FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mike McGrath
National Civic League                       
mikem@ncl.org; 303-571-4343         

25 Teachers Win National Award for Community Outreach
Named 2009 MetLife Foundation Ambassadors In Education

Denver, CO—April 7, 2009—Twenty five public school teachers from across the United States were recognized today by the National Civic League with the 2009 MetLife Foundation Ambassadors In Education award. The teachers were selected for their leadership in building bridges between local schools and communities and will receive $5,000 grants for their schools at local awards ceremonies.

“Effective education is a collaborative venture that depends on good teachers, as well as administrators, parents, an engaged community, and students themselves,” said MetLife Foundation President and CEO Dennis White. “These teachers are leaders and innovators, who inspire students, peers, and neighbors to make schools and communities strong.”

The 2009 MetLife Ambassadors In Education are:

• Atlanta Public Schools, Natalie Brandhorst, North Atlanta High School
• Baltimore City Public Schools, Sandra Mosley, Edmondson-Westside High School
• Boston Public Schools, Constance Borab, Boston Day & Evening Academy
• Charlotte/Mecklenburg Public Schools, Jennie Griffith, School of International Business and Communications Studies at Olympic
• Chicago Public Schools, Pat Jonikaitis, Kate S. Kellogg School
• Dallas Independent Schools, Bobby Simmons, School for the Talented and Gifted
• Dayton Public Schools, Danya Berry, The Dayton Early College Academy
• Denver Public Schools, Holly Wells, Martin Luther King Jr. Early College
• Des Moines Public Schools, Sallie Hedgepeth, Ruby Van Meter School
• Detroit Public Schools, Joyce Smith, Randolph Career & Technical Center
• Fort Worth Independent Schools, Dalynn Cross, Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School
• Greenville County (South Carolina) Schools, Rachel Turner, Mauldin High School
• Hartford Public Schools, Christine Tocionis, Richard J. Kinsella Magnet School of Performing Arts
• Long Beach Unified Schools, Racquel Welch-Kitchen, Hamilton Middle School
• Los Angeles Unified School District, Michael Monagan, Widney High School
• Minneapolis Public Schools, Caroline Hooper, Minneapolis Southwest High School
• New York City Public Schools, Heather Waters, Millennium Art Academy
• Philadelphia School District, Alandra Abrams, Tilden Middle School
• Providence Public School District, Gerri Lallo, Providence Academy of International Studies
• San Antonio Independent Schools, Tamara Ford, Lanier High School
• San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Unified Schools, George Cachianes, Abraham Lincoln High School
• St. Louis Public Schools, Lucy Ryder-Duffey, Carnahan High School of the Future
• Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Schools, Julia Cobb Barnes, Young Middle Magnet School
• Tulsa Public Schools, Carol Axley, East Central High School
• Washington, D.C., District of Columbia Public Schools, Joseph Chisholm, Hardy Middle School       

  
“These are some of the most gifted and dedicated teachers in the country,” noted National Civic League President Gloria Rubio-Cortés. “Each and every one of them tells an important story about how professional educators, parents, students, business leaders and community organizations work together to improve both their schools and their communities.”

The stories told by this year’s winners are as varied as the individuals and the communities they serve. They include a drum and dance ensemble to connect African and African-American students, a student community service project in Guatemala, and a distinctive service learning program that engages students with special needs with their community.

The Ambassadors In Education award was established in 2003, after MetLife’s annual Survey of the American Teacher identified a growing gap between public schools and their communities. The award is designed to recognize educators whose influence can be felt beyond the classrooms and hallways thanks to their efforts to: build partnerships with community organizations, parents, and guardians; resolve conflicts and promote safety; and participate in civic engagement and community service efforts. Middle and high school educators in participating public school districts are eligible and are nominated by peers, parents, students or community members and selected by a national panel of education and civic experts.

