School furniture maker Sagus International has won a 2009 Outstanding Partnership Award from the Chicago Public Schools for the company’s donations that transformed classrooms in two very different schools into model 21st century learning environments.
Not only did Sagus’s generosity improve the learning environments at those two schools, it also served as the pilot program on which Sagus based its remarkable weekend makeover of embattled South Carolina school, J.V. Martin Junior High – a school dubbed by President Obama in his first State of the Union Speech as an example of what’s wrong in American education today.
In a stunning act of kindness, Sagus President and CEO Darryl Rosser, moved by the speech, visited the school, mobilized his company and suppliers, to deliver a $250,000 makeover of the crumbling school over a single weekend. (Watch the inspiring video)
The previous year in Chicago, Rosser showed his passion for boosting student achievement by investing about $100,000 to transform two schools, an effort that earned high praise from Arne Duncan, now the U.S. Secretary of Education. Duncan called the partnership a model of public-private collaboration.
Said Mr. Rosser, “We strongly believe that better classroom environments will result in improved educational outcomes.”
Sagus revamped specific classrooms at Payton College Prep and Harper High School with state-of-the-art furnishings that are mobile, colorful and ergonomically correct for the student’s working environment. The furnishings included chairs, desks, tables, mobile teaching walls, interactive whiteboards and storage cabinets. The result is a learning environment that is more responsive to student needs and facilitates creative teaching methods.
Sagus developed a close partnership with principals at the two Chicago high schools to collaborate on the scope of the makeovers. Sagus also received generous donations from a number of key partners, including: Legat Architects, headed up by Dennis Kluge (classroom and school design) and eInstruction (educational technology and assessment).
By improving learning environments, Sagus is boosting student learning and achievement.
“This has changed the way I teach,” says Payton chemistry teacher, Walt Kinderman. “Before, we had the kids somewhat isolated. Communication has certainly opened up by being able to move the tables, along with workable space. It just gives more surface area to perform the experiments.”
For more than 40 years, the Sagus group of companies has supplied furniture for elementary and secondary schools across the United States, but it was just one year ago, that the company challenged itself to focus on a mission that goes beyond selling furniture. By engaging directly with educators, Sagus learned more about the challenges facing today’s schools and became committed to developing model 21st century schools.
Watch this short film about a contagious laughter that spreads throughout a subway train crowded with sullen strangers.
Called Bodhisattva in the Metro, the fun begins when a man enters the subway car filled with gloomy silent commuters, but begins to giggle — then laugh — out loud. The chuckles spread from one seat to the next until the whole car is bending over with tears of glee.
Watch this short film about a contagious laughter that spreads throughout a subway train crowded with sullen strangers.
Called Bodhisattva in the Metro, the fun begins when a man enters the subway car filled with gloomy silent commuters, but begins to giggle — then laugh — out loud. The chuckles spread from one person to the next until everyone was slapping their knees glee.
Soon thousands of Iraqi children will have new shoes – in time for winter – thanks to the efforts of Oral Roberts University students, faculty, and staff. After the school (ORU) raised the money, students in the school of business took over negotiating the best price for the shoes.
Graduate students in the marketing management class negotiated a price of $1.26 per pair of shoes — and that included shipping to Iraq. Using the $5,000 donated during twice-weekly chapel services, a total of 3,969 pairs of shoes will be purchased and distributed to children in Iraq.
The college football season began with an ugly incident — an Oregon player punching a Boise State player in a post-game fracas. But since then, we’ve seen encouraging signs on the sportsmanship front. Here are three inspiring examples.
The only men are the ones standing guard outside: welcome to the first bank reserved exclusively for women. In the holy town of Najaf, the financial instution provides a female-only staff for a female-only clientele.
In 2008, Karen Armstrong, author of many books on world religions, had a dream. That dream was to bring together all of the world’s leaders and followers by way of the one belief that fits all. That belief is the Golden Rule—Do Unto Others As You Wish Them To Do Unto You. She saw her opportunity to make her dream come true by giving a talk at a conference sponsored by TED, an organization which annually awards three exceptional individuals each $100,000 to help support their “One Wish to Change the World.”
In the heart of her talk Karen said, “I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect.”
Little by little, individuals and organizations are creating glimmers of hope across a country steeped in war, promising that Afghanistan will once again flourish someday. Here are five things happening in Afghanistan that are helping its citizens get back on their feet, and what you can do to support those efforts:
— “Skateistan” creates skater boys (and girls)
— Farmers find sustainable crops in Global Partnership for Afghanistan
— Women Speaking Their Minds with the Afghan Women’s Writing Project
— UN is promoting Afghanistan For tourists
— Schools spring up in the middle of nowhere, thanks to Pennies for Peace
Douglas Hamilton, a senior correspondent in East Berlin, writes 20 later that as the Berlin Wall was opened to the West, “It was impossible to resist the euphoria and carry on coolly as the objective reporter. The initial sense of utter disbelief, followed by the realization of hope suddenly triumphant, was too powerful. Everyone was swept along.”
