From Left to Right: CTA’s Kyle Bohl, Jennifer August, Danielle August, and Lizzie August present a check to Devos Children’s Hopsital representative, Jenifer Adams.
This past spring, Creative Technologies Academy once again took part in Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital fundraiser entitled “Make Change.” For the second straight year, CTA was able to donate over $1,000 to the children’s hospital. When asked about the campaign, School Leader Dan George stated, “This type of fundraiser puts ‘feet and hands’ to the words of our character education program. We teach about helping others through service learning, and it’s obvious that our students understand what that means and take it seriously.”
For the last 5 years, CTA has been working with the directors of Smart Character Choices to train CTA’s staff in order to purposefully infuse character education into every corner of the school. By the end of the year, students are using their service learning training to look for ways to help in their school, their community, and ultimately to help better the world. Kyle Bohl, Director of Student Services stated, “This was a total school effort, headed up by teachers like Amy Burton, our fourth grade teacher. Ms. Burton, along with other teachers and staff at CTA, go above and beyond with every task at hand, including this service-learning project. I am so proud of their efforts as their excitement and initiative rub off on the students and parents. Kuddos to our staff!”
When asked about projects that CTA’s students will take on this upcoming fall, Mr. George said, “That’s the beauty of service learning, the students are taught to keep their eyes open for opportunities; our faculty and staff just help facilitate the students’ ideas and we help them to make the change that they feel is important.” Along with the “Make Change” campaign, CTA’s students completed many other service projects/fundraisers in the 2010-2011 school year, including cleaning the White Pine Trail, a school carnival to raise funds for relief efforts in Japan, and raising money for Alpha Family Center.
