CASADY YAC DELIVERS PRESIDENTIAL AWARDS AND PLAQUE FOR NATIONAL RECOGNITION OF SERVICE IN THE CURRICULUM

Senior chairs, Rebeka D. and Caitlin H. hosted the delivery of Presidential Awards to students at Upper Division Chapel on May 9th 2013.

The President’s Volunteer Service Award is a national honor offered in recognition of volunteer service. Award eligibility for individuals and groups is based on hour requirements varying by age.  The Award is issued by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. Students received pins at chapel and picked-up certificates and congratulatory letter from the President of the United States from Woods Community Center where thank you goodie bags awaited them @ at Icee Celebration for Award winners and teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week hosted by Sophomore YAC Chair, Sindi Peza. 

 Mr. Christopher Bright, Casady's Headmaster delivered the goal pin to students who have performed a minimum of  250 hours of service age 15 or older or 100 hours age 14 or younger

GOLD: Joseph Michael Bonfiglio, Judy Hassoun, Shaan Patel, Julian Thomason, Abigail Utz

Mr. Brad Philipson delivered the silver pins to students who have performed a minimum of  175  hours age 15 or older or 75 hours ages 14 or younger

SILVER: Margaret Adair, Taylor Burrow, Amad Chohan, Emily Faulkner, Ronald Garcia, Katherine Hanstein, Maia Kaplan, Joseph Messick, Sarah Puls, Zichun Venus Zhou

 Father Charles Blizzard delivered the bronze pins to students who have performed a minimum of 100 hours age 15 or older or 50 hours ages 14 or younger

BRONZE: Carleigh Berryman, Mackenzie Blalock, Kendall Bleakley, Jack Boeh, Richard Costello, Thomas Fleming, Jessica Greene, Regan Henry, Anne Hill, Andrew Johnson, Maia Kaplan, Christine Luk, Dylan Raikar, John Robertson, Jessie Robinson, Ronda Sutor, Julian Thomason,  Megan Trachtenberg, Grace Williams, Martin Yoder (Martin was unable to be here because of AP exams)

Mrs. Carmen Clay, Community Service-Learning Director presented a special award involving service in the curriculum,

The Casady Service-Learning Program entered a national competition seeking outstanding programs integrating service in the curriculum sponsored by the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education and was recognized with the second place plaque for "some truly fine and innovative work being done at Casady School with service integrated in the curriculum.

Academically rigorous private schools from across the nation participated.  The Center's selection committee stated, " The mission of Casady School’s service program is to cultivate well-educated individuals who are also “entrepreneurs of peace and social change.” Though students are required to serve 45 hours over their high school years, many surpass this minimum, finding motivation in diverse opportunities and student-led initiatives. In addition to many faculty-led service opportunities, Casady has a student service council, YAC, that does great work collaborating with school clubs and sports teams on projects. Casady students have also developed their own award-winning service-learning experiences, like Sow Love Zambia, which has raised money to build schools in Zambia, and Students Against Destructive Decisions, which inspires students to be involved in positive endeavors. 

On the theme of integrating service with the curriculum, Casady has impressive initiatives across divisions. 

In the Upper Division, projects featured in the application as great examples of service in the curriculum were:   

Blue Thumb Project, Mr. Mark Delgrosso, in which science students monitor water quality and affected habitat in local streams.  

K-Senior Literary Exchange, Mrs. Whitney Finley and Dr. Janet Hubble, in which seniors and kindergarten students  share authored children story books. 

Peace One Day, Dr. Carlos Torres Rodriguez, Mrs. Mary Anne Cockrum, and Mrs. Joanne Jew, in which students connect language learning to the International Day of Peace, a day for wide-scale community action, and  for United Nations agencies and aid organizations to safely carry out life-saving work. 

Arts -4-Causes, Mrs. Phyllis Seitter, Mrs. Megan Thompson, Mr. Larry Moore, Mrs. Jana Heidebrecht, Mrs. Jeanmarie Nielson, Mrs. Stephanie Crossno, and Mrs. Lynn Robertson.

Metaphor Project, Dr. Bonnie Gerard, in which senior English students facilitate an interactive learning experience of metaphors for Lower Division students.

 Projects in other divisions featured in the application were:

 

In the Middle Division, featured projects were:

 

Stories of Hope: Dreams, Duty and Destiny, Mrs. Stephanie Crossno and the 8th grade team.

 

11 Days of Unity, International Day of Peace: Mrs. Lynn Robertson, Mrs. Shannon Semet, Mrs. Melody Hubbert, and Mrs. Sarah Zedlitz

 

In the Lower Division, featured projects were:

 

The Fair Trade Chocolate Project, Mr. Jeff Bush and the 4th Grade Team.  The CSEE committee stated, "The Fair Trade Chocolate Project in the lower school teaches students about social justice and environmental stewardship, as they sell fair-trade chocolate and donate the proceeds to charity. The project is woven into the curriculum in so many ways: graph skills in measuring sales, awareness of business concepts such as expenses, gross sales and profit, language arts skills in reading about the topic, art skills in recreating West African Adinkra symbols – art from the region where their fair-trade chocolate originated. This project and others at Casady are great examples of service through cross-discipline collaboration."

 

Arts-4-Causes:  Mrs. Sue Scott and artist in residence, Mrs. Patt Webb

 

 

In the Primary Division, feature projects were:

 

Pinwheels for Peace-International Day of Peace: Divisional project facilitated by Mrs. Pat Czerwinski and Mrs. Jane Sharp

 

Recycling & Green Gifts for Elderly Pals: Mrs. Pat Czerwinski

On Thursday May 9th, on behalf of the UD Community Service-Learning Program, Dr. Bonnie Gerard  presented the second place plaque recognizing outstanding work in service connected to curriculum to our headmaster, Mr. Chirstopher Bright.

 

 

 

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CSEE's  mission is to provide leading resources, expert voices, and an active forum for ethical growth and spiritual development in academically rigorous independent schools. CSEE represents a broad network of schools that share resources and commit together to nurture ethically rigorous and spiritually grounded citizens for tomorrow's world.  CSEE has a membership of 276 independent schools across the nation.