LifeSmarts program awards scholarship to student leaders from Warren Township, IL; Jefferson City, MO; Moultrie, GA; and East Greenwich, RI – National Consumers League
April 6, 2017
Contact: Cindy Hoang, National Consumers League, (202) 207-2832, cindyh@nclnet.org
Washington, DC—Today the National Consumers League (NCL) has announced five scholarship recipients in four states, honored for their involvement in a community service and leadership initiative made possible through its consumer literacy program, LifeSmarts (LifeSmarts.org). The students were awarded $1,000 academic scholarships for their winning entries based on their experiences serving as Safety Smart® Ambassadors, a partnership between LifeSmarts and UL that pairs high school students with elementary classrooms to teach lessons about health, safety, and the environment.
The scholarship winners are:
- Gabrielle Alcala, Warren Township High School FBLA, Illinois
- Shivank Gupta, Warren Township High School FBLA, Illinois
- Emily Miga, East Greenwich HS, Rhode Island
- Genesis Nobles, Colquitt County HS, FBLA, Georgia
- Kerstin Peterson, Blair Oaks HS, FCCLA, Missouri
Since 2013, when the LifeSmarts UL partnership began, hundreds of LifeSmarts students have become Safety Smart Ambassadors. Working in teams, high school students have made more than 1,000 interactive, 30-minute presentations, sharing empowering, educational safety messages with thousands of younger children throughout their communities. LifeSmarts is a national program that competitively tests high school students’ knowledge of consumer awareness, with subjects including personal finance, health and safety, consumer rights and responsibility, technology, and the environment.
“We are so proud of our students who participated in the Safety Smart Ambassador program and the positive impact they made on their communities, and especially these five stand-outs,” said LifeSmarts Program Director Lisa Hertzberg. “We truly appreciate this partnership with UL. It has been extremely gratifying to see LifeSmarts students embrace the Safety Smart Ambassador program, provide education and mentoring to younger children, and learn about themselves in the process.”
The LifeSmarts-UL partnership has underwritten the Safety Smart Ambassador program and provided LifeSmarts with access to the vast knowledge base of UL, including resources for LifeSmarts to bolster its science and environment curriculum, resources, and competitive opportunities.
For more information, please visit LifeSmarts.org/SafetySmart.
2017 Safety Smart Ambassador award winners – in their own words
Genesis Nobles, Colquitt County HS, FBLA, Georgia
“I had so much fun learning and growing through this fun experience. Doing different hands-on activities is always enjoyable. I can’t wait to do more with my younger family members and kids at my local church on my own time. I want to thank Lifesmarts.org and Safety Smart for offering such a huge opportunity for young adults like me.”
Kerstin Peterson, Blair Oaks HS, FCCLA, Missouri
“I really believe that by doing these Safety Smarts presentations, we can influence the younger generation of students to behave better and impact the world.”
Gabrielle Alcala and Shivank Gupta, Warren Township High School FBLA, Illinois
“Children enjoyed the Disney movie, especially the sing-along, with some asking for an ‘encore.’ Following each presentation, Safety Smart Ambassadors would ask kids what they learned from the video, (with the incentive of a pencil for answering a question right), and kids would jump out of their seats to answer questions. After seeing the children’s excitement, the fitness center director requested us to come to future events.”
Emily Miga, East Greenwich HS, Rhode Island
“To teach about good character, we had the younger students do several activities. For example, we had students stand back to back and describe what they saw. They quickly realized that their partners saw different things than they saw. However, this didn’t mean that their partner was wrong, just that they had a different point of view.”
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About LifeSmarts and the National Consumers League
LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League. State coordinators run the programs on a volunteer basis. LifeSmarts educational resources are available online throughout the year at www.LifeSmarts.org. Competition begins again in September. For more information, visit: www.lifesmarts.org, email lifesmarts@nclnet.org or call the National Consumers League’s communications department at 202-835-3323.
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
