We welcome suggestions from students and parents on tips and tools, websites, and shops that make life easier for people with visual impairment. We love shout outs to companies that employ students, companies that develop new tools for people with disabilities, apps that make communication easier and classroom time less stressful. Here's a list of resources to check out.

Do you have a resource you would love to share? Send it to us, and we can post it for other teachers, other parents, and or students. 

Save the Date! Sunday, March 10th!

OSB students will participate in LiveConnections' “A Song Everyone Can Sing,” a community sing featuring Voces8 at the Temple Performing Arts Center, 1837 N. Broad Street.

In celebration of LiveConnections’ 10th anniversary season, they are presenting an accessible and inclusive multimedia music performance where everyone in the audience can participate in making music together. Nine of our students will join the renowned a cappella ensemble VOCES8 to present the world premiere of a new choral work.

Tickets are $1, but you must register in advance. To register, visit www.liveconnections.org/community-sing.

Unfortunately, OSB will not be hosting the Goalball matches scheduled for the 20th or the 27th. The next away meet, hosted by MSB is scheduled for March 7, 2019. We can't wait! 

Unfortunately, OSB will not be hosting the Goalball matches scheduled for the 20th or the 27th. The next away meet, hosted by MSB is scheduled for March 7, 2019. We can't wait! 

February is Low Vision Awareness Month and it is also the time we celebrate our Teachers of Students with Visual Impairment (TVI) with a special luncheon. 

We are ever grateful for the dedicated, expert staff that leads the way for our students and the community. A big shout out to our TVIs! 

We are so proud of our Cheerleading Squad! A big round of applause to the students, the coaches, and all those who made a weekend in North Carolina, at Governor Morehead School an amazing event. 

JULY 14TH^TH - AUGUST 2ND, 2019

Overbrook School for the Blind presents the Overbrook TVI  Program, a three-week residential summer program to prepare students who are blind or visually impaired for employment. TVI is presented in partnership with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services (BBVS) within the Department of Labor & Industry’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

The Overbrook TVI Summer Program is for Students 16 - 21 years of age with visual impairment. This program runs 3 weeks in July (including weekends). Learn More or Apply

Calendar Reminders and Upcoming Events
Don't forget there are several ways to access upcoming events. 
Visit our School  Year Calendar for enrolled students to scroll through by month and see important dates for your student.

Visit our Main School Events calendar for upcoming activities and events on campus and check the home page of our website as well. 

Literacy Matters!

No matter your age, reading truly is fundamental. Literacy skills are life-long skills and the students in High School love setting a good example for their younger classmates. Each month classes from High School and Elementary come together for shared activities, based on the curriculum. Reading to the younger students is a practice in public speaking, reading skills, technology skills, patience, and leadership. The students in Main 210 prepare their own accessible materials and model how there are a number of ways to access print materials - standard print, large print, braille, even a Braille note-taking device to students who are 3-5 years old. Our students learn at a young age that these are the tools they will need and begin using to find information, to read for recreation -- these are the materials that they deserve to have at their disposal. In the photograph shown, a student is showing a young student the braille that she produced. There are so many wonderful lessons that come from these activities, but most of all the students love spending time together and sharing stories. 

Glasses Are Better to See You With!

Did you know that Overbrook School for the Blind has a Low Vision Clinic monthly on our campus. 

Kennedy had her appointment at the Low Vision Clinic and someone is getting new pink glasses for the holidays! 

Any student enrolled in an Overbrook School for the Blind home, itinerant or campus-based program is eligible for a free eye exam through the Overbrook Low Vision Clinic, learn more or contact Jo Ann McNamee for more information.

Learn more about Jeff's visit.

We are welcoming the upcoming school year with open arms. We have a lot of wonderful things planned for 2018-2018, but we are going to enjoy the last few days of summer before the staff return and the buses begin arriving.

School calendar for the 2018-2019 School Year.

Philadelphia, PA: Overbrook School for the Blind (OSB) will present the first Caulfield Medal of Distinction to Jeffrey D. Marrazzo and Katherine A. High, M.D., Co-Founders of Spark Therapeutics, during the fifth annual Overbrook Experience Dinner on Tuesday, October 9, 2018.

