Cincinnati/June 6, 2018
Jill Smith, the Resource Coordinator at the Academy of the World Languages and a member of the Community Learning Center Institute, was celebrated as the Resource Coordinator of the Year by the Adopt a Class Foundation on June 6. She was selected from among 29 Adopt a Class partner schools.
Adopt a Class is a group mentoring organization that connects almost 7000 business and civic volunteers to classrooms in 29 schools throughout the Greater Cincinnati area. Through monthly visits, field trips, and pen pal letter exchanges, Adopt a Class started with a handful of employees led by founder Bill Burwinkel and his National Market Share Group Company who volunteered at Oyler Community Learning Center in 2003. Celebrating its 15th year anniversary, Adopt a Class is now a nationally recognized program which touches the lives of more than 8000 children in kindergarten – 8th grade.
Smith has been the leader of the development of the community learning center at the Academy of World Languages since its inception in 2008. Her team of Adopters provide innovative enrichment and career exploration – from dancing with the Cincinnati Ballet to a behind the scenes at the Frisch’s corporate headquarters – for a prek-8 school which includes children from more than 40 countries. In addition to learning English, the focus of the curriculum is foreign language and classes are taught in Russian, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese, with Italian offered in the evening to the community.