MetLife Foundation, established in 1976, supports education, health, civic and cultural programs throughout the United States. In education, it places particular emphasis on initiatives that improve public schools, develop the leadership of teachers and principals, and involve parents and communities. Its grantmaking is informed by results from the annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher. For more information, visit www.metlife.org.
The National Civic League, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to community building and strengthening local democracy, administers the program. With the 2009 awards, this program has recognized 140 Ambassadors In Education with $700,000 in grants. For more information about the Ambassadors In Education Award visit www.ncl.org/metlife.

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Atlanta
Natalie Brandhorst, a teacher at North Atlanta High School, encourages students to be involved in their communities through special art projects. Her students take on issues such as environmental sustainability and hunger. Recently, she worked with students, parents and local Girl Scouts to raise awareness about hunger in Atlanta. Students and scouts used the school kiln to make hundreds of ceramic bowls as part of an “Empty Bowls” hunger education project. For the culminating event, members of the community brought canned goods to the school, where they were served soup in the bowls students made. Participants were led in a discussion about hunger and other community needs in the school’s North Atlanta neighborhood.  Brandhorst also partners with area artists and local businesses to provide her students with quality art supplies. 

Baltimore
As lead teacher for the Allied Health Program at Edmondson-Westside High School, Sandra Mosley builds partnerships with local hospitals, clinics and nursing facilities to provide her students with opportunities to use what they learn and gain practical experience as they prepare for careers in health care. “She makes certain that all Allied Health students are members of the Health Occupations Student Association,” notes educator Lisa Tarter, so they develop as leaders for the health care industry.  She organized a blood drive at the school for students, parents, and teachers, and serves as asthma coordinator for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of Baltimore.

Boston
A teacher at Boston Day and Evening Academy, Constance Borab founded the Hudson Project, a unique program that pairs teachers and students at her inner city school for overage students with those of suburban Hudson High School. The idea is for students and teachers from different backgrounds to “walk in each other’s shoes.” Participants prepare for their visits to the partner school by reading Shakespeare plays, so they can experience the exchange with their “heads and hearts.” “Connie’s vision and extraordinary efforts brought this program to life and have changed the lives of students and teachers who have participated in the program,” writes a colleague at Hudson High.

Charlotte
The students of Jennie Griffith, an English teacher at the School of International Business and Communications Studies at Olympic, evaluated Mecklenburg County’s ten-year plan to prevent homelessness and poverty for “realism and plausibility.”  First, they researched the issues of homelessness and poverty prevention across the United States then developed a revised implementation plan.  Next, they appeared before the Charlotte City Council with their recommendations for improving the plan. “Ms. Griffith is a proven leader among her peers in our multi-school campus,” writes assistant principal Sheila N. Lester. “She has been an outstanding role model for her students and has demonstrated to them the power of civic responsibility, commitment and hard work.”

Chicago
A parent writes of Pat Jonikaitis, a teacher at Kate S. Kellogg School: “When she is not at school you can find her serving dinner to the homeless, teaching youngsters how to swim, picking up the trash along the beaches of Lake Michigan, cleaning up a neighborhood forest preserve of invasive plants, walking in the Breast Cancer Awareness walk or just helping an elderly neighbor.” Her students helped design, plant and tend the school’s community gardens, working with an art teacher to design garden mosaics. A colleague writes: “I can attest to how she has taken an ordinary city block campus and transformed it into an urban oasis. Her school garden has become a model for all the other schools in the area.”

Dallas
A former firefighter and an active community leader, Bobby Simmons is a teacher at the School for the Talented and Gifted who encourages his students to be involved.  That can mean many things, including volunteering for local food and clothing drives or discussing public service with prominent leaders,  including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “He begins every period with current events discussions and always announces service opportunities that are available,” notes one of his students. “Mr. Simmons’ commitment to creating a community within a community has positively impacted each of his students.”

