Best Practices, Volume X, 2008

2008 Student STAR Award winner and nominees

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2008 Student STAR Award winner
Lola Ofiu, Central Middle School of Science 2008 Student STAR Award winner An important goal of the School Business Partnership program is to teach students about community service and professionalism, but sometimes the students turn the tables and become the ones who awe and inspire everyone else. Lola Ofiu, an eighth grader at Central Middle School, is one of these exceptional young adults. She is an honor student, athlete, volunteer, and mentor. As a member of the School Business Partnership class, Lola co-facilitated the Mock Job Interview day. This meant organizing student schedules, telephoning business members, e-mailing guests, and running the event. Lola chose to remain in the SBP class for a second semester, and earned the chance to organize a second Mock Job Interview day on her own. What amazing responsibility and experience for an eighth grader! She mentors incoming SBP students and handles all tasks with a positive attitude. Outside of school, Lola volunteers at the Food Bank of Alaska and Spenard Recreation Center, fundraises for her church, and is a star hitter for the Midnight Sun volleyball team. Her SBP teacher, Janna Walker, writes, “I feel Lola is a great example of what the School Business Partnership Class strives to teach – professionalism, community involvement and service to others.” For this and all the reasons stated above, Lola was awarded the 2008 Student STAR Award. Congratulations, Lola!
2008 Student STAR Award nominees
Haleigh Donnelly, Service High School Haleigh Donnelly, a junior at Service High, is another model SBP student. Haleigh has worked closely with the school’s business partner, Advanced Physical Therapy of Alaska (APTAK) for the past three years. She completed training with APTAK staff and now serves as a student athletic trainer. Service football and hockey players trust Haleigh to tape them up, stretch them out, keep them hydrated, and massage their muscle cramps. Haleigh mentors other student trainers, and plans to pursue a degree in Sports Medicine at the University of Hawaii after graduation. Haleigh is active in many other school clubs and activities, including student government, girls’ hockey, track, and the Partner’s Club. She is a peer teacher for special education students. Life Skills teacher Adam Ahonen said, “Haleigh initiates projects and activities with students in my class and makes sure all the students are included. On holidays she is always coming up with something cool for my students, a bag of goodies or trinkets for each person.” She does this entirely on her own, without being asked or rewarded by anyone. It may be difficult to believe, but Haleigh also finds time to serve her community by volunteering at Providence Extended Care, Providence Children’s Ward, Planned Parenthood, Beans’ Café, and she helps with reading programs at Trailside and Bowman elementary schools. In addition, she is a lifeguard and swimming instructor at H2Oasis! Daly Mutini, Denali Montessori School Over at Denali Elementary school, sixth grader Daly Mutini is busy inspiring teachers and business partners alike. The school has a strong peer mediation program thanks to its partnership with NECA/IBEW, and Daly is an outstanding mediator. He committed to three days of off-campus training to become a peer mediator, and obtained all necessary teacher and parent recommendations to do so. The entire learning community at Denali benefits from the conflict resolution skills of students like Daly. The school’s noon duty, Scott Irwin, was asked to recommend an outstanding mentor and he immediately proposed Daly, noting his strong sense of integrity and positive attitude.		Steller students Steller students illustrate another example of School Business Partnerships at their best.The teens enthusiastically work together and brainstorm creative ways to give back to their business partners, and the entire community benefits as a result. When Steller teamed with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, nine students trained to become “Bigs” for students at North Star Elementary. Bigs and Littles spend at least one hour together each week at the elementary school: playing in the gym, reading in the library, or just talking. The Steller students are excellent role models for the younger children. Title Wave is another of Steller’s business partners, and the students organized and participated in a Banned Books Reading for the bookstore. This event raised community awareness about censorship and was appreciated by Title Wave staff and customers alike. The students also volunteered to wrap gifts for Title Wave shoppers throughout the holiday season. The Anchorage Downtown Partnership is Steller’s third business partner, and the students volunteered at the Holiday Tree Lighting and the Fire and Ice New Year’s Eve Celebration. The SBP program at Steller is representative of an entire culture of community service at the school. Other school service projects include a sock drive, penny drive, and fundraisers for cleft palate surgeries, African villages, and literacy programs in India. Steller students do not passively accept help from business partners; instead, they do everything they can to give of their time, talent, and treasure in return! Mason Smales, Highland Tech Charter School Read about another student award nominee, Mason Smales, in the Beta Communications feature, page 22. SBP classes teach vital lessons about citizenship and community service each day, but students like Lola, Haleigh, Daly, Mason and the Steller students teach by example. They exemplify the very best of the SBP program: congratulations and thank you!

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Please note: The information on this page is from the 2008 edition of Best Practices. The people, programs and contact information included were current at the time of publication, but may have since changed.