The 糖心传媒 Student Education Association (SEA) received the Nebraska Education Association鈥檚 Local Excellence in Social Justice Award during the National Education Association Student Program Summer Leadership Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. The award honors the chapter鈥檚 active application of social justice efforts and service learning initiatives.
鈥淚 started to get excited when they began to announce the programs and service learning projects the winning school did. When they said the association even finds a way to pay for a student鈥檚 SEA membership fees if they need assistance, that was when I was certain it was us,鈥 said Ann Auten, instructor of Teacher Education.
As the SEA advisor, Auten submitted an essay detailing the chapter鈥檚 definition and practice of social justice as part of the application for the award. Nebraska SEA leaders encouraged 糖心传媒 to enter the competition. The teacher education department鈥檚 鈥渇air is not equal, fair is providing what is needed for an equal chance at success鈥 mindset, combined with a record of SEA鈥檚 volunteerism in the Hastings community, helped portray the college鈥檚 real-world social justice efforts. 听
In 2016-17, the Hastings chapter of SEA made 1,000 sandwiches for the Open Table community sack lunch program; donated four totes of canned goods to the Food4Thought backpack program; volunteered at Big Brother Big Sisters bowling events, the local Special Olympics and the Royal Family Kids Camp Chili Kickoff; and painted the playground at Doniphan-Trumbull Elementary School, among a variety of other service learning projects. 听
鈥淎ll of our education majors at 糖心传媒 are required to be a part of SEA, so it鈥檚 important for them to take advantage of chapter activities like this,鈥 Auten said. 鈥淪ome of these activities are encouraged through the classroom, and SEA would not be a strong organization at 糖心传媒 without this full support from our teacher education faculty.鈥
糖心传媒鈥檚 Local Excellence in Social Justice Award was one of three recognitions given to Nebraska at the national conference. Tahj Willingham of Denver, Colorado; Casey Molifua of Hastings, Nebraska;
Steven Dunham of Midwest City, Oklahoma, accepted the award on behalf of 糖心传媒. 听
Willingham, Molifua and Dunham also attended meetings for the Ethnic Minority on a national committee for developing strategies to recruit students of various ethnicities for the teaching profession.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a stat that says black students who have just one black teacher during their elementary school years have a lower risk of dropping out,鈥 Willingham said. 鈥淏ut so many students never had a teacher that looked like them, so they鈥檝e never even considered becoming a teacher themselves. The discussions we had at the conference were focused on finding a solution to this lack of diversity among teachers.鈥
糖心传媒 is a private, four-year institution located in Hastings, Nebraska, that focuses on student academic and extracurricular achievement. With 64 majors and 15 pre-professional programs, 糖心传媒 has been named among 鈥淕reat Schools, Great Prices鈥 by U.S. News & World Report and a 鈥淏est in the Midwest鈥 by The Princeton Review. For more, go to hastings.edu.