Contact: Stan Cleiland, Vice President, Community Relations and Strategic Communications
(904) 358-6366 • scleiland@wjct.org
For Immediate Release
WJCT Public Broadcasting Announces Its Champions of Education: Honorees To Be Recognized at American Graduate Stories of Champions 2016 Awards Dinner on Sept. 15
(Jacksonville, FL, August 31, 2016); WJCT Public Broadcasting is pleased to announce its five local champions of education to be honored at the 2016 American Graduate Champions Banquet on September 15 at WJCT Studios. The Champions were nominated by the community and selected based upon their leadership, involvement and their efforts to inspire students and advance education. WJCT’s 2016 American Graduate Champions are:
Amy Buggle, founder of DLC Nurse & Learn, a child care center to serve children with disabilities and medical complications
Ronnie King, certified software engineer and owner of Scratchwerk, LLC, who has made significant impact on educational opportunities for students through his volunteer work and his creation of software and a series of workshops entitled, “Day in the Real World”
Travis Pinckney, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of the College R-E-D program, where schools receive student, faculty, and family workshops and events designed to unite students and faculty in a positive culture where the focal point is college readiness and success in college and beyond
Rachel Rippey, M.S., Project Coordinator for Project Achieve, an inclusive higher education initiative for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities at Florida State College at Jacksonville
Lynn Sherman, Director of Community Health for Baptist Health, where she developed Tipping the Scale Mentoring Adolescent Advocacy and Intervention Mentoring Program
WJCT’s Champions will be honored at a banquet featuring guest speaker, Rachel Tutwiler Fortune, Director, Alliance Engagement of America’s Promise Alliance. Fortune is a Jacksonville native and served as Community Engagement Manager at the Jacksonville Public Education Fund, where she launched the ONE by ONE campaign. Tickets for the banquet are available HERE.
Through the Stories of Champions project, WJCT captured the stories of how our Champions became involved with education and mentoring students all in an effort to make sure every students graduates. Champion’s stories will air on WJCT 89.9FM and are available for viewing at wjct.org.
The public media initiative, American Graduate: Let’s Make It Happen, is helping communities across America identify and implement solutions to address the high school dropout crisis. Made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the multi-year campaign is designed to raise awareness and dialogue through national and local multiplatform programming. Targeting communities with highest dropout rates, the initiative also increases local engagement and action through collaborations and partnerships, and increases student engagement through teacher professional development and classroom curricula.
WJCT is the community-supported public broadcasting station for the First Coast. WJCT is your community, your world. For more information on WJCT’s in-depth programming content, log on to WJCT Online at wjct.org. Like WJCT on Facebook (facebook.com/wjctjax) and follow WJCT on Twitter (@WJCTJax) and Instagram (@WJCTJax).
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