Jefferson Awards Students in Action

Where We Have Been & Where We Are Heading

Tower Hill School

March 20, 2010

1. Engaged School Community

• Our headmaster approved the program four years ago, when we were one of the first schools in the state to take on this initiative.

• We have adapted with the Jefferson Awards program and have implemented our own unique ways to grow this program at our small, private school.

2. Effective Leadership Team• We have ten members in our SIA team: Two

seniors, four juniors, two sophomores, and two freshman. This may not sound like a large number but that is about 5% of our student body.

• At the end of the year, as a group we will discuss who the next two leaders should be, based on involvement in major projects and overall support for the program.

• Five of the ten student leaders were able to attend the Leadership Conference in the fall.

Members of our SIA Group:

Jenni Jordan Rory Sarah ZoeCaroline B Faith John Caroline A Evan

3. Help Desk for Help: Expanding Volunteer Capacity• Each month we meet to discuss the nominations we have

sought out and one’s we received from other students, parents, and teachers.

• At the end of these meetings we pick a winner for that month. So far Molly Rosen, Gretta Willeman, Gaby Dressler, Trip Ashley, Jenny Cusack, and Michael, Andrew and Evan Kreshtool have won this year.

• We share each winners service resume in morning assembly when the entire upper school is present.

• Along with being members of the SIA group, everyone on the committee is also involved in other service projects. We support each others projects as a way to help spread the SIA message.

A few of our winners:Top Left: Molly RosenBottom Left: Gaby DresslerTop Right: Andrew, Evan, and Michael KreshtoolBottom Right: Jenny Cusack

3. Help Desk for Help: Expanding Volunteer

Capacity…• For the past year or two, we have used a sheet of

paper students fill out to track their volunteer hours. We found this method inefficient, so we decided to move towards U-Give to be as technologically advanced as possible.

• This year we began to add our school to the U-Give volunteer tracking system as part of a pilot system with the SIA program. We have recruited roughly 25% of our student body to sign up for U-Give.

• We have encouraged students to check for volunteer opportunities and also announced some of these opportunities during morning assembly.

4. Expanding Financial Capacity for Volunteers

• Last May, members of our SIA team formed a youth advisory group for the Race for A Better Delaware.

• We raised over $23,000 to be awarded through scholarships to outstanding leaders and volunteers.

• We plan to form this group once again this year.• Our student leaders also volunteered at Hoops for

Haiti, Pancakes for Parkinsons, and fundraisers and collections for the Delaware Medical Relief Team.

5. Tell Stories in the Community

• We present our Awards at morning assembly so the entire upper school can be present for the ceremony.

• We also post the description of what each award winner has done on TowerNet (our school website), The Weathervane (a publication sent to parents and alumni) and in the Crossroads.

• We have sent out six press releases, one per month, to TowerNet for the community to see.

5. Tell Stories to the Community

• This Year we held a Press Event called “Leadership & the Press”

• We began with a workshop with English teacher Leslie Sysko, who worked in public relations for many years before arriving at Tower Hill.

• This followed by a panel with guest speakers Congressman Castle, Former Lt. Governor John Carney, Sam Beard, Executive Editor of The News Journal David Ledford, WDEL commentator Al Mascitti, and photographer Elisa Morris

• We invited our winners from this year to come to the event and have their picture taken with our distinguished guest panelists.

Our SIA Group with the Panelists:

6. Growth and Expansion of SIA

• We have begun talks with Archmere students who wish to bring the Jefferson Awards Program to their school.

• We plan to meet with them at the end of the year so they can start it up in the 2010-2011 school year.

• We also invited many schools in the Jefferson Awards Program and others who were not to our “Leadership & the Press” Event. At the event we had handouts on how to write a press release, and how to hold a press conference.

7. Innovates

• One major improvement we’ve made this year is the “Leadership & the Press” Event.

• We also reached out to more parts of the school community for nominations.