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Union College Wins Statewide Bridges Over Barriers Award
On Friday, Nov. 12, Union College was presented with the Bridges Over Barriers Best Partner Award by the Family Resource and Youth Service Centers (FRYSC) of Kentucky. The statewide award is given annually to one Kentucky non-profit organization that significantly supports the mission of FRYSC. Gabrielle Mellendorf, director of Union’s Common Partners program, and Jerry Jackson, Union’s dean of enrollment management, were on-hand to accept the award at the ceremony in Lexington. “The partnership with Barbourville’s Rainbow Center and Robin, its coordinator, is a blessing not only to the children they serve, but also to our students, who learn leadership, responsibility and compassion,” said Gabrielle Mellendorf, director of Union’s Common Partners program. “The Rainbow Center is one of the strongest partners in our service-learning program. Union is honored to be recognized by them and the statewide FRYSC.” Mellendorf leads all service-learning efforts at Union, including the Bonner Scholars program. In presenting the award, FRYSC of Kentucky recognized the college’s Bonner program as an “integral part of the Rainbow Center’s efforts to serve families.” Union was nominated for the award by Robin Rosenstiel Jones, coordinator of the Barbourville Independent School’s Rainbow Family Resource and Youth Service Center. “There are just not enough words to convey the ramifications of having Union College as a partner in our endeavor to improve the lives of families at the Barbourville Independent School,” Jones wrote. Jones says the college has been a key partner of the Rainbow Center since its inception in 1991, when Union staff helped review proposals, secure funding and served on the advisory council. In her nomination, Jones said the college has a history of offering its facilities free-of-charge for events and of allowing its students, faculty and staff to be involved in all services provided by the Rainbow Center. In addition to providing facilities and support for meetings and events, Union students, faculty and staff are actively involved in Rainbow Center programming. Faculty and staff are consistent participants in the center-sponsored career day for 7-12 graders, the back-to-school Readifest and the center’s advisory council. The college also leads a number of initiatives that benefit children in local school systems, including the Timeless Tales Reading Center, Bulldog Buddies, the Children’s Art Program and Upward Bound. Jones also noted the college’s role in exposing Barbourville Independent students to diversity and the arts. Faculty, she said, have visited classrooms to help students understand unfamiliar subjects like Judaism, while international students share information about their cultures with elementary social studies classes. The college’s theatre program was credited with hosting Shakespeare Alive productions and allowing students to participate in college plays. The latter, Jones said, helped fill a void created when Barbourville Independent no longer had a drama coach. One anecdote shared in the nomination illustrates the deep and lasting bonds formed between the Union and Rainbow Center communities. Archie, a Union student from Zimbabwe, worked with school-age children in the center’s child care program. When a political regime voided the value of his country’s currency, he learned he would not be able to remain at Union. The children, said Jones, were “so upset, they pledged to get their relatives to come up with the money needed to support his stay at Union.” The ambitious plan did not yield the desired result. On his last day at the center, Jones said, “there were tears shed by everyone from the tiniest five-year-old girl to the ten and 12-year-old boys and the staff.” “The lives touched by this partnership would have been missing many experiences, lessons, enrichment and enjoyment without Union College,” said Jones. |
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310 College St. - Barbourville, KY - 40906
1-800-489-8646