Winners of Statewide 2010 Outstanding Service-Learning Awards Announced

Service-learning is a teaching and learning approach that connects meaningful service to the community with classroom instruction that enriches learning, teaches civic responsibility, and fosters personal growth.  Students apply what they learn in the classroom to important community issues.

Four recipients representing a teacher/practitioner, innovative service-learning programs, and a student will be honored with the awards.  They will be presented at the 14^th Annual Institute: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement in Traverse City on Tuesday, February 9, 2010.  The Institute provides opportunities to examine service-learning models of success, network with service-learning professionals, and explore campus-community partnerships.  James G. Vella, chair of the Michigan Community Service Commission will present the awards. 

"The recipients of the 2010 Outstanding Service-Learning Awards provide wonderful examples of the impact service-learning can have on a community, its needs, and its young people," said Vella.  "I am pleased to present them with their awards and highlight their accomplishments."

The 2010 award recipients are:

Innovative Program Awards

This award honors K-12 service-learning programs demonstrating innovation and excellence.

Detroit Service Learning Academy

Teachers, staff, and students of the Detroit Service Learning Academy believe in making a better community and creating a well-rounded student through service to all. The mission of the Detroit Service-Learning Academy is to prepare students for academic success, lifelong learning, leadership, and meaningful service to the community. Since 1999, the school has woven this commitment of student engagement into the very fabric of their community.  The entire school engages in service-learning every year with each grade level and extracurricular class creating a service-learning project based on student input.  All support staff join a grade level or extracurricular class and assist with a project making it a school-wide effort. 

In the last two years projects have included: the choir bringing music and donations into the lives of the residents of Grace Centers of Hope; sixth grade students writing letters to the Detroit City Council about city-owned homes that were dilapidated and a danger to their community; and the Academy's Fit and Friendly Program that brought in people from USA Fitness, a private yoga instructor, and Mobile Dentist to instruct the kids on staying fit and making the right choices.  These, and many other projects, demonstrate that students of all ages can have a positive impact on their communities.

Environmental Studies, Onaway Area Schools

Students in Mr. Scott Steensma's environmental studies class at Onaway Area Schools study the relationships between natural and man-made environments.   Students also explore associated subjects; such as policy, politics, law, economics, social aspects, planning, pollution control, natural resources, and the interactions of human beings and nature.  The course has been unique in that students are working on a number of projects related to the environment in an effort to reduce the environmental footprint of Onaway Area Schools.

A big component of the class this year has been the creation of a 30-by-48 foot permanent greenhouse for the school.  The students acted as general contractors for the entire project, from site selection, to completing permit applications, to working with individual contractors.  They are working with the local garden club to develop a year-long community based program around the greenhouse.  This will include running a plant hotel in the winter for those who go south for the season, and "leasing" space to community members/groups during the summer.

Student Award

This award is given to a K-12 student who demonstrates leadership in the development and implementation of service-learning in their district and demonstrates initiative and creativity in service-learning participation.

Ella Kate Wagner, Belding High School Senior

Ella Kate Wagner, a senior at Belding High School, has been active in service-learning since middle school.  During that time, Ella Kate championed service-learning among her peers through efforts to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina by selling wristbands.  In addition to that she worked with kindergarteners to write and publish a book about animals displaced during Hurricane Katrina. Proceeds from the book benefited local shelters that took in the animals.  This year, she wrote a grant and implemented a project in her school that addressed the achievement gap.  She worked with her peers to develop resources on the achievement gap and shared the results with local curriculum directors and high school principals. 

Ella Kate has been an active member of the Michigan Community Service Commission's Service-Learning Youth Council, a group that recently worked to create public service announcement videos encouraging youth civic engagement.  Ella Kate is a member of the National Youth Leadership Council Youth Advisory Council and the Corporation for National and Community Service's Youth Speakers Bureau.  She regularly presents at the local, state, and national level on service-learning.

K-12 Teacher/Practitioner Award

This award is presented to a teacher who has served as a model of leadership for service-learning.

Sue Wilson, Clarkston Community Schools

Sue Wilson is an educator and service-learning champion in Clarkston Community Schools.  For more than five years, Sue has honed her skills as a practitioner and has supported teachers in cultivating their own service-learning practice.  A passionate and effective leader, Sue believes in shared leadership and shared responsibility.  In addition to her teaching duties she continues to work with the district's academic service-learning building liaisons to provide critical support to classroom teachers who are involved in service-learning projects.

Sue believes deeply in the need for students to be involved in improving their own lives and the lives of others, both through academics and through volunteerism. She understands that every time she develops another teacher or another parent partner, she has increased the odds that more students will begin to embrace their own development as learners and citizens. That is her passion. Her gift is the ability to help other teachers understand and implement these beliefs and practices. Evidence of her passion and results are found in the increased number of teacher practitioners, from 22 in 2004 to more than 180 in 2009.

BACKGROUND:

Learn and Serve - Michigan, administered by the Michigan Community Service Commission in partnership with the Michigan Department of Education, is part of the Learn and Serve America grant program supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service.  The MCSC funds the development and implementation of high-quality service-learning programs in K-12 schools.

The Michigan Community Service Commission builds a culture of service by providing vision and resources to strengthen communities through volunteerism.  In 2009-2010, the MCSC is granting more than $8.2 million in federal funds to local communities for volunteer programs and activities.    James G.  Vella, President of the Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services, serves as Chair of the Michigan Community Service Commission.