Promoting
Diversity In Achievement

Through children's literature about individuals who have faced great challenges and have made great accomplishments, Diverse Achievers seeks to help children understand that achievers can have all different appearances and characteristics. Through these experiences, children will learn about the importance of tolerance, understanding, and opportunity.

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Seeing a Need and Taking Action

Working for a Brighter Future for Minority Children

The Diverse Achievers Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing families and teachers the tools to encourage and inspire all children to achieve their dreams. Our organization was founded by Irene Eizen and Gary Plummer, who have over 90 years of combined experience as educators. Both Irene and Gary have dedicated their lives to the education of all people. Together, they realized the need for children – and in particular minority children – to be inspired by those before them. To meet that need, they decided to work together to provide resources for teachers, families, and children that provide a positive and inclusive learning experience.

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“We want to raise our children so that they can take a sense of pleasure in both their own heritage and the diversity of others.” – Fred Rogers

Achievement Is UNIVERSAL

The Importance of Diversity

“My parents were immigrants and Holocaust survivors. They did not speak of the terrible events they must have witnessed or the losses they endured, but instead, they taught the lessons of the Holocaust and a love of freedom and equality. They made success in education and goal setting into imperatives for me. Unfortunately, many children do not have an influencer to help them set high standards to aim for, and more importantly, guide them over the bumps in the road of life.”

— Irene Eizen

Mission Statement

Of The Diverse Achievers Foundation

Encourage families, teachers and their students, and parents and their children to read selected children’s literature about diverse achievers and to discuss important questions raised by the literature.

To provide resources for children to learn about the accomplishments of diverse achievers and their contributions to society.

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To foster self-esteem, self-confidence, and optimism about their own potential and opportunity.

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Diverse Education

Education is more than simply learning about facts and figures. Education is also about inspiring, building self-esteem and self-confidence, and ultimately helping children reach their full potential.

With this aim in mind, we have written the book “Diverse Achievers” to serve as a resource for parents, teachers, and children to learn about people of different races and ethnicities who have achieved success. Together with those to be published in the future, this book emphasizes the importance of perseverance and hard work as the building blocks of success. Along the way, we raise important questions about the challenges people face just because they are minorities and what they did to overcome those challenges. Our hope is to provide inspiration, encouragement, and guidance to children at a time in their lives when they need it most.

Our Book

The proceeds from the sales of the book will be used to buy the literature books for underprivileged families and schools.

Diverse Achievers

A guide for parents and teachers on using children's literature to promote self-esteem and an understanding that anyone can become an achiever.

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The proceeds from the sales of the book will be used to buy the literature books for underprivileged families and schools.

Our Team

Irene Eizen

Gary Plummer

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Reviews

Diverse Achievers is a gift to early education. It comes at such a vital time as we help our youngest to understand the value of individual differences while, at the same time, applauding our common humanity. Storytelling works especially when we are guided through it with questions that provoke thinking. Thanks to Irene and Gary for helping all of us seek truth.

—David Magill, Ed.D, Director Emeritus, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

Diverse Achievers is a powerful resource for teachers to make inclusion an ongoing part of instruction. The break down that shows books for both male and female achievers, self-esteem, history, and questions for discussion helps to simplify instruction and planning.

—Tiffany Sudler, Teacher, School District of Philadelphia

There is something in here for every teacher. This book provides such a wide range of topics to be discussed and gives you all the tools to implement their work in the classroom. It is easy to read and very thorough! For teachers and DEI directors that don’t have the time but want to put in the work this is a very useful tool to refer to again and again. I loved the summaries and how thoughtful the questions are. So thankful for this resource!

—Dr. Harold Fryeazon

I wish I had had this book and guide decades ago! Eizen and Plummer have enhanced educators’ and parents’ ability to explore dozens of brilliantly written children/young adult books centering diverse achievers by writing this resource for us. Diverse Achievers is thoughtfully organized and incredibly easy to navigate I’m excited to have added this to my resource collection… and will keep it close to for easy reference!

—Carrie K

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