by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

December 8, 2020

NBA Player Donovan Mitchell Donates $12 Million to His Former School

Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell has once again reached into his pockets to make sure he can change the lives of young children. Earlier this summer, the Utah Jazz guard donated $45,000 toward the education of Kenosha police shooting victim Jacob Blake’s children. Sneaker company adidas also agreed to match his donation to bring the total of the funds to be given to the Blake children to $90,000.

This time, Mitchell has donated to the school he attended growing up in Connecticut.

Greenwich Country Day School and Mitchell, who graduated in 2012, have jointly announced the largest single pledge of support to the school in the history of the institution. Donovan and his mother, Nicole, and his sister Jordan, who graduated in 2017, have pledged a total of $12,000,000 to the Connecticut school.

In a written statement, Mitchell said, “I know how lucky I have been to have the foundation of my education happen here at Country Day. This school has shaped who I am in so many ways, and I feel blessed to be able to give back and make the Country Day experience available for more kids especially those from inner-city neighborhoods or with backgrounds like mine. Over the past few years on my NBA journey, I have made it my mission to champion the causes of equity, social justice, and equal opportunity, especially in education. There is no better school anywhere to carry forward this mission and my family is excited to make this happen.”

Mitchell is excited to create the Mitchell Family Scholarship Fund. The program will help Greenwich Country Day School by providing need-based aid for students in grades Nursery through 12.  In addition to the scholarship fund, Mitchell and his mother are pleased to announce the Nicole Mitchell Faculty Support Fund. This monetary award will be annual and will be given to a teacher in each of the school’s four divisions who have been there for at least three years, and have demonstrated the “passion, enthusiasm, optimism, and love for children always shown by Nicole Mitchell.”

Head of School Adam Rohdie shared, “these two funds perfectly highlight Donovan’s understanding of the power of a great education. This gift will allow GCDS to reach an even broader cross-section of students and it allows us to celebrate those teachers that make the magic at our school every day.”

The funds will also be used for the D.O.N.! The Determination Over Negativity Mitchell Family Athletic Center. This facility will be a state-of-the-art gymnasium and will house one full NCAA regulation court with full stands on both sides. This building will also provide the space for the entire campus to gather for school-wide assemblies and will be a focal point for their Old Church Road Campus.

Rohdie praised Mitchell, saying “as great an athlete as he was, Donovan was an even nicer young man. He is a man of the highest character and he has lived his life embodying the Country Day creed of TIGER PRIDE which asks our students to be kind, empathetic, respectful, thoughtful, and to act with the highest levels of integrity.”


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