Above: State Farm's Leo M. Taylor (left) and Mark Bojarski (right) present Greendale Middle School Principal John Weiss (center) with an award of $10,000 for service-learning initiatives.

The Greendale School District announced today that Greendale Middle School received an award of $10,000 over two years to expand and deepen existing service-learning initiatives.

Greendale Middle School was one of ten schools selected nationwide to receive The Service-Learning Schools of Success Award from the Education Commission of the States (ECS) and the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC). This initiative is supported with a grant from the State Farm Companies Foundation.

“The award from ECS, NCLC and State Farm will help support Greendale Middle School’s efforts to provide students with service-learning opportunities to engage them in their learning and promote academic achievement and student responsibility by connecting academic studies to real life experiences,” said Greendale Middle School Principal John Weiss.

Greendale Middle School stood out and was selected because of its expertise in integrating and sustaining service-learning in school settings noted ECS’ NCLC Executive Director JoAnn Henderson.

Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

The National Center for Learning and Citizenship assists education leaders to promote, support and reward citizenship education and service-learning as essential components of America’s education system.

For more information about service-learning in the Greendale Schools visit http://www.greendale.k12.wi.us/district/servicelearning/servicelearning.html