Created in honor of the legacy and pioneering spirit of Genevieve Caulfield, an alumna of Overbrook School for the Blind, the Caulfield Medal of Distinction is awarded to individuals or organizations responsible for exceptional deeds that improve society, especially the lives of those living with disabilities.

“From the moment she was old enough to attend school, Genevieve Caulfield absorbed learning wherever it appeared, an ideal that we infuse in our students every day,” says Todd Reeves, Executive Director and CEO of Overbrook School for the Blind. “The only real comment she ever made on her disability was a paradoxical one, that perhaps God took away her eyesight to divert her from the quiet world of scholarship into the world of action.”

“When we were considering recipients for the Caulfield Medal of Distinction this year, it did not take very long to determine that Spark’s own pioneering spirit and relentless pursuit of innovation are without peer, both right here in Philadelphia and like Ms. Caulfield, far beyond our city limits, as well,” says Warwick S. Wheeler, President of the Overbrook School for the Blind Board of Trustees. 

Spark Therapeutics, a fully integrated company committed to discovering, developing and delivering gene therapies based in West Philadelphia, is challenging the inevitability of genetic diseases, including blindness, hemophilia and neurodegenerative diseases. Under the leadership of Marrazzo and High, the Philadelphia-based company received approval in late 2017 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first gene therapy for an inherited retinal disease and successfully saw the first patients treated with this gene therapy earlier this year. 

Ms. Genevieve Caulfield

Born in Virginia, Genevieve Caulfield lost her sight in an accident when a doctor spilled acid into her eyes when she was two months old. She graduated from Overbrook School for the Blind in 1905 and went on to attend Columbia Teachers College. 

Since her youth, Ms. Caulfield had dreamed of becoming a teacher to help create a better understanding between Japanese people and Americans. Her dream came true in 1923, when she went to Japan and taught English for a living as well as braille to blind students.

In 1938, she opened the Bangkok School for the Blind, partly financed by her own savings, after she learned that blind children were considered useless in Thailand. Resisting repatriation during World War II, she stayed in Bangkok and continued to work for her school. From 1956 to 1960, she organized a school for the blind and a rehabilitation center for boys in Saigon.

In 1960, Ms. Caulfield published an autobiography about her achievements entitled The Kingdom Within. The next year, she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. In 1963, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work for the blind in Asia. The award was given by President Lyndon B. Johnson in honor of President John F. Kennedy.

Her niece was the actress Joan Caulfield.

Genevieve Caulfield passed in 1972 at the age of 84.

Mr. Jeffrey D. Marrazzo

Jeff Marrazzo has led the creation and growth of Spark Therapeutics from a research center within Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to a fully integrated, commercial gene therapy company that is challenging the inevitability of genetic disease by discovering, developing and delivering potential treatments. He also serves on Spark’s board of directors. 
Under Jeff’s leadership, Spark has received FDA approval for and launched the first gene therapy for a genetic disease in the United States, and has established human proof-of-concept of Spark’s gene therapy platform in both the retina and liver. In the four years since founding Spark, Jeff has secured more than $1 billion in capital and built an organization of more than 320 colleagues. For two years running, Spark has been named to the top 10 of MIT Technology Review’s “50 Smartest Companies”. It’s also been recognized as one of 2018’s most innovative companies in Biotech by Fast Company.

During a career that has spanned the public and private sectors, Jeff has consistently championed the potential benefits of precision medicine and healthcare reform for patients. Prior to Spark, he helped build the first genetic testing benefit management and pharmacogenomics medicines company to CVS Caremark. Previously, Jeff served as an advisor to former Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, where he led reforms in the financing and delivery of healthcare.

Jeff currently serves as a board member of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). Jeff received a B.A. in economics and B.S.E. in systems science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a dual M.B.A. / M.P.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, a program which he founded.

Dr. Katherine High

Dr. Katherine “Kathy” High, an accomplished hematologist with a longstanding interest in gene therapy for genetic disease, began her career studying the molecular basis of blood coagulation and the development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of bleeding disorders. Her pioneering bench-to-bedside studies of gene therapy for hemophilia led to a series of studies that characterized the human immune response to adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors in a variety of target tissues. Kathy’s work has evolved to encompass clinical translation of potential gene therapies for multiple inherited disorders. As the director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Kathy assembled a multidisciplinary team of scientists and researchers working to discover new gene and cell therapies for genetic diseases and to facilitate rapid translation of preclinical discoveries into clinical application.

