Keith Robinson made a promise to his 90 math students within the orange-and-blue -papered walls of his Harlem, N.Y., classroom.
If they excelled in their classes, they could visit UF, where Tim Tebow made the “promise speech” that has served as a motivational force in their classroom.
Twenty seventh-grade students from Intermediate School 195 visited UF Tuesday after Robinson, 26, their math teacher and a UF alumnus, raised more than $20,000 for the trip through an online donation site.
Their visit will include a tour of campus, a trip to the UF Digital Worlds Institute and a trip to a local horse farm.
Some of the students like A’nisa Megginson, 12, said they hoped to meet Tim Tebow. Megginson said Tebow talked to them on the phone.
The purpose of the trip is to encourage students to pursue college, he said.
Robinson had no doubt he was going to college, but that’s not the case for these middle schoolers.
“It’s not a given,” Robinson said. “And for a lot of them, it’s not an option.”
Taking Tebow’s lead, the students have signed their own promises to work hard in their classes.
In a video Robinson made and posted online, his students touch a picture of Tim Tebow and a laminated sign of Tebow’s promise.
The video helped make the trip to UF possible by spreading the word about Robinson’s goal to visit UF with the students.
Robinson raised the money by setting up an account on Donorschoose.org, an online charity, in January and needed to raise almost $7,000 for 24 round-trip plane tickets to Gainesville, according to the Web site’s records.
One-hundred-forty-three donors donated to the project and the charity organization.
Correction on April 1: The article stated that Robinson raised more than $8,000 for 24 round-trip plane tickets to Gainesville, according to records from Donorschoose.org. Robinson raised more than $20,000 to fund the trip, including more than $8,000 for plane tickets and more than $12,000 for accommodations from the Web site. One-hundred-forty-three donors in total donated to the project.
