Building A Dynasty
E
AST at Buffalo Island Central High School cemented its place in EAST history this year, winning its third Founder’s Award – the most of any single program. Their work within the small community of Monette shows how much EAST can mean to an area.
was your reaction when you learned BIC won Q: What Founder’s? Mallie: When I learned BIC won Founder’s, it was the greatest sense of accomplishment and relief. Winning in 2020 was mindblowing, but not being able to fully celebrate due to COVID was very disheartening. This is our redemption year! I’m so glad I get to be a part of the Conference Team and have a “redo” for 2020.
Q:
When you nominated yourselves for Founder’s this year, why did you think your program was a great choice to win?
is why we created the video originally. Once the video was put together, we realized that we had lots of evidence of the three cornerstones of EAST: student growth and engagement, project sophistication and innovation, and community and collaboration.
Chasney: When we were going to first apply, I didn’t think that
we’d accomplished a lot this year, but I was wrong. When we were gathering all the projects we have done this year, I noticed we have done an outstanding job of helping our community and being diverse in each technology field. While putting our video together our confidence went up because we noticed that our program has done an amazing job at project sophistication, community collaboration, and student growth.
Brittni: Throughout the years I believe that we have worked hard
solving problems within our community, and show just how much of an impact EAST can have. Our EAST program drives to find real world problems in our community to help fix and improve people’s lives everyday. I believed our program was a great choice because of how hard we work to help everyone in our community.
REPRESENTING THE BUFFALO ISLAND CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL EAST TEAM:
Jill: I think that creating the video for the Founder’s application is a great reflecting tool. Honestly, I think that as many programs as possible should apply for Founder’s every year. It isn’t about winning the award. It is about celebrating all that you have accomplished for your community. I encourage my students to apply because the application process itself allows you to tell your EAST story and this helps create excitement and buy-in for your program. The video that is created is a great tool to share with all of your students, parents, community partners, etc. That
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EAST QUARTERLY | EASTinitiative.org
Mallie Zielinski: 12th Grade, 4 Years in EAST Brittni Lyerly: 10th Grade, 4 Years in EAST Cason Rose: 11th Grade, 3 Years in EAST Chasney Griggry: 11th Grade, 4 Years in EAST Jill Sanders: Facilitator