Dayton
“I wouldn’t be in college today if she had not believed in me and made me think for myself,” writes a former student of Danya Berry, college liaison for the Dayton Early College Academy. As the first member of her family to get a college degree, Berry understands the challenges that some urban students face. Colleagues describe her as a “teacher, go-between, disciplinarian, advocate, advisor, cheerleader, counselor, volunteer, role model and a link to the community.” She is a member of Miami University’s Admission Advisory Board and is an advisory board member of United Health Solutions, a local social service agency focused on promoting health and well being through education.

Denver
Holly Wells, a teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College, has led numerous efforts to promote fitness in the school and community, to obtain physical education equipment for special needs students with the help of the community, and to help design a new high school with her insights about how students use school spaces. She is a top recruiter of students for an annual 5K run, and her efforts have raised thousands of dollars for her school. She works with groups in the community to organize camping trips for her mostly inner city students. “Holly consistently looks for areas where she can collaborate with the community,” writes a parent. “She taps her friends, family and students for introductions to anyone who can be helpful to her students and her programs.” She also helps students understand the concept of community in a larger way, as with a recent service learning trip she took with two students to Guatemala to build a security wall for a local school.

Des Moines
Sallie Hedgepeth, a teacher at Ruby Van Meter School, developed a community-based service-learning program for students with special needs in the Des Moines metropolitan area. To do so, she formed partnerships with business, education and nonprofit organizations that have resulted in valuable opportunities for children to learn new social and civic skills and for the community to benefit from an increased awareness of disabilities, talents and contributions.  Incorporating the United Way Service Learning curriculum, she connected her students with organizations such as the Iowa National Guard, Special Olympics, United Way, emergency shelters for women and youth, the Central Iowa Food Pantry, retirement communities and others. Her students have received recognition and awards for their volunteer efforts, some of them finding out for the first time how much of a contribution they can make to their community.

Detroit
Joyce Smith, a teacher at Randolph Career and Technical Center, organizes on-site recognition programs for her students. Local businesses give special tributes to students who have worked in community support projects. She partnered with the city and a local historical society to secure a $25,000 grant to restore Captains Quarters at Historic Fort Wayne. Some students helped in the restoration. Others did PowerPoint® presentations and made brochures to promote the project. “She works tirelessly to encourages academic achievement and find employment opportunities for current students and graduates of Randolph,” noted Shawn Crump, a business rep for IBEW local 58.

Fort Worth
Dalynn Cross is a teacher at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School.  As a member of the school district’s Community Action Team, she partners with businesses and community organizations to provide new options and opportunities for Forth Worth youth to volunteer and learn.  A prominent example is her work with the University of Texas Arlington to develop a service-learning program for district students. Thanks to her efforts, thousands of hours of volunteer time have been given to the community.

Greenville
Rachel Turner, a teacher at Mauldin High School, has improved school communication with members of the Spanish-speaking community.  “She promotes the concept of selfless service in her classroom and encourages her students to become positive role models in the school and community.  She reaches beyond the classroom to create a community that supports education,” said Ann C. Miller, Principal of Mauldin High School. As manager of the Teacher Cadets, a program in which students help out teachers in local school classrooms and gain valuable experience for potential careers in education, she created partnerships with other local schools, child development centers and bookstores. She organized the first district-wide conference for high school teacher cadets, bringing in college admissions offers and community members to provide information and encouragement to the future teachers. “Ms. Turner’s unique ability to create partnerships and build relationships with the community that foster civic engagement and community service for her students is recognized throughout the state,” writes Tracie Sweet of the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement. 

Hartford
As a literacy teacher at Richard J. Kinsella Magnet School of the Arts, Christine Tocionis encourages her students to take an active role in community improvement efforts and places a strong emphasis on environmental sustainability. Her students have maintained a community garden at a nearby church, planted flowers and trees at a community center, collected donations for the Hartford Animal Shelter, sponsored a toy drive at a children’s shelter and organized neighborhood clean-ups. They meet on a bimonthly basis to discuss environmental issues, attend lectures from guest speakers and participate in activities such as building bird feeders and planters for convalescent homes. She also helps students understand the concept of community in a larger way, as when she chaperoned students attending a United Nations sponsored youth conference on the environment in Malaysia.