As president at Spark Therapeutics, she has led the development and regulatory approval of the first gene therapy for a genetic disease in the United States. Spark has shown human proof-of-concept of its leading gene therapy platform in both the retina and the liver, and has received breakthrough therapy designations for three different therapeutics across two different tissue targets, the eye and the liver. In addition to her operational role, Kathy serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Spark.

Kathy was a long-time member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and of the medical staff at CHOP, where she was also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She served a five-year term on the FDA Advisory Committee on Cell, Tissue and Gene Therapies and is a past president of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT). She received her A.B. in chemistry from Harvard University, an M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, a business certification from the University of North Carolina Business School Management Institute for Hospital Administrators and an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. 

The Overbrook Experience Dinner

The Overbrook Experience Dinner connects guests with the challenges that students who are blind, visually impaired or living with additional disabilities face each day. More than $300,000 has been raised by the Overbrook Experience Dinner to support the M. Christine Murphy Horticulture Education Center on OSB’s campus and improve student access to adaptive/assistive technology.

The 2018 Overbrook Experience Dinner will be held on the Overbrook School for the Blind campus at 6333 Malvern Avenue in Philadelphia from 6 to 9 p.m. In addition to cocktails and dinner, the evening includes a silent and live auction, and live music performed by Overbrook School for the Blind student musicians.

Tickets to the 2018 Overbrook Experience Dinner are available by contacting Robert Smith, OSB Director of Development at rsmith@obs.org.

For more information about Overbrook School for the Blind, please visit www.obs.org.

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6333 Malvern Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19151–2597 USA • 215.877.0313 • www.obs.org

On Saturday the TVI students went on a very exciting tour of historical Philadelphia. The tour was organized by Trish Maunder and her crew at Philly Touch Tours (who did such a wonderful job with the Italian market tour the previous weekend).  The tour started at the Philly Tour Hub, where the students were met by Chris Kuncio, who through his role as the young Ben Franklin, brings Philadelphia history to life through his knowledge of history and his witty insights into Benjamin Franklin and the rest of the founding fathers, much of which was delivered as a rap!  The tour included stops at the Betsy Ross house, Franklin Print Shop, Carpenter’s Hall and then a thrilling visit to the Liberty Bell, where just for the TVI students (and the the envy of the other tourists present) the barriers were removed so that the students could approach and touch the Liberty Bell!

Overbrook School for the Blind's Extended School Year (ESY) program is now running from 8:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., Monday - Thursday. 

At Overbrook we can provide related services, like orientation and mobility, and continue IEP goals on day one of the ESY program. Having ESY on campus creates a smooth transition for our students, and it also helps us to make the most of our "campers" educational time, so that we can ensure they maintain the skills they worked so hard on in the school year. A continuum of services is incredibly important to our hard-working, goal-smashing students and prepares them for the upcoming year. Our students and our staff waste no time -- right back to cane skills and traveling safely on day one! Our travelers have places to go and routes to master!

Looking for a way to stay cool and have a great time with your Family? Consider the Penn Museum
TACTILE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD, Saturday, July 07, 2018
10:00AM - 1:00PM

Visitors with vision loss and their companions are invited to explore the Museum through touch and verbal description. The program will feature touch experiences in eight galleries, including a chance to touch the largest Sphinx in North America. Museum staff will be stationed around the building to guide visitors who are blind or visually impaired through the tactile experiences, give verbal descriptions, and offer wayfinding assistance. This event is open to the public. All visitors will be able to touch replica artifacts. Only visitors with visual impairment will be able to touch ancient artifacts.

Visitors with vision loss who require or prefer sighted guides are encouraged to bring an assistant or companion.

The Towers Newsletter, Graduation Issue is now available on the Towers Newsletter page.

A reminder that Extended School Year for students who have already been enrolled, begins on July 9th and will run through August 9th, Monday - Thursday. We are looking forward to seeing our students soon, but until then enjoy your break!

