FBISD Earns Seven State Awards For Partnership Programs

FBISD Earns Seven State Awards For Partnership Programs
By: FortBendNow Staff on Fri, Feb 5, 2010
News

The Texas Association of Partners in Education recognized the Fort Bend Independent School District for seven outstanding partnerships at its 2010 Education Partnership Awards Luncheon, held Jan. 26 in Austin.

The TAPE Partnership Awards Program recognizes exemplary educational partners and partnership programs from across the state and FBISD earned seven awards: four crystal (awarded to best of category winners) and three gold (awarded to the second highest scoring nominees).

The 2010 TAPE award winners for FBISD include:

Crystal Award Winners

Barbara Adcock (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Role Model) – As curator of the Colony Meadows Elementary School Guided Reading Library, Adcock has been involved with the guided reading library since its inception five years ago. The program began with 25 sets of books, and now contains 2,180 sets of books. Adcock developed a library system that not only lists the books, but cross references the books by reading level, title, and genre. She also implemented a computerized system for checking books in and out of the library.

Bobbie Steinert (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Partnership Advocate) – Steinert has been the FBISD Shared Dreams Program full-time facilitator for the past five years. She works closely with all campus nurses, social workers, counselors and volunteers to help provide clothing and school supplies to children in need of assistance. With the help of volunteers, she opens the Shared Dreams facility three days a week to parents and guardians who qualify to participate in the program.

Briana Gifford (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Youth Leadership) – While a senior at Kempner High School, Gifford is an active member of several service organizations including the Sugar Land Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council, the Keep Sugar Land Beautiful Youth Board and the Fort Bend ISD Youth Advisory Board. In her advisory capacity for these organizations, Briana helps keep the organizations informed about student concerns and issues, and provides important insight in sharing ways to impact on the community.

CVS Pharmacy (TAPE Business Partnership Award, Career Education) – CVS opens doorways to learning for students across the Fort Bend ISD community. Through its internship program, CVS provides hands-on experiences for students, employment opportunities, funding for scholarships and continuing education for interns and pharmacy technicians who want to complete a six-year pharmacy program.

Gold Award Winners

Don McGinty (TAPE Individual Partnership Award, Wisdom) – A retired Shell employee, McGinty, recognizes the need for mentors in Fort Bend ISD not only for at-risk students, but also for those who are academically able. He eagerly volunteers to mentor at his neighborhood school, Quail Valley Elementary. Last year, he mentored three children and visited their school once a week, spending approximately 40 minutes with each child. McGinty gladly provided a positive male role-model for each of these students.

Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, Inc. and Optimized Systems & Solutions (OS&O) (TAPE Business Partnership Award, Academic Impact) – Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, Inc. and OS&S “adopted” Blue Ridge Elementary School and regularly provide numerous levels of support to the students and teachers. Employees from both companies assist the school by providing mentors and volunteers for school-wide programs, especially those geared toward learning science and math concepts. They also provide financial and in-kind donations to the school.

The Saturday Math and Science Workshop – The Satya Sai Organization and Elkins High School(TAPE Community Partnership Award, Academic Impact) – The Sathya Sai Organization partnered with Elkins High School to provide tutorials to students in math and science. The organization provides more than 20 adult tutors (among them are teachers, lawyers, business professionals, college students and a retired surgeon), who work with nearly 90 Elkins students for two hours each Saturday.

Fort Bend Now Reference

Walk For Values USA begins in Plano

Walk For Values USA begins in Plano
By Kim Nguyen, Staff Writer
(Created: Tuesday, May 5, 2009 3:01 PM CDT)

Mayor Pat Evans will be on hand to kick off the first annual Walk For Values USA in Plano for the Dallas region Saturday morning.

Beginning and ending in Haggard Park in Downtown Plano, Walk for Values USA hopes to bring awareness to the universal human values of truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence. The event is unique because unlike other walks, it is not a fundraiser, protest, rally, or demonstration. Instead, it seeks simply to raise awareness, and it is open to the public free of charge.

“We are essentially walking to bring awareness to the five universal human values: peace, love, truth, right conduct and non-violence,” said Srinivas Somisetty, event coordinator.

Based off the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, a highly revered spiritual leader in India, habitually practicing at least one of the five values has a positive effect on humanity. Somisetty used the current economic recession as an example of the negative effects of not practicing the five values.

