Diversity "DREAM" Award Honorees - 2006/07

The 2006-2007 Diversity "DREAM" Award honorees were nominated by their peers. The text of the original nominations appears below.

Congratulations!

The Genocide Project Team - University High School

Students: Kayla Adolfson, David Almeida, Leslie Berkseth, Kyle Bielen, Brittany Blaska, Kevin Cassem, Kathryn Clark, Lara Curtis, Garrett Evenson, Marsetta Flumo, Madeline Fuchs, Tom Fuchs, Andrew Funke, David Germany, Stephanie Haskins, Tori Head, Dale Knudsen, Nathaniel Lollar, Melissa MacKelvie, Alyssa Mazzie, Dana McClendon, Kyle McNeilly, Brian Monson, Katee Norris, Stephanie Smith, Megan Stearns, Natasha Wise

Nomination #1:  These 27 University High School Students were instrumental in raising over $27,000 for victims of the genocide in Darfur.  This group of students was responsible for the printing of over 2,500 blue and white “Stop Genocide in Sudan” t-shirts.  Banners showing Darfur orphans and other victims were displayed throughout the U-Hi commons.  Comedy Sports participants were enlisted to entertain and donate proceeds for the cause.  A dance was organized and a movie night was held.  A core group of Genocide Project presenters went out into the community speaking before business groups and selling t-shirts.  Students slept outside in the cold two nights to show their dedication and support of the cause.

Over 70% of the U-Hi student body was motivated to participate in fundraising by buying a t-shirt and being a part of the “Day of Conscience” which took place February 21.  At this school wide assembly, a check for over $27,000 was given to a representative from CARE who had flown to Spokane specifically to express gratitude for the very dedicated efforts of these students and community contributors.  The Governor of the state of Washington also visited University High School earlier in the month and was escorted around the school by the Genocide Project student leaders. 

Key U-Hi teachers and dozens of student leaders motivated and worked unselfishly along with drama students, Comedy Sports presenters and the art department to raise the awareness of the Spokane Valley community to the suffering of those of the Darfur region of the Sudan.  These key students surprised themselves with the outcome that their efforts had on those around them.  They truly empowered their peers to work together to help a group of people half way around the world less fortunate than themselves.  We need to thank and honor them for their phenomenal efforts and hold them in high regard.    

Nomination #2: These students raised the awareness level of our students and our community regarding the conditions and the atrocities the people of Darfur have endured.  These students also motivated their peers to go above and beyond.  They were able to galvanize the student body and community to raise more than $27,000 to donate to Darfur. 

Nomination #3: The team successfully raised over $27,000 to aid genocide victims in Darfur.  Helping people thousands of miles away by raising money and awareness at home embodies the principles of diversity. These kids inspired our school and our community to become agents of change and were an inspiration to us all.

Betsy Casteel
English Language Development (ELD) Teacher - North Pines Middle School

Betsy Casteel recently told me that she has waited eight years for her “dream” job-to teach students who qualify for English Language Development (ELD) services.  Now at North Pines Middle School, she teaches students from nine countries who are learning English while also navigating through U.S. middle school culture, U.S. teen culture, and culture shock all at the same time!

Betsy has worked to involve these students in their transition and education.  Initially, she redecorated the ELD classroom with maps and pictures depicting languages and photos and posters of other people and places around the world.  Each student has their own country’s flag on a world map.  In addition to Spanish, (which she speaks fluently), she acknowledged each student’s language origins by making an effort to learn
basic vocabulary.  For example, when a student turned in an assignment written in Russian to test her sincerity, she contacted Russian-speaking Vince Eberly at CVHS, had the paragraph translated, and returned it to the student with comments in both Russian and English!  She started out the year interviewing each student as to how they learn best and how their teachers could support their efforts to learn English plus the content.  She then created a PowerPoint with a picture of each student, the student pronouncing their name and country of origin correctly, and their advice to their teachers.

Betsy works directly with our middle school ELD students in addition to providing in-classroom support to their classroom teachers to sustain their efforts to effectively differentiate instruction and assignments.  Her efforts have also increased the participation of parents of ELD students in student-led conferences and other school-wide activities.  She has created a wonderful partnership on behalf of NPMS ELD students with Washington State University/Spokane County Extension Program, “Food Sense” grant which has also increased parent participation.  She has also presented at several of our after school clock hour ELD FOCUS Classes for district teachers and paraeducators.  She has already begun an outreach to meet 5th grade students, their teachers, and parents, throughout the district who will qualify for ELD services at NPMS next year.

Betsy helps each of her students appreciate their own cultural and language heritage while becoming both a fluent English speaker and an American teenager.  She insists that the students respect themselves and one another.  She is sensitive to the developmental stages of her students as well as their stage of English language proficiency.  She demonstrates her appreciation for differences by acknowledging those differences yet makes it possible for students as well as teachers to find common ground.  She has accomplished all of this in just one school year!

Paul Schneider
Social Studies Teacher - University High School

Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of committed, thoughtful citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”  Paul Schneider first brought this mantra to University High School as we began a journey to raise awareness about the atrocities of genocide in Darfur.  However, his vision for this committed group of citizens went beyond a traditional group of people united by similarities in mindset, dedication and ability.  Most important to Mr. Schneider was the involvement of every single student and faculty member, and the diversity in talents and opinions that each person would bring.  Mr. Schneider’s respect for and promotion of diversity empowered the students of University High School to embrace and celebrate their own differences, which ultimately helped us to unite an entire community and to
make a greater difference in the world. 

From the beginning of the Genocide Project, Mr. Schneider actively worked to bring together the various factions within our high school in order to make the project a success.  Our original goal for this fundraiser was an ambitious $10,000, larger than any previous charitable donation raised by the school.  Mr. Schneider understood that this would be a difficult task, and could only be achieved by giving every single student the opportunity to become involved, and to contribute to the project in their own unique way.  Through the integration of many diverse student groups, such as the art, choral, drama, and video production departments, students were able to present the Genocide Project to their peers in various ways.  Consequently, every student at University High School was able to emotionally connect to the project and to the Sudanese victims at its center.  As students began to accept their uniqueness, they found a unifying social conscience, and a desire to preserve the cultural and ethnic differences of people a half a world away.

Mr. Schneider also envisioned that as our school rallied around our differences, we could serve as a model for the rest of our community.  Over the past few years, the division between our student body and the rest of Spokane has grown as teenagers act more and more apathetic to lives beyond their own.  As an Advanced Placement teacher, Mr. Schneider knew that students did not always follow that stereotype, and had the power to inspire their peers to rise above apathy.  The Genocide Project gave students the opportunity to prove to their community and themselves that they did care, and as they joined together, various members of the Spokane community followed their lead.  People from all corners of Spokane, from students to senior citizens, donated time and money to help University reach its $10,000 goal.  Citizens from all different racial, ethnic, political, and financial backgrounds and ideologies were united by blue Darfur T-shirts, vivid symbols of Spokane’s commitment to preserving diversity around the world.  The success achieved by Mr. Schneider’s vision can be measured by the $27,600 raised for the Sudanese victims with the help of students, local businesses and community members.

Because of Paul Schneider’s dream of unity in the face of diversity, University High School learned to admire and to utilize each other’s differences.  Students rose above the barriers that divided them and empowered their community to follow suit, thus helping to make a tremendous difference in the lives of genocide victims in Darfur.  Ultimately, Mr. Schneider inspired our community to celebrate diversity, and in the process we discovered how united we really are.