Truckee Meadows Tomorrow announces third quarter Silver Stars
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug 31, 2011
Contact: Karen Hruby
775-323-1518
info@truckeemeadowstomorrow.org
(RENO, Nev.) – Truckee Meadows Tomorrow (TMT) has announced its third quarter 2011 Silver Star award winners. These individuals and organizations have measurably improved education in the Truckee Meadows by positively impacting the following quality of life indicators:
- Workforce development—TMCC Business Plan Competition for partnering with the northern Nevada business community to prepare entrepreneurs from TMCC, TMCC High School, UNR, WNCC, and Sierra Nevada College resulting in more than 30 business plans submitted over four competitions, 8 finalists in the D.W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup and 6 new businesses by student participants.
- Educational infrastructure to meet community needs—Gretchen Bietz, for raising over $20 million in five-years for the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum which will address discovery-style learning curriculum for all 3-5 grade students, not provided by the WCSD.
- Educational success—The Nell J. Redfield School of Life: Kathleen Sandoval, FYI Program Director, for helping 85 at-risk youth to “recover” over 180 academic credits in order to graduate and successfully enter post-secondary education or the workforce, via the alternative school launched by The Children’s Cabinet, fall 2008.
- Educational success—Success First Grant Initiative Program which has helped 500 first generation and first-time TMCC students to continue from one semester to the next, helping to improve TMCC’s new degree seeking cohort persistence rate from 68% in 2009 to 74% in 2010, the first year of the program, and a persistence rate for Success First participants of 83% from fall 2010 to spring 2011.
- Community-wide involvement in education—Washoe County 4-H Youth Development Program for reaching 15,553 youth, ages 5-19, through the use of peer-reviewed curricula to teach science, technology, engineering, math, civic engagement and transferable life skills, primarily facilitated by 64 trained volunteers saving an estimate of $160,128 in 2010.
Recipients will be honored at TMT’s third quarter community forum on Thursday, September 22nd at KNPB Channel 5 Public Broadcasting (1670 N. Virginia St. on the UNR campus) from 5:15-7 p.m.
The public is invited to attend the forum (free to TMT members and $10 for non-members), including a roundtable panel discussing quality of life as it relates to strategic education policy, plans and results. The roundtable will be moderated by Bandon Rittiman, KUNR with the following panelists: Assemblyman David Bobzien, Tom Fitzgerald from Nevadaworks, Mike Pomi from The Children’s Cabinet, and Jim Pfrommer from the Education Alliance of Washoe county.
“As Nevada continues to struggle, these Silver Stars are reinventing educational opportunities that will help students to succeed in life,” said Amber Martin-Jahn, president of TMT. We are excited to honor them at TMT’s quarterly forum series focused on the indicators, for the important work that they are doing to improve the community.”
This year, Silver Star nominations for the community’s 33 quality of life indicators will be accepted through the TMT Web site prior to each of the quarterly forums. Nominations will only be accepted for those indicators relevant to each forum topic. The next Silver Star nominations will open later this fall.
Truckee Meadows Tomorrow (TMT) is a community-based, non-profit organization whose vision is to enhance our community's ability to continually improve quality of life in the Truckee Meadows through collaboration and partnership. As the recognized voice for quality of life in the region, TMT facilitates engagement to identify issues of community concern and the means to resolution, and provides unbiased, comprehensive indicator data measuring quality of life outcomes. For more information, visit http://www.truckeemeadowstomorrow.org
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