March 2010

Redwood High School

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1. Effective Leadership Team

• Our leadership team has changed drastically in just the past year. Our team last year consisted of 3 juniors who have now become seniors. Our major goal was to grow and expand this year. Our major fear was when the seniors graduated there would not be a Jefferson club the next year. We expanded greatly using club days to broadcast the Jefferson Awards. In doing this we gained two new leaders.

• Mark Spero  and Andrew Bantly. Mark and Andrew both lead the team meetings and the graduating seniors help guide them in a direction if needed.  

• Our best practice this year is giving presentations to every freshman at our school about doing community service and participating in the Jefferson Students in Action club. We believe that this and participating in the club day is what is responsible for the drastic increase in the club members. It’s exciting to see our team grow at every meeting.  

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Our Leaders!

Mark Spero

Andrew Bantly

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2. Engage the School Community

• We have spoken to all of the Social Issues classes at Redwood about community service and the Jefferson Club. As a result many students joined the club at our recent club day. Were we set a booth explaining the Student in Action Program.

• The drastic increase has been very beneficial ! We love the abundant supply of new ideas.

• In our recent school news paper an article was written about the Jefferson Award and the recent award winner Hannah Spero. The article also talked about the Student in Action program at Redwood. Statements were made by our winner, Hannah Spero, one of the senior leaders Mariah Clifton, and our faculty coordinator , Mrs. Vantrease.

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3. Help Desk for Help – Expand Volunteer Capacity

• Club day- is a great place for students to learn about the Jefferson Awards. A booth is set up were the leaders answer any questions and also allow students to sign up and join the team.

• We are in the mist of planning our community service fair , this will allow students to sign up many different community service opportunities.

• We are in the process of planning a volunteer a beach clean up day at a local beach. Once we have we have the dates we are going to make an announcement to the student body to give them the opportunity to help out.

• Mrs. Vantrease is our go to person, she can answer any possible questions that students have. She also keeps track of all volunteer hours from the student body and supplies a list of non-profit organizations that are always looking for volunteers.

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OUR WINNER- HANNAH SPERO

• She is our first winner• She has spent her Spring Break by building houses that were hit by hurricane in New

Orleans with her temple• This has not been a one time project for her• Ever since freshman year she has been building houses for victims of the hurricane• Our school put her in the spot light by writing an article about her winning the Award and

describing her hard work.

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4. Expanding Financial Capacity for Volunteers

• Fundraising is a major goal that we would like accomplish in the upcoming years.

• With the money that we raise we would love to create some kind of scholarship to award the winners.

• Or donate it to a charity of our choice or the students choice

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5. Tells Compelling Stories in the Community

•We sent out information and updates about the Jefferson Award Students in Action in the Twig to allow people of the community to learn about our latest achivements.

•The Twig is a news letter that is sent to the parents of Redwood students

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6. Growth and Expansion of SIA

• Unfortunately we have not recruited any schools this past year.

• Before we branch out to another school we want to make sure we have met as many goals as possible so that way we have the ability to be a mentor to the other school.

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7. Innovation

• Community service fair• Focusing on the freshman class• Participating in Club Day• Being noticed in the School Paper• Creating a day for students to participate in volunteering• Writing something in the Twig for parents to read • We have a Facebook group that updates students on our

upcoming events and meetings• Around the time of applications we make posters , make an

announcement over the loud speaker, and put in the Twig, which is updated daily.