The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Group awarded grant from AT&T Foundation
Leadership Lake County announced Aug. 27 that the AT&T Foundation has awarded a $15,000 grant to help support its 2019-20 Junior Leadership Program.
The AT&T Foundation recently presented the funding during a ceremony attended by community leaders, elected officials and Leadership Lake County staff at Leadership Lake County’s headquarters in Mentor.
“The AT&T Foundation chose to support this program because we believe investing in projects and organizations that create and foster learning opportunities, promote academic and economic achievement, and address community needs,” said AT&T Foundation Director of Governmental Affairs Trint Hatt in a news release. “These are all important factors that go into creating a skilled and diverse workforce that will power our country into the future.”
The Junior Leadership Program is a nine-month program designed for high school students to acquire leadership skills and increase civic engagement, the release stated. The program focuses on 21st Century skill development including collaboration, critical thinking, communication, creativity, life and career skills, and information technology skills.
Monthly program days provide students with a behind-the-scenes look at Lake County through onsite visits, guest speakers, and experiential learning activities.
Students are introduced to various sectors of the county including government, health and human services, business, and recreation. A class project fosters the development of leadership skills and service learning through a community impact project requiring research, action and reflection, the release stated.
During the past three years, AT&T Corporate and Foundation philanthropic giving has surpassed $300 million, Hatt said. That money supports communities and programs such as Leadership Lake County that provide opportunities to underserved student populations, job-training programs to prepare people for the 21st Century workforce, and help drive innovation in technology to foster new solutions.
“We have such a passion for the work that we do and we’re really grateful that AT&T is recognizing that because it is making a difference in the next generation going forward,” said Leadership Lake County CEO Jessie Baginski in the release.
Kim Fraser is Leadership Lake County’s vice chair and executive director of the Lake County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board.
She has personally witnessed the positive effects the Junior Leadership Program had for her daughter who completed the program.
“Our schools tend to be somewhat isolated here in Lake County and this is a one of the wonderful ways to bring students from all the school districts in Lake County together in new ways out the classroom,” Fraser said in the release. “It really is exploring what it means to be a leader and a partner and what it means to be leader in the community.”
Leadership Lake County is a private educational nonprofit organization whose goal is to develop and engage existing and future leaders within highly interactive leadership development programs in communitybased settings while in pursuit of civic and economic excellence in Lake County and surrounding communities.