On Wednesday, June 8th, the Project STEP community honored the retirement of our longtime Executive Director, Mary Jaffee. During the past 11 years, Mrs. Jaffee oversaw the training of over 100 individual students in the core STEP program and more than 600 Kindergarten students in the FOCUS program! Under her direction, Project STEP has been family oriented and student centered. It has also focused on strategic growth, increasing the student body from 35 to 48, nearly doubling the budget, and developing the administrative/artistic staff from a team of 3 to a team of 7. Project STEP also reached a pinnacle in its 34 year history by receiving the prestigious National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House in November 2014. Mary has displayed exemplary leadership, dedication, and absolute commitment to Project STEP. We will miss her and we thank her for her many years of service!
