Here at Scheck Hillel, all you have to do is look to your left and right to find a wonderful story to tell. Within this school’s walls are countless compassionate students and staff members alike with a hunger for humanitarianism. Our spotlight will shine on esteemed staff member, Cyndi Schulman. In addition to being Scheck Hillel’s Department Chair of Social Studies, Mrs. Schulman has taught all AP government and economics classes for the past three years, teaching college prep level government, economics, and Eastern and Western Heritage classes for seven years before that.
Mrs. Schulman has always had a passion for philanthropy, but the story of Project Unite Humanity began when she, along with her close friend and our very own U.S. history teacher, Dr. Robert Lawrie, went on a mission trip to Guyana in 2018, where they helped provide necessary dental services to over 200 Guyanese citizens. Though the duo realized they weren’t destined to become dentists, they did discover their desire to help those in need through another field: education. That same year, Mrs. Schulman and Dr. Lawrie founded their nonprofit organization, Project Unite Humanity.
Project Unite Humanity aims to build new libraries and fill them with donated books as resources for students and teachers in need. Through her nonprofit, Mrs. Schulman has thus far built libraries in Guyana (in Dr. Lawrie’s old school!), Nepal, and Israel, with her sights set on a future project in Zambia. On top of the already remarkable kedusha of these endeavors, the organization’s library in Israel holds a special place in Hillel’s heart because it was built with the help of some of our current juniors, who were there with Mrs. Schulman and Dr. Lawrie when it opened in a community center in our sister city, Yerucham, on their Israel trip last year.
Humanitarian projects of any kind have a profound impact wherever they may be. Project Unite Humanity, with its roots in education, means even more to us as a school. Those many books, Mrs. Schulman notes, have an “unending impact” on all who receive them. To her, that’s the true reward. Reading can genuinely change lives; it can spark an idea, a motivation for something great.
It’s an honor to have such an inspiration like Mrs. Schulman so close to home. Through her story, we learn to find our own passions for good and to embrace education’s inestimable value. More importantly, we see the astonishing effects of drive, determination, and community. After all, as Mrs. Schulman says, “When we all work together, we all make the world a better place.” It is a simple but timeless truth. It is the core of this wonderful story and a living and breathing example of what the world needs most: tikun olam.