“We’re all partly responsible for the economy because of our greed,” he said. “Violence, greed and hatred are widespread in our society. There is a lack of these human values and it shouldn’t be like that.”

Participants of Walk for Values USA believe that these human values — peace, love, truth, right conduct and non-violence — are worth walking for and hope to help raise the universal consciousness and awareness about the importance of practicing them in our daily lives. They have also pledged to “adopt a value” that they will practice themselves, to help bring about this awareness. Participants will carry signs and banners with the messages of truth, right conduct, peace, love and nonviolence.

“We’re not fundraising, not enrolling anyone into a church or faith and we’re not soliciting anything,” Somisetty said. “Our pure intent is to bring awareness to these values that are fundamental to humanity and are common across all faiths, religions and cultures.”

Somisetty said about 550 people are registered to participate in Saturday’s, but the success is not tangible.

“Even with just one participant attending, we’ll call it a success,” he said. “Because when they begin practicing one or all of the values habitually, other people will see and mimic, starting a chain reaction to spread the values across the universe.”

Registration for Walk for Values USA will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, followed by an opening ceremony with talks by Patrick Price, pastor at Community Unitarian Universalist Church, Plano; AnilKumar Kamaraju, professor of BioSciences at Sri Sathya Sai University in Puttaparthy, India; and Mayor Pat Evans. Evans will launch Walk For Values at 10 a.m. The Walk will end at Haggard Park at noon with a closing ceremony.

Star Community News Reference

Cultural Program by USA Devotees Of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba

Cultural Program by USA Devotees Of Sathya Sai Baba
Devotees from the US (Region 10 – Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas) presented a musical offering to Bhagawan on Monday, July 28th in Sai Kulwant Hall.

The program depicted Bhagawan’s love for mankind throughout the ages. It showed scenes of His various incarnations and messengers to uplift man to enable him to realise his divinity. The entire group of 276 performed a medley of songs in 7 languages, woven together with narration. 57 Bal Vikas (SSE) children provided a dramatic portrayal through skits and dances.

The six episodes focused on the majesty of Rama, the mischief of Krishna, the serenity of the Buddha, the compassion of Jesus, the glory of Allah, and the grandeur of Bhagawan Baba

The first scene was set to a backdrop of uplifting songs, which described the glory and might of the Lord, and illustrated the power of the vanaras’ devotion to Lord Rama as they built the bridge to Lanka. Our prayer is to be, likewise, humble instruments in Lord Sai Rama’s mission.

The second episode focused on the mischief of Krishna, who charmed Mother Yashoda and the Gopis as He stole yogurt and butter. His leelas, dramatized to a bhajan, inspire us to awaken the God within who will steal our butter-soft hearts. This scene was followed by a song that reminds us to remember Hari (Lord Krishna) in all that we think, say, and do.

Set to a traditional chant followed by a bhajan, the next scene depicted the Lord Buddha’s peaceful aura. His presence was enough to calm the restless minds of spiritual aspirants depicted by SSE students. By controlling the senses and purifying their intake, the heart shall become Prasanthi Nilayam and Sai will reside within.

The fourth episode showed Jesus showering His unconditional love and compassion on the blind, the hungry, the sick, and the needy. Seeing Jesus’ loving service, others, who previously were unwilling to serve, follow suit and therefore are transformed themselves.

The fifth episode showed a traditional Sufi dance set to an uplifting Qawwali praising Allah. The songs of Allah demonstrated that Bhagawan (in all His forms) is the ultimate embodiment of All that Is as He is the One behind everyone and everything.

For the grand finale, the boys and girls created two hearts at the Lotus Feet of Bhagawan Baba while the entire group sang “Hum Ko Tumse Pyar Kitna.” This represented that the whole world – all faiths, religions, castes, and sects – is arriving at the Lotus Feet of Bhagawan to participate in His Divine Mission.

Swami responded to this outpouring of love by coming down into the group of children for a photograph. He granted padanamaskar to several of them, materialized a gold chain for one boy, and distributed prasadam to everyone.

Swami’s pleasure was evident as He invited the group to sing several bhajans in His Divine Presence. After accepting Arathi, Swami raised both hands in blessing to all.

Reference (With Pictures)