NYLC Announces 2011 Service-Learning Award Recipients

NYLC awards shine a spotlight on exemplary leaders from across the service-learning movement and nurture the leaders of the future. Most awards are presented annually at the National Service-Learning Conference.

Alec Dickson Servant Leader Award

The Alec Dickson Servant Leader Award honors exemplary leaders who have inspired the service-learning field, positively impacted the lives of young people, and motivated others to take up the banner of service.

 Jane Hammatt Kavaloski

Jane Hammatt Kavaloski is a writer and service-learning trainer who has worked with schools locally and nationally and also taught for many years at Shabazz City High School in Madison, Wisc., where she was a service-learning coordinator. Under her leadership the alternative school was named a national Leader School for service-learning by the Corporation for National and Community Service, and was involved in NYLC’s early Tri-State Initiative, examining state-level support structures for increasing practice. Kavaloski has written widely about the effects of service-learning, both as from both a practitioner and research perspective. Among her contributions to the larger field are a chapter in NYLC’s book Wisdom Teachings: Lessons Learned from Gatherings of Elders, and a new reflection journal, co-authored by her husband Vincent and based in Martin Luther King’s teachings. A returned Peace Corps volunteer, she has received numerous awards for her service-learning work, including Wisconsin’s State Superintendent’s Service-Learning Award and the 2004 State Farm Service-Learning Practitioner Leadership Award from NYLC.

G. Bernard Gill Urban Service-Learning Leadership Award

The G. Bernard Gill Urban Service-Learning Leadership Award honors individuals who, by example, have played a leadership role in urban schools, communities, and the lives of young people.

 Devin T. Robinson X

In less than three years, the performer also known as “Egypt” has appeared on Apollo twice, BET Rap it up tour, MTV, UPN, NBC, National Public Radio, New York Daily News, Seventeen magazine, HIV Plus magazine, POZ magazine, Madison’s Who’s Who of business executives and professionals, and in 11 newspapers and on 10 radio stations for his dynamic work educating people about HIV, Black history, sex, love, and politics. He does this through motivational speaking, comedy, acting, and poetry. He adopted the name “Egypt” because he plans to influence the world as the great African empire has influenced the earth.

State Farm Service-Learning Practitioner Leadership Award

The State Farm Service-Learning Practitioner Leadership Award recognizes those practitioners who have equipped young people to lead and serve, both through their direct work with youth and by nurturing other practitioners.

 Kathy Bartsias

Duluth Public Schools, Minnesota

Kathy Bartsias has embraced service-learning for 24 years in Duluth Public Schools as a former classroom teacher and District Service-learning Specialist. Under Bartsias’ leadership, Duluth Public Schools was the recipient of the 2003-05, 2006-08 and 2008-10 State Service-Learning Lead District Award. In 2005, Bartsias received one of the State of Minnesota individual Service-Learning Awards. She has shared her service-learning passion and expertise at numerous local, state, and national conferences and worked with other national leaders at the Johnson Foundation Wingspread Conference to strengthen service-learning practice across the nation in the development of the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice. She serves on a number of boards and was selected as a member of the Knight Creative Communities Initiative to develop and implement solutions that enhance the region’s capacity for economic prosperity.

State Farm Youth Leadership for Service-Learning Excellence Award

The State Farm Youth Leadership for Service-Learning Excellence Award recognizes K-12 service-learning programs and projects that demonstrate outstanding youth leadership.

 Strides for Sudan

Upper Arlington High School, Ohio

Strides for Sudan was founded in 2009, by 94 freshmen who had met two Sudanese refugees. The freshmen committed to supporting the refugees’ efforts to build a health clinic in the village of Piol, Sudan and raised $14,539 to purchase a cold storage unit and solar panels for the clinic. Current freshmen are continuing the efforts under the mentorship of a club of sophomore students dedicated to maintaining the project.

Stellar Award

The Stellar Award honors the late Stella Raudenbush’s work as a community activist, teacher, and spiritual seeker and passion for children, social justice, community, diversity, urban education, and elders.

 Naomi Tutu

Office of International Programs, Tennessee State University

Naomi Tutu, daughter of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and recipient of the 2011 Stellar Award, is associate director of the Office of International Programs at Tennessee State University, founder of the Tutu Foundation, and author of Words of Desmond Tutu and I Don’t Think of You as Black: Honest Conversations on Race. Born in South Africa during apartheid, she is an internationally recognized speaker and consultant on gender, race and international relations and a recipient of numerous awards. She has been a consultant in sub-Saharan Africa and in South Africa on educational and professional opportunities for black women and has taught courses on development, gender, and education in Africa, at the Universities of Hartford, Conn. and Brevard College in North Carolina.

What’s Related

Learn more about NYLC's awards.

Learn more about the Annual National Service-Learning Conference.