Belk, Discovery Education And ISTE Help Middle School Students
Impact Local Communities
SILVER SPRING,
Md., Dec. 13, 2012
/PRNewswire/ -- Belk, Discovery Education and the
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) have
partnered to encourage and assist students in making an impact in
their local communities. The partners today announced the launch of
the all-new Belk Service Learning Challenge encouraging
middle school students to help improve their communities by
undertaking a service-learning project of their choice.
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Mobilizing students to give back and support their local
communities, the Belk Service Learning Challenge is
currently open to all middle school students in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel
Hill, N.C., Columbia, S.C.,
and Jackson, Miss., but will
continue to expand to additional local communities. Working in
teams of two to four with the support and guidance of a
teacher/mentor, students are asked to identify a community
issue and create an action plan to solve the
problem.
Entries for the Challenge are due by March 14, 2013. The grand prize winning team will
receive a $1,000 scholarship per
student team member and a $250
teacher award. The second place team will receive a $500 scholarship per student team member and a
$100 teacher award. The winning teams
will also receive Belk prize packs for each student team member and
teacher and will be celebrated in Belk in-store events in the
spring of 2013.
"Being involved in our communities has been a core value
at Belk since our founding almost 125 years ago, and creating this
program with Discovery Education and ISTE provides us an
opportunity to teach students in our markets about the importance
of service and giving back," said Jessica
Graham, Belk's vice president of communications and
community relations. "We are excited to see the projects that the
students create to strengthen their local communities."
Providing student teams a second layer of support, a
dynamic online destination at
BelkServiceLearningChallenge.com anchors the
Challenge and equips middle school classrooms with free,
standards-based service-learning curriculum, including lesson plans
and multimedia tools.
"Education is much more than what is taught within the
walls of a classroom. Some of the best learning opportunities for
students are those that encourage them to connect school lessons to
aspects of their everyday lives," said Mary
Rollins, Discovery Education vice president. "We are excited
to partner with Belk and ISTE to provide students and their
teachers with an opportunity to explore their curiosity in the
world around them and make a true, positive impact on their
communities."
"The Challenge will not only help
students integrate project-based learning with technology and
service, but it will also benefit communities throughout the
nation," said Brian Lewis, CEO of
ISTE. "We look forward to seeing the inspiring results of this
collaboration."'
For more information on the Belk Service Learning
Challenge or to view the free classroom resources, please
visit
BelkServiceLearningChallenge.com.
About Belk, Inc.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk, Inc.
(www.belk.com) is the nation's largest privately owned mainline
department store company with 301 Belk stores located in 16
Southern states. The company was founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, N.C., and is in the third generation
of Belk family leadership. Its belk.com website offers a wide
assortment of fashion apparel, shoes and accessories for the entire
family along with top name cosmetics, a wedding registry and a
large selection of quality merchandise for the home. To connect
with Belk via Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, blog, mobile
phone text messages or by email, go to: Belk Get
Connected.
Modern. Southern. Style.
Belk seeks
to satisfy the modern Southern lifestyle like no one else, so that
our customers get the fashion they desire and the value they
deserve. Our vision is for the modern Southern
woman to count on Belk first – for her, for her family, for
life.
About Discovery Education
Discovery
Education transforms classrooms, empowers teachers and captivates
students by providing high quality, dynamic, digital content for
grades K-12 and community colleges. Powered by Discovery
Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), the number one
nonfiction media company in the world, Discovery Education is the
global leader in standards-based digital media, professional
development, assessment tools and a passionate educator network to
support districts in accelerating student achievement. Discovery
Education services like Discovery Education streaming,
Discovery Education Techbook and Discovery Education Higher Ed, are
in more than half of all US schools and 35 countries around the
world. Explore the future of education at
www.discoveryeducation.com.
About ISTE
ISTE
is the premier membership association for educators and
education leaders engaged in advancing excellence in learning and
learning through the innovative and effective use of technology in
PK-12 and teacher education. Home to ISTE's annual
conference and exposition and the
widely-adopted NETS, ISTE represents more than
100,000 professionals worldwide.
SOURCE Discovery Education