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Robert E. Wone Award for Exemplary Service
Cheryl Jennings, of Hampton, was honored with the first-ever Robert E. Wone Award for Exemplary Service. Established in memory of Robert Wone, a member of the Governor's Advisory Board on National and Community Service from 2002-2006, the award recognizes an AmeriCorps member who has exhibited exemplary civic engagement and community service. Ms. Jennings is a returning AmeriCorps member who has served with the Virginia Commonwealth University America Reads program since September 2006.
Cheryl Jennings is Working to Get Things Done in Virginia
As a single mother of three, Cheryl Jennings has continued to work full time for the last five years while attending college at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to obtain a bachelor's degree in social work. As an AmeriCorps member, with the VCU AmeriCorps and America Reads program, she has completed more than 1,700 hours of service and was selected as "Team Leader of the Year 2006-2007" for providing a high level of service to her community as a team leader, reading coach, and student mentor at Richmond's Woodville Elementary School.
Despite a serious ongoing physical condition, Mrs. Jennings provided program guidance and leadership to a team of seven AmeriCorps members assigned to one of the most challenging elementary schools in Richmond. She was able to successfully motivate her team members to provide the services needed and, under her counsel, five team members successfully completed their service terms and earned education awards.
Through her efforts, the Woodville team also helped program-referred students make significant gains in their academic achievement. At the end of the year, Woodville reported that AmeriCorps members helped bring up Voyager (Literacy Program) and PALS (Phonemic Awareness and Literacy Screening) scores, while also successfully helping students with their social skills.
Additionally, Mrs. Jennings was a member of all of the AmeriCorps/America Reads program's service event committees and served as a member of the recruitment team for two years. She also led multiple site clean-ups at VCU AmeriCorps' Adopt-A-Street location. If that wasn't enough, she was able to assist one of her team members in applying and being accepted as a first generation college student to Virginia State University and was even there to help the member on college move-in day.
"She communicated with staff and students, provided instructional feedback to teachers, and monitored student progress," explains Franklin Wallace, Director, AmeriCorps and America Reads. "On a scale from 1-10, Mrs. Jennings was a 10!"