2012 USA Student Finalists
Maya Amjadi
Cedar Falls High School
Cedar Falls
Collaboration Community
Collaboration Community is a peer tutoring service offered weekdays during fourth hour lunch and Required Class Time shifts. Students receive help from fellow students in the areas of math, science, English and social studies, as well as foreign languages. Students have taken advantage of this outlet by receiving help on homework, getting questions answered before tests, and forming study groups.
Bradley Baudler
Nodaway Valley High School
Fontanelle
Brains + Basketball = A Winning Formula!
Brains and Basketball. These two are not an average combination but a formula for success. Twenty-three fourth and fifth grade students learned how academics and athletics go hand in hand during a week-long day camp. Fourteen high school athletes developed new leadership skills as they helped teach basketball, teamwork, science, technology, engineering, and math.
Alisa Behrens
Davenport West High School
Davenport
The Goal is Green
I plan to sell beautiful recycled metal art sculptures as an entrepreneurship. My main goal is to raise money for Iowa 4-H and provide a donation to Soccer Grow, as well as make a personal profit to help my business grow, fund my further education, and to inform the public of the benefits that recycling holds.
Katie Boyle
Ridge View High School
Holstein
Gymboree Proposal
Holstein Children’s Gymboree. The purpose of my project is to create a healthy, active place in my community for young children to enjoy and grow. I am aiding my local community center in an $80,000 renovation to create a children’s gymboree. The project will include: rock climbing walls, slides, tumble mats, and other equipment to help children develop healthy lifestyles.
Cassandra Davis
Pleasant Valley High School
Le Claire
The Value of Agriculture
To educate people on The Value of Agriculture I created an interactive 1Book about the Agriculture Industry in Iowa. This educational book is available to anyone with access to a computer. With my interactive IBook I hope to promote the Industry of Agriculture and educate the masses about the joys of farming.
Dylan DeClerck
West Des Moines Valley High School
Clive
Opportunity on Deck
Opportunity on Deck, founded for children who couldn’t afford traditional baseball leagues, consisted of baseball clinics at Linnan Park in Clive for 34 participants, ages six to thirteen. The goals of the baseball league were for the participants to develop friendships and foster teamwork while playing America’s favorite pastime with the utmost moral standards.
Julianne DeLessio
Pleasant Valley High School
Bettendorf
Dance For Me
Due to a variety of barriers such as illness, handicap, or a lack of finances, so many people do not have the opportunity to get exercise or express themselves through dancing. Dance For Me brings cost-free, on-site, and inclusive dance workshops to those who, due to their circumstances, do not have access to dance classes.
Sarah Fischer
West Branch High School
West Branch
Hoover Home Energy Audits
Reducing energy usage is a great way for homeowners to save money and the environment. My vision is for West Branch to lead in energy efficiency, so I worked with Alliant Energy and Habitat for Humanity to provide12 homeowners with free energy audits. I also persuaded the City Council to proclaim September Energy Efficiency month to promote energy awareness.
Mark Gee
Johnston High School
Johnston
Dream Big With Plants
Plants are important to our earth’s future, but people are often uninterested. Dream Big with Plants was developed to encourage upper elementary students to become excited about plants, understand through science, and continue learning on their own through activities including DNA extraction, conducting experiments on tomato plants, and presenting at a Plant Fair Finale. An uncommon interest helped us dream big.
Sahan Jayawaradena
Mason City High School
Mason City
A Self-Guided Tour of Mason City
“A Self Guided Tour of Mason City” is a mobile phone application that provides a free self guided tour to any visiting tourist. It contains a list of historical sites, pictures, video, and step by step directions directly in the application. This application can be downloaded for free and can be accessed anywhere.
Dylan Johnson
Johnston High School
Johnston
Tools for a Stronger Tomorrow
Tools For a Stronger Tomorrow raises money and collects donations of new or used power and manual tools to be given to Appalachia Service Project (ASP) to aid in strengthening communities and dilapidated homes in the impoverished Appalachian region. Tools For a Stronger Tomorrow, along with matched donations, has raised around $4000 and collected over fifty power and manual tools.
Ian McDowell
Mid-Prairie High School
West Chester
School District Mobile App
I created an iPhone, iPad, and Android app for my school district that allows students, parents, and community members to do many things, including viewing the time, date, and location of upcoming games, meetings, music events, checking grades and missing assignments from PowerSchool, checking the balance and lunch accounts, getting notifications of school delays and closings, and more!
Shelly Palmer
Mid-Prairie High School
Keota
Growing a Community Garden for Wellman, Iowa
Growing a community garden in Wellman provided fresh vegetables for some senior center meals, donations to the local food pantries, and families from the community. The Wellman community garden allowed volunteers the opportunity to grow fresh vegetables and learn how to garden. Eating fresh vegetables is known to decrease the risk of obesity and heart disease.
Geoffrey Root
Dowling Catholic High School
Urbandale
SmallBizGive
SmallBizGive is a service that matches small businesses hoping to grow their customer base with local charities looking for fundraising opportunities. On a predetermined date, supporters of the charity will purchase the goods or services offered by the small business. A percent of sales will be donated back to the charity. Since 2009, SmallBizGive has raised $2,500 for local charities.
Laura Tibbs
Iowa Falls-Alden High School
Alden
Clean Out Your Locker for a Good Cause
Many usable school supplies are thrown away at the end of each school year. This is very wasteful, and many people would happily use them. In this project, I collected used school supplies at the end of the school year in all the high schools in my county and donated the usable items to teachers and to school supply drives.