Connect, Learn,
Build
Educational Opportunities
Our mission is to have the park be an educational campus, including for students in Baltimore-area schools. Educators can dive into professional development or plan a field trip. Residents can get curious with programs just for adults. From toddlers to teens to teachers, there’s plenty for everyone to learn at Hillside Park. If you would like to take part in the educational programming in the park, please email education@hillsideparkmd.org.
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (Poly) and Western High School
Poly and Western are two of the best public high schools in Maryland and are located directly across the street from Hillside Park. Both offer a college preparatory curriculum, and all of their graduates attend college. Poly is known for being a topnotch Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) school and Western is the oldest all-girls high school in the country. Poly and Western moved to their current location across from Hillside Park in 1967. Students come from every zip code in the city to attend these fantastic schools.
Poly and Western administrators and faculty have written multiple letters of support for the establishment and success of Hillside Park as an educational campus for their students.
The advanced science classes at Poly have already toured Hillside Park multiple times in preparation to start their academic programming in the 2025/26 school year. In year-end reviews, students stated that their visits to the park were the highlight of the semester. Longtime science educator Victoria Mathew is leading this effort.
School Outreach
Over the past three years, members of the Hillside Park committee have met with the heads of school from elementary, middle, and high schools within a mile of the park to inform them of the exciting educational opportunities available to their students.
Faculty from Morgan State University’s Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture wrote letters of support for the establishment of the park and we are actively looking to partner with Morgan’s faculty and students on projects in the park.
Those who care deeply about Baltimore’s youth might be motivated to make a donation that is specifically targeted to support planned partnerships between the park and its neighboring K-12 schools. Make a targeted donation.
School Partnership Projects Completed
Public History Group from University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
Dr. Denise Meringolo, a professor of history at UMBC, who specializes in public history, oversaw a group of graduate students who created a public history report and presentation on Hillside Park. The report included the architecture and landscape of historic Roland Park; the development of Roland Park, Guilford and Homeland by the Roland Park Company; the history of sports and recreation on the property; personal stories about the land; and the historic neighborhood of Cross Keys.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School
The Student Advocacy Workshop Series (SAWS) program at Hopkins led a year-long investigation of the health of the streams in Hillside Park and surveyed students at Poly and Western regarding their use of parks. The mentors for the program were graduate and PhD students, predominantly in the sciences, who worked with a team of women from Western.
Grants & Partnerships
Hillside Park offers opportunities to a multitude of organizations, whether their focus is on history, the environment, or any other field. We are actively working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and are excited by the prospect of being awarded grants from other local, state, and federal agencies and groups.
NOAA Stream Restoration
In the fall of 2024, NOAA awarded the Parks & People Foundation (PPF) a $2.1 million grant to partner with Hillside Park Inc. on a stream and wetland restoration project in the park. PPF will collaborate with its existing educational and workforce development partners to develop a curriculum for the restoration project. Through the PPF Branches program, high school students will participate in workforce development training, including riparian buffer planting, and Hillside Park will be added as one of the PPF SuperKids summer camp programs for 1st through 5th graders. The goal is to instill in children a sense of comfort and familiarity with being in nature and to teach a basic appreciation for healthy ecosystems.
Landscape Architect Wanted
Hillside Park is looking to hire a landscape architect to work on and review existing and future plans for development. Click the link below to find out more.