Long Beach
Racquel Welch-Kitchen launched the Career and Leadership (CAL) program at Hamilton Middle School, a semester-long class in which students investigate careers, go on field trips to local government agencies and participate in leadership development activities. Technology allows students to participate in virtual job shadowing and to research careers. She volunteers to facilitate community meetings and works with outside nonprofit groups. “Raquel has connected students with city government, local colleges and universities, public service agencies, nonprofit groups and arts organizations,” writes Principal David Downing, “organizing both on-site experiences and field trips for students to increase their involvement in the community.”

Los Angeles
A teacher at Widney Special Education Center, Michael Monagan founded the “Kids of Widney Band,” a group of songwriters and performers with various forms of disability, to write songs for a school musical. Twenty years and 4 CDs later, the ever-changing collection of songwriters is still going strong. The band has played innumerable local gigs, including special education centers, benefits for organizations like the Special Olympics and regular venues such as the Key Club or the House of Blues. They also performed two songs in “The Ringer,” a Hollywood movie. As Arthur Camplone, the school psychologist, writes, “Mr. Monagan, as part of a movement to integrate people with disabilities into the mainstream, has used music as a way to change people’s minds. Rather than focus on the differences, he has strived to find the similarities between people.”

Minneapolis
Caroline Hooper, a teacher at Minneapolis Southwest High School, brings business leaders, community leaders, local elected officials, judges, and public administrators into the classroom after school hours to meet with students and answer their probing questions about public policy issues.  Judges and state representatives have fielded tough but polite questions and learned about the concerns, frustrations and expectations of high school students. “Mrs. Hooper instills in her students a sense of responsibility in being prepared to speak from a sound foundation of facts, to ask questions that are pertinent and reflective and to substantiate opinions and points of view,” writes fellow educator William E. Smith. Her students are encouraged to move from discussion to action. On a given week, they may be out knocking on doors to raise money for the local food bank or picking up litter at a nearby park.

New York
A teacher at the Millennium Art Academy in the Bronx, Heather Waters collaborated with the director of special education last year to create a program with a local elementary school for special needs students.  They trained student volunteers to serve as teaching assistants in the grade school classrooms. As her school’s Intergenerational Program Director, she has also developed strong relationships with nursing homes, senior centers and art galleries.  Students visit local nursing homes and senior centers to do art projects with the residents or serve as nursing assistants and read to residents.  Student volunteers have tutored seniors in computer skills. As part of the Millennium Pearl initiative, elders spend time on Thursdays working with a group of 11th and 12th graders in a living history program.  Along with the art teacher and a visiting theater artist, Heather Waters leads seniors in U.S. history classes that feature historical incidents delivered as first-hand accounts.  The students take these memories, compile oral histories and write and perform one-act plays.

Philadelphia
Alandra Abrams, a teacher at Tilden Middle School, started the African Drum and Dance Ensemble to build better relationships between African and African American students through the arts. The program began after an altercation between African American students and students from African countries at the school a few years ago.   In addition, when two families in Philadelphia were victims of a fire she arranged for the Tilden Middle School Choir, which she directs, to perform to raise money for the families. The choir also sings annually at the Amtrak 30th Street Station as part of its yearly celebration of African-American history.

Providence
Gerri Lallo teaches reading at Providence Academy of International Studies, a small urban high school with a mission that emphasizes community service.  Lallo worked with students and educators from the Middle East and North Africa in a Collaborative Art Institute initiative to create a public art installation at Roger Williams University.  As a result, she has been invited to teach an arts literacy workshop in Morocco and to help with professional development at a Moroccan public high school. She also organized a project for students to knit scarves and blankets for an international poverty relief program.  A former dance teacher, she works with teachers at the Roger Williams Middle School to organize their annual Black History Month Theatrical Performance. She has also brought Puerto Rican and West African artists to perform at the annual celebration.

