Springdale Rising In EAST

Har-Ber, Sonora Among Five Finalists For Award

— Two Springdale schools are among five finalists for an award given annually to the best Environmental and Spatial Technology program.

Har-Ber High School, which won the Founder’s Award in 2010 and was a semifinalist in 2009 and 2012, is up for the award again this year.

Sonora Elementary School, in only its second year of existence, also has been nominated. It’s the first elementary school to be nominated for the Founder’s Award, according to Matt Dozier, president and chief executive officer of the EAST Initiative.

EAST is an educational program in which students take on community service projects using sophisticated technology. It started with a single classroom program in Greenbrier in 1996. Since then It has spread to 220 schools in six states.

At A Glance

2013 EAST Founder’s Award Finalists

All of this year’s finalists are from Arkansas.

• Har-Ber High School

• Sonora Elementary School

• Dardanelle High School

• Greenbrier High School

• Harrisburg Middle School

Source: Staff Report

Debra Lamb, EAST facilitator at Har-Ber, said she was elated to hear Har-Ber’s program was named a finalist.

“I feel very fortunate to have students who work so hard,” Lamb said. “It’s all about them. They’re doing a fabulous job and using technology to the fullest. They definitely surprise and amaze me.”

About two dozen EAST programs applied for the Founder’s Award this year, Dozier said.

The finalists will present the projects they’ve worked on for the past year to a small group of judges at the EAST national conference in Hot Springs, which runs from Feb. 27 to March 1. The winner will be chosen based on those presentations.

Springdale has four EAST programs. Besides Har-Ber High and Sonora, there is also one at Springdale High School and Westwood Elementary School.

“It’s incredibly amazing when you stack all these schools up, Springdale has two of the top programs,” Dozier said.

Sixty-five students participate in Har-Ber’s EAST program. Much of their work over the past year has focused on veterans.

Last spring, for example, several EAST students accompanied local World War II veterans on an “Honor Flight” to Washington to see the World War II Memorial. The students interviewed the veterans and made a documentary of the trip.

Another group of Har-Ber students recently received a $2,000 grant from State Farm to support the production of a documentary on the dangers of texting and driving. The students plan to show the video in district schools and sponsor a Driving Safety Fair this spring.

The students also initiated “Watts for Wildcats,” where students went into Springdale schools and to give talks on energy efficiency.

Don Love, an assistant superintendent for the Springdale schools, said he’s a big proponent of EAST. He’s been to the national EAST conference and seen colleges signing kids up for scholarships on the spot, he said.

“The thing these EAST teachers say is the hardest thing to do is to just be the facilitator,” Love said. “When the students come to ask how to do something, the teachers should say, ‘I don’t know, figure it out.’”

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