NYLC Announces 2013 Service-Learning Award Recipients
It is with great honor that the National Youth Leadership Council presents the winners of this year’s National Service-Learning Awards. Each year NYLC shines a spotlight on the exemplary leaders from across the service-learning movement. Awards will be presented during the National Service-Learning Conference®, Without Limits, March 13-15, 2013 in Denver, Colorado.
Service-Learning Practitioner Leadership Award
The 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.
Beth Nickle
Beth Nickle has been a teacher at Bailey Alternative High School in Springfield, MO for 23 years. Through her efforts, service-learning has become systemic and interwoven with the academic and social goals of the school and community. Nickle spearheaded the Missouri Service-Learning Institute where middle school students from across the state gathered together for intensive service-learning leadership training. She and her students have presented at a variety of state and national conferences and in 2009 she was awarded the Teacher of the Year for Springfield Public Schools. Through her work, students have participated in hundreds of service-learning projects from recycling and water quality, to voting and tutoring. “Ms. Nickle makes our school a better place to learn and work and our community a better place to live. I am constantly amazed by her passion for service-learning and the associated projects”, said Justin Dickenson, Bailey Principal. “Ms. Nickle has not only proven herself to be one of the best teachers I have ever encountered, but one of the best people”.
Youth Leadership for Service-Learning Excellence Award
The Youth Leadership for Service-Learning Excellence Award recognizes K-12 service-learning programs and projects that demonstrate outstanding youth leadership.
TGIF: Turn Grease into Fuel
The Turn Grease into Fuel project was started in 2008 by the Junior WIN team in Westerly, RI. The project aims to recycle used cooking oil from local restaurants into biofuel to help families who need emergency heating assistance. Through visits to hundreds of local restaurants, partnering with grease collectors, biodiesel refiners, and charitable organizations, the project has set up nine cooking oil recycling centers in five cities and two states, covering an area with 250,000 residents and has donated a total of 20,600 gallons of BioHeat® fuel (approximately $81,000) to five charities. The youth team has created a toolkit which instructs others on how to implement TGIF. To date it has been distributed to four other states and Canada.
