Education News: Tim Dresser receives Adult Ed award, Youthlinks, MSSM ranks high
Tim Dresser receives The Gerald LeVasseur Award from Maine Adult Education Association
CAMDEN — Director Tim Dresser was presented with the prestigious Gerald LeVasseur Award at the annual Maine Adult Education Association Conference held at Colby College in June 2014.
The Gerald LeVasseur Award is given to one outstanding Adult Ed director each year in recognition of his or her outstanding and unusual work in the field of Adult and Community Education.
Dresser began as an adult education director in Rockland where he initiated a successful partnership with Literacy Volunteers to open a learning center there in the 1990's. After he became director in Camden/Rockport, he established the daytime Adult Learning Center in Camden, and recently engaged the West Bay Rotarians assistance in the re-opening of the Hospitality House, thereby creating educational, advising and tutoring resources for the homeless of Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties.
In addition to his duties as director, Tim is president of West Bay Rotary for 2014-2015. He serves on the board of the community agency MCH, Inc., which helps seniors, people with disabilities and low-income individuals maintain independence with dignity, and he has delivered Meals-on-Wheels in Camden for the past eight years. He also supports United Midcoast Charities, Make A Wish of Maine, and Dempsey Center for Cancer, Hope and Healing.
He has served on the board of the Maine Adult Education Association including as president, and is a relentless advocate for the support of adult education in Maine, both in Augusta and in the local community.
Five Town CSD's Adult Education office is located at Camden Hills Regional High School, 25 Keelson Dr., Rockport. Contact them at adult.education@fivetowns.net or 236-7800, ext 5.
Broadreach’s Youthlinks program awarded Quimby Family Foundation grant
ROCKLAND — The Quimby Family Foundation has awarded Broadreach Family & Community Services Youthlinks Program a grant in the amount of $15,000. The funds will be used to expand the summer pilot Student Garden Army into a sustainable year-round program for middle and high school students in the greater Rockland region — Rockland, Cushing, St. George/Tenants Harbor, Thomaston, South Thomaston, and Owls Head).
Youth, age 11 – 17 living in towns served by RSU 13, will have an opportunity to participate in the program that teaches young people to learn to grow, cook, and eat healthy food and to make food choices that positively impact their health, and that of their community and their world. Student Garden Army also teaches students how to operate a micro-business through the operation of a local farm stand, and to give back to the community through support of the local food cupboards with fresh garden vegetables and fruit.
Youthlinks works closely with partners such as RSU 13m the Good Tern Co-op, Cooking Maters, a program of the Knox County Community Health Coalition (KCCHC), Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and Food Corps. The Youthlinks Program is located at 420 Broadway in Rockland and has been in operation for nearly 32 years. It provides a safe place to nurture the development of young people, to support youth in becoming positive role models, and create meaningful connections between youth and their community.
For more information on Youthlinks, call (207) 594-2221, or visit http://www.youthlinksonline.org/. For information about Broadreach Family & Community Services visit www.broadreachmaine.org.
Broadreach’s Youthlinks program achieves Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0 Gold Status
ROCKLAND — Youthlinks, a Rockland area program serving middle and high school students, has attained Gold Status in the Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0 Program.
Let’s Go! is a nationally recognized childhood obesity prevention program that promotes the increase of physical activity and healthy eating for youth. Gold status requires that the program implement all five Let’s Go! priority strategies, have them in written policy format, and enforce these policies.
As a Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0 site, Youthlinks is dedicated to carrying out these strategies by providing healthy choices for snacks and celebrations, providing water and low-fat milk instead of sugary beverages, providing opportunities for daily physical activity, and engaging with community partners to help support and promote a healthy lifestyle for youth. Youthlinks collaborates with RSU 13, the Good Tern Co-op, Cooking Matters, a program of the Knox County Community Health Coalition (KCCHS) which is funded by the Good Shepard Food Bank, University of Maine Cooperative Extension Program, and Food Corps, to provide consistently healthy lifestyle choices for students in middle and high school.
For example, the Student Garden Army, summer camp, and other programs offered by Youthlinks for 11- 17 year olds emphasize the tenets of 5-2-1-0 which signify eating at least 5 vegetables and fruits per day, 2 hours or less of recreational screen time, 1 hour or more of physical activity, and 0 sugary beverages.
At Youthlinks, students have opportunities to grow, harvest, and eat their own garden produce. Many students try vegetables that are new to them and learn they like them and find out ways through interactive cooking demonstrations to incorporate more healthy ingredients into their meals. They bring this knowledge home with them to their families and it adds to their store of knowledge needed to become a healthier adolescent and adult.
Youthlinks is a program of Broadreach Family & Community Services. For more information on Youthlinks call (207) 594-2221 or visit http://www.youthlinksonline.org/.
For information about Broadreach Family & Community Services: www.broadreachmaine.org.
Newsweek ranks MSSM number 11 in list of best high school in America
LIMESTONE — The Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone has been ranked as the number 11 best school in America, according to the 2014 Newsweek ranking. The ranking is based on methodology from Newsweek which weighs last year's enrollment, graduation rate, weighted SAT composite scores, changes in student enrollment from 9th to 12th grade, and the counselor-to-student ratio.
Newsweek also weighted schools based on economically disadvantaged students who performed better than the state average in reading and mathematics. The index automatically categorized schools that performed in the 80th percentile within each state.
"It really speaks to the hard work that MSSM faculty and staff put in to preparing these students to come to MSSM. Truly, we see ourselves as an extension for all other Maine schools," Luke Shorty, executive director of MSSM, said.
For the 2014-2015 school year, MSSM has seen some of its highest enrollment numbers in over a decade. A new dormitory opened this school year on 6 Church Street in Limestone to house its growing number of students. New projects and initiatives are already in the works and will be announced formally at a later date.
Additional information about the methodology of the rankings as well as a complete list of the Top 500 schools in the country can be found at http://www.newsweek.com/high-schools/americas-top-schools-2014.
