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Leadership Toledo (LT) Executive Director
Anna Toney announced last week at the Jefferson Awards
Breakfast that TOLEDO EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL’S Youth
Jefferson Awards/Students In Action (SIA) initiative was
selected by an esteemed panel of judges to represent the
Toledo Region at the Jefferson Awards Foundation’s 46th
annual national ceremonies this June in Washington, D.C.
Toney explained that because of its
well-respected youth programming, LT was selected in late
2008 by the national Jefferson Awards Foundation to
facilitate the Toledo Region’s initiative. SIA is designed
to pass the tradition of service and volunteerism to the
next generation of young Americans, and now has a presence
at all of the Toledo Region’s 4o area high schools and
offers all high school students access to this prestigious
national youth recognition and rewards program.
At most of the schools, SIA is neither a club
nor organization – rather, it is a comprehensive,
student-led movement resulting in a renewed enthusiasm for
charity, community service, and teamwork. Toney remarked,
“SIA has grown beyond the initial opportunity to receive an
award. We believe that this demonstrates that our young
servant leaders of TODAY are already helping change the
alarming trend of passive reliance of youth on someone else
to create solutions for the problems that challenge our
communities!”
Each year, the Toledo Region’s participating
schools are invited to showcase how their year-long efforts
have redefined the culture of their campus to one of service
and further document how each has met the Jefferson Awards
Foundation’s national SIA criteria Competition is intense
and includes both the completion of a detailed online
questionnaire and creation of a video.
There are two levels for schools to
participate at – Ambassador and Banner. Ambassador is
limited only to schools who have earned the designation –
there are just seven in the nation that meet the demands –
Springfield High School is one of the seven!
To determine the 2018 Banner recipients, LT
assembled a local judging panel which included 13abc Anchor
Tony Geftos; Toledo Blade General Manager, President Editor
Kurt Franck; Marc Jaromin of Buckeye Broadband; Toledo City
Councilman Nick Komives; Marcus Sneed from The University of
Toledo and A.J. Decker, president of Leadership Toledo’s
Board of Trustees.
The judges were challenged to evaluate the
competition packages of five finalist schools – Bedford,
Emmanuel Christian, Jones Leadership Academy, Lake, and
Toledo Early College. In what was a “was extremely difficult
yet unanimous decision,” cited Toney, the judges for the
first time awarded three Gold Banners.
2018 GOLD BANNERS were presented to 2017
regional and national GOLD BANNER recipient Lake, Bedford
High School and to Toledo Early College (TEC), a past Silver
Banner recipient. It was then announced that TEC would
represent the Toledo Region in the national Banner
Competition.
“The deciding factor for Toledo Early College
to represent the Toledo Region in the national competition
was the students’ ability to balance the demands of rigorous
academics with their passion to serve others,” said Toney.
She concluded: “Toledo Early College is the first Toledo
Public School to be awarded a GOLD Banner. They have raised
the bar for themselves each year and serve as a model for
all TPS schools. What began as a core team of students has
exploded into the school-wide movement that showed the
judges just how much they are capable of doing - NOW! We
congratulate the SIA leaders at every competing school –
Springfield, Lake, Bedford and BRONZE BANNER/School of
Promise recipients Emmanuel Christian and Jones Leadership
Academy – for empowering ordinary students to become
extraordinary through their service to others. We are proud
to support them as they act today to address needs in their
neighborhoods, schools, and the region.”
For additional information, please contact
Kristina White, director of community impact, at
419.290.5027.
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