San Antonio
A retired police officer, Tamara Ford now leads the criminal justice vocational education program at Lanier High, an inner city school in west San Antonio.  She organized the Lanier Police Explorers, a service organization in which 64 students developed skills for conflict resolution in order to promote safety in the school and community.  The Explorers offer safety seminars in area elementary schools including puppet shows and making fingerprint IDs for the kids.  They provide a special program for children with incarcerated parents to encourage good relationships and academic success.  The Explorers conduct neighborhood cleanups, work to reduce graffiti, distribute fliers on drug assistance and anti-gang programs, and volunteer at emergency shelters.

San Francisco Bay Area
Only a small percentage of U.S. students choose a science degree in college. For graduates of Lincoln High School, however, it is about 40 to 50 percent. A former researcher at a biotech firm, Lincoln High teacher George Cachianes developed a two-year curriculum on biotechnology and its applications that provides students with research opportunities few high school students in the country can get.  Select students from his biotech course spend the summer at a research lab at the University of California at San Francisco where they design and develop their own research projects. The interns team up with UCSF students to present their projects at the international Genetically Engineered Machines competition at MIT, and they are the only high school students who participate. Last year their team brought home the prize for Best New Application Area, and one of the Lincoln High students was invited to give a talk at a synthetic biology conference in Hong Kong.

St. Louis
Every student who enrolls in Lucy Ryder-Duffey’s Contemporary Issues class is required to volunteer three hours per semester.  Last semester, the students volunteered at a local homeless shelter during spring break.  A social studies teacher at Carnahan High School of the Future, she encourages her students to participate in programs such as Mock Trial, Youth in Government, Urban League Debate and Teens Speak Out!  She reaches out to the community to assure that all students have the resources they need to participate. During their first year of participation in the three day Youth in Government program, in which students shadow members of the state legislature and proposed their own legislation, her students won awards for “best overall witness” and “best piece of legislation.”  Additionally, she regularly brings community leaders into the classroom to discuss current affairs and social involvement.

Tampa
Julia Cobb Barnes of Young Middle Magnet School of Math, Science, and Technology has excelled both as an educator and a promoter of community service programs. Through her school-based community service club, she organized an after school “Feed the Children” campaign which, with the help of 212 students and parents, gathered 56 thousand pounds of food for hungry children in the U.S.  She also developed an after-school community service program for Joshua House for Teenage Mothers and St. Francis House for AIDS Children. She took the initiative in organizing an annual dinner program with an emphasis on brotherhood called “365 Days of Black History.” She also worked with a group of students to produce two videos on African-American history themes.

Tulsa
Carol Axley is a counselor and student advocate at East Central High School, one of the most diverse schools in Oklahoma.  She recruits teens across the state to participate in “Camp Anytown,” a multicultural leadership program sponsored by the Oklahoma Conference of Community and Justice.  She is on the advisory board of Upward Bound, an organization that prepares at risk students for college.  She facilitates Youth Leadership Tulsa, a select group of teens from the metro area who meet once a month to learn more about their community and ways to give back.  She coordinates services for students at-risk and works to find resources for families in need. 

Washington, D.C.
When Joseph Chisholm interviewed for the job as band teacher at Hardy Middle School, he predicted that students who did well in his music program would also remain at school and do well in other academic areas.  Statistics have proven his claim.  About 75 percent of the school’s honor roll members are in the band.  A professional jazz musician, Chisholm developed the band program from scratch.   He sought out donations of instruments from the community, and he reached out to parents.  He has created a traveling show of student musicians who have visited dozens of schools, community centers, senior centers, and professional showcases.   He has expanded student exposure to music through the Thelonius Monk Institute, the Washington Performance Art Society and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Program.  His students are tutored by some of the country’s most accomplished jazz musicians and have been offered the opportunity of playing with Wynton Marsalis.