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South Central Leadership Initiative Kick-Starts Year Two

The new class of the South Central Leadership Initiative

The second year of the South-Central Student Leadership Initiative started on Friday, May 4 in West Plains, as 14 students representing seven south-central Missouri school districts attended a kick-off event at Heroes banquet facility. In all, 20 students will represent 10 districts–one junior and one senior per school.

The students were welcomed by CFO’s south-central region staffer, Carol Silvey, of West Plains. The students will have opportunities to learn from both adults and peers through activities that emphasize the RSP’s mission of place-based education that connects rural schools and their communities.

The keynote speaker for the first session was Thayer native and West Plains-based physical therapy professional Mary Sheid. Sheid has held a number of regional and national leadership posts, including a stint as president of the Missouri State University Board of Governors.

Sheid shared her story of growing up in a small town and returning to West Plains to forge a career, and how the limitations of geography haven’t stopped her from seeing the world through volunteerism, professional growth and missions work. She also shared traits of strong leaders, and told the students to take the time to choose where they feel they can put their talents to the best use.

“Leaders take time to get to know themselves,” Sheid said. “You only have so much time and energy, and you need to take the time to figure out where you want to spend it. If you (do that) and truly give it your best shot, more often than not you’ll be successful.”

In the afternoon session, the students heard from Tim Scrivner, the past president of the Skyline School Board, who had a major hand in establishing the Douglas County school’s foundation, as well as its Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

The next session for the students is set for October.

Posted May 11th, 2012 in News, South Central Leadership Initiative | No Comments »

Coover Place-Based Grants Awarded in Thomasville

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Commerce Trust Company awarded $100,500 in Coover grants for school-based projects including local ecology studies, visiting artists, history preservation, energy efficiency, and an on-campus store to teach job skills to special-needs students.

The grants from the CFO’s Rural Schools Partnership were awarded at the recent Rural Schools Rendezvous at the Thomasville Community Center. They are funded through a long-standing partnership with the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Regional Grantmaking Program of Commerce Trust Company.

The Coover Place-Based Education grantmaking program is made possible by the generosity of the late Mrs. Coover, a longtime Commerce Bank employee, who established the Foundation in honor of her husband. Since its inception in 1992, the Coover Charitable Grantmaking program has awarded about $3.3 million to communities and schools across central and southern Missouri.

“If Mrs. Coover could only see the impact her generosity is having on our region, she would be amazed,” said Jill Reynolds, vice president at Commerce Trust Company and incoming president of the CFO Board of Directors.

The grants were awarded to the following schools during the RSP’s annual Rural Schools Rendezvous in Thomasville, Mo., on April 26.

  • Placeworks Art Initiative: $20,000 to allow teaching artists to visit regional schools to create art projects that complement other curriculum areas.
  • GLADE Mentor Development Program: $15,000 to use its existing field research class at Logan-Rogersville to create a framework to mentor environmental educators at other schools for student conservation projects.
  • Nixa-Summit Intermediate: $7,100 for the Gardening’s Rich Opportunities (GRO) program where students in gardening, science and recycling clubs will transform a patch of land into a productive garden.
  • Lockwood:  $15,000 to create an outdoor classroom at the South Park to study the ecology and preservation of local prairieland.
  • Eminence: $15,000 for digital storytelling program to archive local history and recount historical events in the Shannon County area.
  • Dallas County R-1: $15,000 to create the “Bison Bistro,” an on-campus store that will offer job-training skills for special-needs students.
  • Aurora Youth Empowerment Project: $3,400 for students to research well-known local history characters to create live storytelling projects and develop a fall fundraiser for the youth philanthropy group’s grantmaking fund.
  • Purdy: $11,000 for Purdy Recycling Club to install a 3.5KW solar power panel on the recycling center’s roof to zero out monthly utility costs.

In addition, five schools – Bakersfield, Thayer, Ava, Dora and Hartville – were awarded $5,000 Coover grants to participate in the Place-Based Institute hosted by the RSP and the Rural School and Community Trust in late May at the Rural Education Center on the MSU-West Plains campus.

Posted May 3rd, 2012 in Events, Grants, News, Placeworks Arts Initiative, Thomasville, Uncategorized, YEP | No Comments »

Rural School and Community Trust Director Rob Mahaffey to Speak at Missouri State Conference

Courtesy of the Center for Midwest Initiatives

Robert Mahaffey will be a featured presenter at Missouri State University’s 2011-2012 Public Affairs Conference, held in Springfield, Missouri on April 17-20.  Mahaffey is the director of communications for the Rural School and Community Trust, the premier national advocacy organization dedicated in helping rural schools and communities grow better together. He also serves as president of the Organizations Concerned about Rural Education (OCRE), a national coalition of education, agriculture, community development, technology and utility organizations dedicating to providing a quality education for all rural children and securing the economic future of rural America.

Previously, Mahaffey was vice president of communications for the New American Schools, the publisher and communications director for the National Association of Secondary School Principals and vice president of external relations for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

As a West Virginia resident, he is a certified substitute teacher and has a BS degree in political science and English from Brigham Young University and an MS degree in management from the University of Maryland.

Mahaffey will participate in three different panel discussions:

Click here to read more at the CMI website

Posted April 17th, 2012 in News | No Comments »

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