“Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Cynthia Bailey bought her glamor and star power to the 2nd Annual Global Language Project Fundraiser.The swanky fundraiser was held in The New York Times Times Center. Members of the fashion and entertainment communities mingled and dined on Sauvignon Blanc white wine, crab Rangoon with apricot sauce, shrimp tacos, lobster BLTs and other hors d’oeuvres.
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Global Language Project founder Angela Jackson said the organization raised a total of $1 million dollars since it’s inception in 2009 and $250,000 that night. The purpose is to help under privileged students in New York City public schools learn languages, such as Mandarin and Arabic to help give them an edge against the competition later on their careers.
Jackson, who is fluent in French, admits she didn’t have to start the non-profit organization. She was a successful Nokia marketing executive, but Jackson wanted more fulfillment in her life.
“I could’ve done anything. I’ve had a very successful career in corporate America. I made money and I had all the material things,” Jackson, a University of Missouri-Columbia alum, said. “The one thing that was missing was that I wanted to go back to my community and help kids who reminded me of myself.”
With the desire to make a difference Jackson started the Global Language Project. Jackson noticed while traveling abroad for business, the key to success was literally knowing how to communicate.
“I worked in corporate Nokia with clients in Asia and Europe and I found that all of my colleagues spoke two plus languages and it gave them mobility in their career,” Jackson said. “They were able to go work in Asia. They were able to go work in South America because they had the language skills to run a department and I thought that was the wave of the future. ”
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Bailey, who acted as a moderator for the night, agreed that learning a second language can only be an added bonus to a young child’s life.
“This charity touched me because I modeled for many years and my work has taken me all over the globe,” the business entrepreneur said. “One of the things I realized was, when I went to Paris for the first time how challenging it was to work and contribute because I did not know the language. I worked it out. I managed over there but I will say that my business relationships would’ve been a lot easier to work in Paris had I been able to communicate.”
The free education curriculum reaches 840 students in New York, ages 8 to 10 years old, which is significant growth from the 30 Jackson began with. Jackson, who resides in Harlem, said she endured a lot of kickback from people who didn’t believe in her focus.
“The biggest difficulty (I encountered) was people under estimating the children,” Jackson said. “People would say ‘Well, shouldn’t these children be studying math and science? and I would tell people, ‘Absolutely they should be studying those subjects, but it’s not mutually exclusive.'”
Now Jackson says she’s thrilled and filled with pride that the kids people once had no faith in, are now learning the languages quickly and excelling.
“Now we’re in our fourth year and seeing how these kids who have grasped Mandarin and how they grasp Arabic, who were once under performing are now the stars of the classroom.”
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