LifeSmarts students recognized for community service leadership with Safety Smart® scholarships – National Consumers League

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May 24, 2016

National Consumers League-UL partnership brings science, health, safety, citizenship lessons to elementary classrooms via teen leadership program

Contact: National Consumers League, Cindy Hoang, cindyh@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—LifeSmarts, the national consumer literacy educational program and scholarship opportunity for students in grades 6-12, has announced this year’s group of students who have been awarded scholarships for their outstanding participation in its Safety Smart® Ambassador program, a community service project offered to students in partnership with UL. The Safety Smart Ambassador program is a service learning and leadership opportunity, which enables teens to teach elementary-level educational lessons to younger students on topics ranging from health and safety to citizenship. Safety Smart is a UL-created program that, in the last three years, has been made available to LifeSmarts participants.

This year, LifeSmarts participants from 21 states participated in Safety Smart Ambassador program, making 130 presentations to 3,150 young children during March and April. This year’s six scholarship winners, chosen among 25 entries, hail from schools across the country and each received a $1,000 post-secondary scholarship. Winners were chosen based on applications judged for criteria including evidence of personal growth, size of audiences presented to, number of presentations, and the quality of presentations.

“For the past three years LifeSmarts has partnered with UL on its Safety Smart Ambassador program to provide a way for LifeSmarts students to give back through community service,” said Lisa Hertzberg, LifeSmarts program director. “LifeSmarts students become Safety Smart Ambassadors by delivering interactive safety messages to younger children in their communities, and we were so pleased at their participation and leadership.”

2016 LifeSmarts Safety Smart scholarship recipients

  • Luke Dyer, Blair Oaks High School, Jefferson City, MO (two-year scholarship recipient)
  • David Korn, Flagstaff Home Educators, Flasgstaff, AZ
  • Austin Lin, Salesianum School, Wilmington, DE
  • Mary Pennington, Indiana Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, Muncie, IN
  • Kyle Schulte, Blair Oaks High School, Jefferson City, MO
  • Abigail Taylor, Iola High School, Iola, KS

“The LifeSmarts students who become Safety Smart Ambassadors not only develop leadership skills, but they gain a deeper understanding of environmental, health, and safety issues. This prepares them to perform better in both LifeSmarts competition and in real life,” said Hertzberg. “The LifeSmarts-Safety Smart partnership is win-win.”

“At UL, we truly appreciate this partnership with LifeSmarts and the opportunity to get our Safety Smart messages into communities across the country, via some of America’s brightest youth ‘Ambassadors,’” said Cara Gizzi, Director Safety Education & Outreach. “It is inspiring to see LifeSmarts students embrace the Safety Smart Ambassador program, and to provide education and mentoring to younger children, while learning about themselves in the process.”

Six additional $1000 scholarships will be awarded in December 2016. For more information, visit LifeSmarts.org/SafetySmart.

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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. 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.

About UL

UL is a premier global independent safety science company that has championed progress for more than 120 years. Its nearly 11,000 professionals are guided by the UL mission to promote safe working and living environments for all people. UL uses research and standards to continually advance and meet ever-evolving safety needs. We partner with businesses, manufacturers, trade associations and international regulatory authorities to bring solutions to a more complex global supply chain. For more information about our certification, verification, validation, testing, inspection, advisory and education services, visit https://www.UL.com.