The Academy of World Languages Community Learning Center, for which CLCI serves as the lead agency, was honored with the Junior League of Cincinnati’s Community Impact Award at the JLC Annual Meeting on May 14, 2013. The Community Impact Award is presented to a person, agency, or organization that has shown significant support to the JLC and the wider community. JLC Board Member Brooke Hiltz made the presentation and her remarks follow.
The Academy of World Languages, or AWL, has become a familiar name in the Junior League the last few years. I, personally, had not heard of the school until I joined the JLC Board of Directors in summer 2011 and soon thereafter became the team leader for our “adopted” first grade class at AWL. I quickly learned that the school was already partnering with the League on its Kids in the Kitchen project, but what I could not yet know was that the relationship would further blossom as the League worked towards its next community impact initiative.
As background, AWL is a Cincinnati Public PreK-8 magnet school that provides a diverse cultural climate and foreign-language learning opportunities. ESL students make up over 52% of the population and in just the last three years, 57 refugee students have enrolled at the school. 91% of the entire student population is considered economically disadvantaged. And yet, the vibrancy of the school is unmistakable and rivals that of any more affluent institution in the area.
AWL is also strongly linked to the Community Learning Center Institute, the brainchild of our own JLC Sustainer, Darlene Kamine. As a central part of its efforts, the Institute provides partner schools with a Resource Coordinator to spearhead school and community partnerships, and AWL certainly hit the jackpot when it got Jill Smith.
As the AWL website states: “Communities and schools are strongly linked — one seldom succeeds if the other fails.” Jill Smith and AWL principal, Jackie Rowedder have certainly embraced and embodied this statement, and the JLC has been privileged to work alongside them in achieving a strong school and community interface.
The Junior League is particularly grateful for the opportunity to share our KITK project at AWL. I still vividly remember last year, when Jill shared a note received from an AWL parent that read: “This Saturday, my son cooked by himself the dinner with a recipe that he learned from KITK at AWL. It was a big surprise to me because he was very passionate to explain to me the benefit of eating healthier food with a lot of vegetables.” This was exactly what the League set out to accomplish, and it would not have been possible without Jill and Jackie’s support and partnership.
As I mentioned earlier, the League’s Board has gone on to adopt a 1st grade class at AWL, and the Sustainer Council (not to be outdone) took on a kindergarten class. The regular classroom interactions this opportunity provides evidences the intellect, curiosity, and resiliency AWL’s children possess and the amazing opportunities Jackie and Jill are helping to provide through their community partnership efforts.
And we are thrilled that they remain supporters of our League and its work as we transition into new project arenas. As Sara Cooperrider, a member of the League’s Refugee Resettlement team wrote: “Jackie and Jill Smith and others on their staff have been wonderful to our group. They have educated us and engaged us with community partners and our community neighbors. They provided space for us to meet in a familiar and welcoming environment with refugees and helped coordinate meetings with other community partners. We hope to continue a strong partnership with them throughout the project.”
For these reasons and so many more, the Junior League of Cincinnati is thrilled to name The Academy of World Languages as our 2013 Community Partner Award recipient and looks forward to a bright future working together.