By Laura Fitzgerald

Last April, Yale High School students and chaperones lugging handmade devices piled out of vehicles in northern Ohio to track the sun and moon’s path through the total solar eclipse, excitedly placing their instruments into position just before the event. Students gasped in amazement, witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime event as darkness descended and the moon blocked all sunlight for nearly four minutes. 

The Kent George DuPont Family Heritage Fund has made experiences like the eclipse possible for Yale High School students by funding extracurricular, non-sports activities, enriching hundreds of students’ lives through a wide variety of activities. 

“The DuPont Fund is an overwhelming success in building positive connections and exposing students to different mediums that they normally wouldn’t be involved in or exposed to,” said Yale High School Principal Bradley Dykstra. “Students are skill-building in the theater, esports, robotics, etc. Overall, experiences enhance learning.”

The DuPont Fund grants up to $40,000 per year at Yale High School. Since the fund began in 2021, it has granted nearly $160,000.

One of the largest impacts of the fund has been on the school’s theater. The grant funded new lighting and equipment which otherwise would have become obsolete. The school building, including the theater, was built in 1996 and the district did not have the means to update its equipment, Dykstra said. 

The Dupont Fund helped grow the program from one drama class offering to both a drama club and a theater class. The program put on its first production – Shrek Jr. the Musical – in 12 years last spring using DuPont funds for costumes, play bills, and equipment. Moving forward, Dykstra said these clubs each plan to showcase their own productions, which are self-funded through ticket sales. 

The fund has also funded multiple club-related field trips, including trips to the Art Prize festival in Grand Rapids, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, and yearly student leadership conferences. Using these funds, students have even gone as far as Ohio for the total solar eclipse; Washington, D.C., for a Social Studies trip; and Europe for the French Club, according to grant documents. 

Other grants include:

• Audio and visual equipment to support students in Media Club as they announce daily school announcements, and create a school recording studio and YouTube channel
• Book Club books
• Robotics Club team t-shirts and competition/travel fees
• E-Sports monitors, switches, gaming computers, and other equipment
• Marching Band instruments

Dykstra said the DuPont fund has also contributed to other programs indirectly. While DuPont funds will not be used to fund an outdoor classroom and cafeteria improvements, the ideas for these projects originated from student leaders who have traveled to leadership conferences. Student leaders have also facilitated a distracted driving assembly and school-wide team-building activities using skills and ideas picked up from their leadership activities. 

“There are so many ripple effects that the Dupont family endowment assists us with, not just with the stuff we buy but with the ideas that are perpetuated through our students,” Dykstra said. 

Dyksta said the fund has also allowed the school to fund programs for students who otherwise might not have gotten involved in extracurricular activities through band or sports. Extracurriculars help students form connections to their school and their peers, and aid in young people’s development as they explore passions and interests that can boost their self-esteem and turn into hobbies or careers.

“If kids have a positive connection to school, they’re going to be more successful, not only individually in their own lives, but the school will be successful,” Dykstra said. 

These extracurricular activities also promote a positive school culture. If students are given the opportunity to see their peers showcase their talents in areas other than academics, they are more likely to appreciate their peers’ unique talents and abilities, Dykstra said. 

“To see the level of respect these kids have for their peers, it’s priceless,” he said. 

Kent and the late Sandra DuPont, the fund’s benefactors, have deep familial ties to the Yale and Old Brockway area. Education has always been an important value to the DuPont family, whose ancestors began farming in Yale as far back as 1850. Generations of the family have proven that education and horizon-broadening experiences, like those found in extracurricular activities, are keys to a successful life for all the family.