While attending the 11th session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD (The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) at the United Nations, Mr. Yasunobu Ishii, Senior Program Director of Social Innovation Program Division, and Ms. Eriko Uchiyama (Disability and Child Welfare Team) from The Nippon Foundation (????) paid a quick visit to Overbrook. Through their generous support over many, many years, The Nippon Foundation helped us to fund both our on-campus International Program and Overbrook-Nippon Network on Educational Technology (ON-NET) in SE Asia. We are incredibly grateful to Mr. Ishii and Ms. Uchiyama for their visit, their wisdom, their generosity, and their incredible passion and concern for global equality and the advancement of persons with disabilities.

We are so incredibly proud of all of your accomplishments. Cheers to each of you and we can't wait to see what you accomplish! 

Congratulations to EIO Teacher Laura Fox Davies who received a Direct Support Professional Award from the Montgomery County Office of Developmental Disabilities. This award is given to a Direct Support Professional who extends themselves beyond the typical expectations of the position and who provides caring and exemplary service and support to the individuals they serve.

Laura has been an EIO Teacher for over 20 years. Thank you, Laura, for your dedication and service.

To say the staff and students had a great time at the “Music Is Our Vision” Festival would be an understatement. Look at the joy on the faces of the students and the staff in these photos. We are grateful to have added our voices to the 100+ students in attendance. We would like to thank all of the participating schools and a very special thanks to Perkins School for the Blind for hosting another fabulous event and keeping the arts alive!
See you in two years!

Did you know Overbrook sells gift cards as a student-run fund-raiser. Check out the video some of our High School students made along with the help of Ms. Bannan and Ms. Worsley to advertise Overbrook's Gift Card Program.

The script was written by our very own Louis T.

Many thanks to Roberto Torres from Technically Philly for visiting one of our classrooms at OSB!

Early Childhood students in Ms. Maria, Ms. Alisha, Ms. Anita, and Ms. Natalie's classes headed out to the Elmwood Zoo for a visit! It sure does look like they had a great time!

The staff from Elmwood Zoo have been visiting our campus often this year, as part of their Educational Programming called Laugh & Learn. Our students have enjoyed every single moment of this fun, interactive, multi-sensory educational experience with the wonderful educators from the zoo. They love interacting with the animals!

Our friends at Art Reach and the Barnes Foundation hosted our Elementary students for a day of discovery and hands-on learning. The students visited the museum and learned all about Paul Cézanne. They learned that Cezanne was a very famous French artist and Post-Impressionist painter. The students were able to paint their very own Cezanne-style, still life paintings using real apples for stamping with the help of the amazing volunteers at the museum.

This is a great and easy activity to try at home as well! Just cut an apple in half, dip in washable paint and stamp away on paper or brown paper bags. Try different fruit and see how each makes a unique shape and create your own fruit bowl still life. 

Ms. DiFabio's art room is always brewing with excitement, education, and fu n. Ms. DiFabio has a way of seamlessly integrating art with history, math, science, art, social justice, social skill development, and community involvement. She has created a learning space where the students can express themselves, get messy, actively participate in the creative process, explore new recreational activities, work in teams, and have a great time too. Recently, students in Mrs. Whartnaby's High School class learned about Jackson Pollock. The students watched and listened to a video about Jackson Pollock's life, his creative process, and how expressed himself through his paintings. The students then created their own movement paintings in the art room.

We are very proud of the creative arts that thrive on our campus. As Director Todd Reeves stated, "Since 1832, arts education has been an important pillar of the curriculum at Overbrook, which has continued to the present day and will continue in the future, in part because people in the arts community are predominantly supportive and aligned with our mission."

We are proud of our on-going partnership with Art-Reach that keeps our students engaged in Philadelphia culture. We are proud of our amazing art teacher and our instructional staff who inspire our student's "creative" every single day. When many educational facilities are cutting the arts, Overbrook believes the Visual and Performing Arts are an investment in our student's future. Take a walk through our colorful, art-filled hallways and you will see our staff's dedication to creativity in everything that they do. If you are lucky enough, you may even hear sweet music filling the cloisters and students enjoying the freedom, joy, and wonder that comes with knowing you are creating beauty.

Please enjoy the latest edition of the Towers News, Overbrook's newsletter.
Volume, 71, No. 2, Spring 2018