Students In Action is a national youth volunteer leadership, recognition and reward program, designed to pass the tradition of service on to the next generation. Co-developed by Jefferson Awards for Public Service and Deloitte, it is now in over 250 High Schools. Each spring, Student Leaders from the participating schools compete in regional competitions. They are asked to report on the implementation of the program, and the impact they've had, both in their schools and within their communities.

1. Burke High School Charleston, South Carolina, 29403

2. Our Mission Our chapter of the Students in Action program is based around the principals of awareness and promotion of volunteerism. Being that we are a minority dominated school, a lot of our students don’t know or understand the benefits of volunteering and how fun it can be. We want to help encourage and furnish future leaders here, and praise the ones that we already have.

3. Partnerships This year we have partnered with two other high schools in Charleston: Lincoln High School and Baptist Hill High School. We chose to partner with these schools because some of the new staff members at these school previously worked at Burke. We made presentations for both schools and both schools are interested in adding their name to the roster of schools. Lincoln High has made a commitment to joining the program this coming school year, but our partnership Baptist Hill is still in the works.

4. Our Leadership Team Our team has gotten a lot bigger! (We have added a few new members to our team that are not in these pictures.)Our Senior Representative is Ms. Kimberly Bowman, Our Junior Representatives are Ms. Sharnika Green and Ms. Brittany Mack, our Sophomore Representatives are Ms. Taylor Scott, Ms. Alexandria Karraba, and Ms. Quinetra Gathers. Our advisors are Ms. Diane Grant and Ms. Michelle Garris.

5. Our Projects This year we were able to go through with many projects that we planned to do. We really were able to reach out to the community through these programs and draw students into volunteering. Our projects were a big way of how we promoted the program and got the school excited about it. One of our biggest projects was our work with Ms. South Carolina Teen USA. We donated water and brought in participants for her Haiti Relief Walk. We donated around 500 bottles to the cause. We also teamed up with the Susan G. Coleman Breast Cancer Foundation, selling Awareness tassels to people in the school and in our surrounding community. We have earned a total of around $100 by selling the tassels.

6. The Volunteer Board! The volunteer board is a new addition to our school and one of our most cherished projects this year. We decided to give students at Burke a more direct avenue for finding volunteer opportunities and learning about the Students In Action program.

7. Burke Leaders Praising our community leaders and heroes is a big thing at Burke! We accept nominations year-round for student volunteers at our school. At the end of every month, our team comes together to pick a winner each month. We never toss out nominations! Once we have chosen a winner, we go into their first period class, usually on a Friday, and present them their award in front of their class, along with a summary of their accomplishments. After the ceremony we pass out nomination forms to the class and at the end of the day we announce that particular month’s winner(s).