RIISE

Registration is closing:

April 28 is the deadline for our Novas & Rising Novas May 9 collective.

May 5 is the deadline for our Supernovas May 16 collective.

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Thank you, families and schools for the overwhelming responses!

The shout-outs to our scholars still warms our hearts!

RIISE was founded with the mission of expanding access to educational excellence for families of color, and we could not be prouder of the thoughtful institutions that step up every year for our families. Thank you to this year’s Brown Butter Collective Cohort Sponsor Schools!

Thanks to the dedicated faculty and administration of these schools, if your Brown Butter Girl is enrolled, there will be a spot for her at The Pajama Party! (while supplies last, terms and conditions apply.)

The Berkeley Carrol Schoo
Riverdale Country School* ()
Horace Mann School* ()
Chapin School ()
The Dalton School ()
Hackley School (.school)
Ethical Culture Fieldston School ()
The Masters School* ()
Princeton Day School ()
St. Lukes - CT ()
St. Lukes School - NYC ()

See your school on the list? Head to 4riise.org > The Brown Butter Collective and scroll down to select your School Logo from the Cohort Sponsor list. This will take you to your school’s dedicated registration form!

*For Horace Mann, The Masters School, and RCS Upper School, please reach out to your school administrators to book your Brown Butter girl individually on your behalf.

Registration for Novas and Rising Novas, grades 2-7, ends on April 28th.

Registration for Supernovas, grades 8-12, ends on May 5.

brownbuttercollective

I’ll warn you ahead of time, this is a long post.

Have you ever been in a head’s office to chat about the life of a school? It can be full of possibilities. I encourage you to make an appointment, or accept one.

Thank you to Kyle Wilkie-Glass, Chief Executive Officer , for the invitation. Kyle leads with a warm, relaxed intensity—full of curiosity, vision, and a strong listening ear. He wanted to explore how the community and RIISE can be better partners as we look ahead to another year of school membership. It was inspiring on an early spring day.

And after many years, I finally got to hug the one and only Director of Enrollment & Financial Aid—the grand dame, Victoria Daley! Along with Shannon Matlovsky, Executive Director of Belonging and Social Impact, we all sat in comfy chairs and couches, with a ‘thought-to-be’ working fireplace (inside joke), and chopped it up—continuing and hatching plans for students and families to navigate and negotiate independent school culture, while marveling at the scope and sequence, and breadth and depth, of an independent school education. Lofty words to describe how selective schools operate.

Too bougie? Perhaps. Yet I count myself among bold Black and Brown families who’ve stepped into what many of our ancestors manifested for us through unimaginable circumstances, to leverage opportunity and find the courage to stare down the structural tensions inherent in education, notwithstanding elite PWIs like independent schools.

In closing, I appreciated the check-in. Our time together wasn’t performative, it was forward-thinking, compassionate, and fun.”

Honorary Brown Butter girls are women of color who attended Independent School in their youth before Brown Butter existed! We invite these women into the fold of The Brown Butter Collective, spiritually!

This week we’re highlighting two queens of the 90s, and our hearts! Niesha Butler () and Joy Bryant ( )

Joy grew up in the South Bronx, and her transition to the prestigious wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Her pursuit of academic rigor, supported by her Grandmother, brought her into a new world with it’s own set of challenges and pressures. Perhaps this early change prepared her for a later shift, from working Model in Paris, Milan and New York, to Hollywood Actress in her 2001 debut, Carmen: A Hip Hop Opera!

Niesha Butler has been breaking barriers since she was a young Brown Butter girl, attending Riverdale Country School . In true Honorary Brown Butter fashion, her early life is filled with fascinating and impressive accomplishments, like holding the New York State record for points scored in a high school career for both men and women. But that’s enough of Life and Basketball - did you know that Niesha was originally cast as the lead of Love & Basketball? Sanaa Lathan was cast after NCAA Requirements prevented Niesha from accepting the role.

Now these women use their public-facing journeys as leverage to increase the scale of their activism and encouragement of other black women of all ages. Joy has been radically open and transparent with her story, and Niesha Butler works tirelessly to encourage young scholars to pursue their interests in sports and STEM equally.

The Brown Butter Collective was created for Black girls walking similar paths. Your pursuit of excellence, of the education and the life you deserve, is honored here. No matter how othered you may feel, you belong here too. 🤎

Tickets on sale now! Join us for Grades 2-7 at , or for grades 8-12 at ! Head to the to Register online, either at 4riise.org or via

A series of THANK YOUs to some of our favorite brands! Thank you for your commitment to helping us uplift and support our lovely black girl scholars. We are so excited to introduce our returning sponsors, like or and NEW sponsors, like and . It takes community to make the Brown Butter Collective a reality, and we are so blessed to be working with brands that see the clear potential and high value in not just black girl scholars, but in all children when it comes to the future we’ll share.

Of course, tickets are on sale now for The Brown Butter Collective at the or at 4riise.org! May 9th at and May 16th at

Honorary Brown Butter girls are women of color who attended Independent School in their youth before Brown Butter existed! We invite these women into the fold of The Brown Butter Collective, spiritually!

This week we’re calling the gladiators to highlight two very special Honorary Brown Butter girls! Kerry Washington (), an alumna of The Spence School, and Shonda Rhimes (), alumna of !

Kerry has shared in several interviews how her experience at Spence often made her feel othered, not only as a woman of color, but along financial and class lines a student from the Bronx. Kerry was able to channel that moment of othering into valuable observations on the ways people behave in different groups, a skill she uses every day as a famous actress (you may have heard of her…)

Shonda mentions a similar experience throughout interviews, and has mentioned being one of few black girls attending private Catholic schools in the suburbs of Chicago at the time. Was it worth it? We didn’t ask her - she’s probably a little busy working out the details of her landmark $15 Million donation to Dartmouth University, underwriting Shonda Rhimes Hall - the first academic building on the campus to be named after a woman, and to be named after black alumna.

The Brown Butter Collective was created for Black girls walking similar paths. Your pursuit of excellence, of the education and the life you deserve, is honored here. No matter how othered you may feel, you belong here too. 🤎

Tickets on sale now! Head to the linkinbio to Register online, either on our website or via