the families. So in order to accept a family into our program, the parents have to be 100% on board with partnering, you know, learning how they can support their kids at home, being open to us teaching them how to support their kids, um, being willing to, they do have to pay something, so they have to be willing to sacrifice some still to pay for part of their child's tuition, although we come in and support, you know, a large portion of that. We we are our families pay a small amount. Um, so really families that have a deep desire for Christian education, a strong faith, uh, that love the Lord and and want to see their kids in Christian education, those families are the ones that are a good fit for our program. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

What are some things, some changes you observed in the children as they've gone through the academy? You see them as they're onboarding, you see them through the process. What are things you just visibly can easily see in terms of improvements that are being made?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

So, yeah, that's a great question. We had a young boy come to us a couple of years ago. He was attending a Catholic school in Syracuse that closed down, and his parents really wanted him to get a Christian education. Um, and so he came to us, he was a little shy. And, you know, at Faith Heritage has a really high standard of education, they have you know high expectations, so it can be a big big jump when you're coming from even another private school or even a public school. So he came into came into Faith Heritage, and we with our supports and our um, you know, really working with him, he really struggled at first. He, you know, struggled academically, smart boy, but struggled academically, struggled socially, didn't have friends. So, you know, um, I would meet with him periodically, I would meet with his parents, we would come up with plans to help support him in the classroom. Um, I did a lot of teaching with his family and how they could support him at home because um, with many of our families, the parents speak their native language, which is not English, and then the kids speak English, but they often some of them don't know their parents' language, some do. Um, in this case, he didn't know his parents' language. So there's a big communication issue within the family. So it took a lot of support from Eagle Wings to really help with the communication between school and home, but then also teaching this young man what he needed to do, helping him motivate him. Sometimes we do incentives or we do awards with kids to try to get them to work harder and motivate them to really do their best. Um, and he has a prayer partner that prays for him. That's part of our program. All of our students have a prayer partner assigned to him. And so that prayer partner prayed for him throughout the year. And we saw just this low, he's been with us two years, but I would say we really saw him blossom and grow the second year. He won our most improved student award uh for our program this year. He just did a 180. He has been uh motivated, excited. Uh, it even included working with um, you know, outside uh practitioners and professionals to help him. So it truly was a group effort, but without our advocacy and the support that we bring, probably would have looked a lot different for him. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Absolutely. I'm sure you could do a one-hour podcast just rolling off one success story after another. That was awesome to hear. So, yeah, I guess on that note, you know, there's the tangible things we can look at, grades, graduations, numbers that say this was success. But what would you say um you look at as success?

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Hmm. Um, yeah, sometimes it is those things. Sometimes it's numbers and grades, but often it's the things that I see being in the school, working with the students, like, for example, this young man, his self-confidence, right? His ability to find friends and uh be happier than he was. I mean, that's very kind of generic, but but when you see it every day, you see a kid who is kind of withdrawn and really struggling to kind of blossoming and coming in feeling that confidence, like I can do this, you know, I can I can get good grades and um growing in his relationship with the Lord, you know, understanding that this is where he's God has him right now and his family wants him. And um, so yeah, it doesn't always look like numbers and grades, but you see it in other areas as well. Um, one of the big things that we also do in our program is we have we like to uh really help our kids explore what's available for them with careers and trades. So we run the we help run the um create career and trade fair at faith heritage, but we also bring in speakers and different things. So as the old kids get older, that success sometimes look like, hey, I think I know what I want to do now, I figured that out, and then we will even help them with the steps uh in that process as they get older. So yeah, it it looks different across the board.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

For outsiders maybe looking for a school or looking for the right fit. And if we had to categorize Eagle Wings Academy, we just say it's an educational organization, a mentorship organization, an opportunity organization. What bucket would it fit into those? Is it all those?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Okay, yeah, it kind of does fit into all of those. It's a very unique uh organization and nonprofit, really. So it's educational in the sense that we we make Christian education accessible to families that couldn't afford it. Um, and you know, but then it's also the other things that you mentioned as well. I mean, we are we do mentor, we have prayer partners, I support our students. We have volunteers that come in and support amazing volunteers that come in. We had a girl that was really struggling in math this year. So that so Faith Heritage has math support, but we sometimes they just need that extra one-on-one time, you know. So I was able to find uh somebody who came in and just tutored her once a week in my room in math. Her grades are now up to, you know, she's getting like 80s and 90s in math versus failing. So um it's a lot of things that we try to do. It's definitely the full picture of supporting the student in all areas that we can.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

So and we've talked about what the families learn, what the students learn. What have you personally learned from the families in this whole experience? I'm sure this has enriched your life too, just being a part of it.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

It really is. Yeah, that's a good question, too. Um it's a blessing, it's an honor to work with them. One thing I admire about our families is their faith, their desire to have their kids in crush an education, but to really make sacrifices to make that happen. Um our families, you know, they don't have much, a lot of them. Some have more than others, obviously. There's a range, but they will often give when they don't even have a lot. They will give extra to help get their kids, keep their kids in school, support our program. Um they're always willing to serve to help in any way that they can. Um, and so I've really enjoyed learning their stories too, as many of them are refugees, not all of them, and how they came to this country some five, six, seven years ago. They have amazing stories of, you know, some really suffered some persecution where they came from. And so that's why they fled and came to America. And they're here, they're citizens, they're doing great for themselves, you know, they're they're really um each year doing better, but it's it's a blessing to really know to learn about different cultures, to learn people's stories, you know, it definitely blesses me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And I can see and feel the emotion on your face um just from what this has meant to you. You it's uh it's genuine for sure. So um anybody that's still listening is interested in maybe even their donating to the school or doing a school tour, any of those sorts of things. So um, where can anybody find you and learn more and just get started?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah, so we have uh really the best place probably to find us is our website, which is ecowingsacademy.org. And um, on there you'll see a place where you can donate. It says give now, I think, at the top. Um, so that's a great place to learn about us, to give. Um if people are interested in attending Faith Heritage, they would definitely just uh call the school and tour. And you know, really where we come in is when there's a family that's in the Syracuse, because Faith Heritage serves families all in our county, not just Syracuse. But our mission is just focused on Syracuse. So if there's a family that is financially needing support or other advocacy sports, that's kind of where we come in in that partnership with Faith Heritage. Um, so yeah, so learn about us on our website. You can donate through there. We're actually kicking off a campaign in July, uh, matching donor campaign. Uh so if people sign up to be monthly reoccurring givers between now and the end of the year, um up to up to $25,000 would be matched in donated funds. So uh that's really exciting. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Love to hear it. Uh maybe we'll have you on again down the road, Stephanie, for an update. But this was uh just a great overview of what Eagle Wings does, and uh hopefully people enjoyed the conversation. I appreciate you joining.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

All right. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.