It became one of those unique moments of what I can only call mutual human recognition, when complete strangers could embrace each other in the delirious crowds.
At the Vancouver Peace Summit in September, some of the world’s most well-known peace-makers, including Nobel Prize winners, devised a new Charter of Compassion inviting people everywhere to rediscover the Golden Rule.
The Charter was composed by leading thinkers from many different faiths. It is a cooperative effort to restore not only compassionate thinking but, more importantly, compassionate action to the centre of religious, moral and political life. Compassion is the principled determination to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, and lies at the heart of all religious and ethical systems.
A correspondent who worked in Berlin, describes the East German government news conference that shocked reporters and unexpectedly led to the opening of the Berlin Wall.
“It’s not often that a historic announcement comes, as an afterthought, almost by accident, at the end of an otherwise stultifying tedious press conference. But that’s how the Communist East German government told an incredulous world that the Berlin Wall, that most potent symbol of the Cold War, would be thrown open after three decades.”
I’ll never forget the chill that ran down my spine when I walked through the Brandenburg Gate…
The Keshet Dance Company uses dance to teach literacy, math and conflict-resolution skills to 250 incarcerated youths at the New Mexico state juvenile detention center.
The Harmony Project in Los Angeles provides intensive, year-round music instruction, choir and orchestra programs, to inner-city children from low-income families.
These are just two of the 19 after-school programs to which first lady Michelle Obama presented a 2009 “Coming Up Taller Award” in a White House ceremony November 4. The award, which honors arts and humanities programs for underserved children, comes with a $10,000 prize for each recipient.
“Each of your programs is using achievement in the arts as a bridge to achievement in life,” said Mrs. Obama, the honorary chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which sponsors the Coming Up Taller awards in partnership with three federal agencies.
The top commander at Fort Hood is crediting a civilian police officer for stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at the Texas post. Lt. Gen. Bob Cone also hailed a young Army nutritionist who helped wounded victims.
Both women heroically intervened despite being shot.
The commander told NBC’s TODAY show that the nutritionist put a tourniquet on a wounded soldier and carried him out to medical care. Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley responded within three minutes of the gunfire starting. She shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself.
Sometimes, just when you need it most, you come across a story you couldn’t make up if you tried.
My Mother Yvonne was a master positive thinker, a woman of faith, and could have written circles around The Secret. She prayed fervently, visually, with feeling and energy, daily, and always for positive change. She read inspirational stories every day. She also prayed that she would die in her sleep. Contrary to being a negative thing, dying in one’s sleep, in old age, sure beats all the other painful options! My Mother gave this wish of hers a daily hopeful focus, a basic law of attraction strategy.
Sometimes, just when you need it most, you come across a story you couldn’t make up if you tried.
My Mother Yvonne was a master positive thinker, a woman of faith, and could have written circles around The Secret. She prayed fervently, visually, with feeling and energy, daily, and always for positive change. She read inspirational stories every day. She also prayed that she would die in her sleep. Contrary to being a negative thing, dying in one’s sleep, in old age, sure beats all the other painful options! My Mother gave this wish of hers a daily hopeful focus, a basic law of attraction strategy.
Declared extinct in 1957, wild oysters have been found in the Firth of Forth once again. University scientists who made the discovery said it was hugely significant and could lead to future commercial production. Forth oysters, once regarded as among the best in Britain, were wiped out through over-fishing.
Just because someone has just won the World Series, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t run across three traffic lanes to help someone who has just crashed their car.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi capped his victorious night by helping a young woman who had just hit a wall on a suburban New York parkway.
Watch an AP video below, or read the story at Chicago Tribune…
A novice metal-detecting enthusiast said he was “stunned” to unearth a £1 million Iron Age treasure hoard in Scotland during his first outing with the machine.
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono recording the anti-war anthem Give Peace a Chance with the Plastic Ono Band, the United Nations announced Tuesday that the proceeds from a new release of the song will raise funds for peacebuilding efforts in countries emerging from conflict.
Yoko Ono – the former Beatle’s wife and artistic collaborator – along with his sons, Sean and Julian Lennon have partnered with music industry giants, EMI and Sony, to give the net profits from the sale of the commemorative single to the UN Peacebuilding Fund.
The special anniversary edition digital single will be available to download from iTunes through the end of the year.
“We do have a heart,” said one of the four inmates who came to the aid of Deputy Kenneth Moon, who was being strangled by another inmate. 
