Emma Bohn
Valley High School, West Des Moines

Valley Girls STEM Conference
FemStem is a day long workshop designed to empower girls in the West Des Moines Community School District. The convention is open to girls grades 7-12, and has a variety of female speakers in STEM fields along with numerous activities to promote STEM involvement for young women.


Kaleb Cook
Linn-Mar High School, Marion

Dancing Away The Stigma
Throughout the 2017-2018 school year, research, design and facilitate a ten lesson dance therapy program for Linn-Mar School District grades K-12. Classes are facilitated bi-weekly October through February. Results will be presented to the Iowa Department of Education, then distributed to special education classrooms statewide. Subsequently, the program will be presented to the US Department of Education and distributed nation-wide.


Madelyn Davis
Manson Northwest Webster, Manson

YEA Babies
YEA Babies is a subdivision of the non-profit organization, Youth Empowerment Association.  It seeks to help the 14% of Northwest Iowa’s families who are living in poverty.  Because transportation is a critical issue, we bring essential baby items to those in need.


 

Alexa Gormley
Linn-Mar High School, Marion

Service and Support Dog Awareness Campaign
Mental illness is an all too common affliction. There are many ways to treat mental illnesses, but one treatment that many are unfamiliar with is dog therapy. Dogs are a comfort to many, but for some, a lifeline. My goal is to help teach the public what service and support dogs are, and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness.


Wesley Hanson
Union High School, La Porte City

STEM of New Opportunities for Youth
I created a space for children, ages five to eleven, to learn about STEM through hands-on experiences. With my school district’s blessing and cooperation, I’ll lead efforts of converting outmoded computer labs at two elementary centers into STEM “maker spaces.” Maker spaces contain an assortment of activities and recreational materials designed to provide opportunities to experience STEM technology first hand.


Nandini Jayaram
Pleasant Valley High School, Bettendorf

Securing Abundant Food by Empowering Tenacious Youth (SAFETY)
By developing an on-campus urban farm at Davenport Mid City High School, Securing Abundant Food by Empowering Tenacious Youth (SAFETY) aims to provide freshly grown, nutritious food for school students who live below the poverty line. SAFETY also alleviates emotional stress and anxiety, promotes strong work ethic, and excites involved students to passionately work on tackling food insecurity.


Rebecca Johnson
Remsen St. Mary’s, Remsen

Stars Fest Carnival
I am putting on a carnival for STARSfest. STARS, a place where individuals with special needs can ride horses. Riding horses aids an individual while working on physical and learning therapy. STARSfest is held once a year. Adding a carnival will make it more fun, but also help volunteers to become more comfortable around individuals with special needs.


JJ Kapur
Valley High School, West Des Moines

Iowa Sikh Turbanators
I will complete numerous community service events by expanding the Iowa Sikh Turbanators. I formed this youth-run organization in January 2017. The goal of the Iowa Sikh Turbanators is simple: to “turban-ate” the negative stigma surrounding the Sikh faith in Des Moines through awareness building and community service events.”


Makayla McMann
Southwest Valley High School, Corning

Villisca Summer Day Camps
The Community Service Project I created and implemented is the Villisca Summer Day Camps. The town of Villisca had not held any day camps for their youth for over ten years. Therefore I felt this community would appreciate someone re-establishing this in their community. The day camp is for grades K-6th, every Monday for five weeks, 9 am – noon.


Danica Nolton
Grinnell High School, Grinnell

Into Focus
My original proposal entailed a series of summer photography workshops for middle school aged students that would combine photography with the power of storytelling. I hoped to shape this workshop to provide a safe place for young artists to create and share since it can be hard to find this within ever-changing teen social scenes and relationships.


Daniel O’Hara
Linn-Mar High School, Marion

Multigenerational Playground
I propose the addition of six pieces of multigenerational equipment to my community’s park.  Every aspect of this project is community driven. Community members and other volunteers will be enlisted to help supply, build and install the equipment.  This would raise awareness about health issues for elderly, sustain co-use of public park equipment and more community engagement for senior members.


Sydney Striegel
Sigourney Jr./Sr. High School. Sigourney

empowHER
I created empowHER to give young girls the chance to experience STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and build self esteem.  The goal of this project was to give girls the opportunity to experience STEM principles while building self confidence.  Each session of empowHER included projects involving STEM concepts and a section devoted to building esteem.


Madyson Thill
Pleasantville High School, Pleasantville

Pleasantville Community Garden
This spring I took the grassy plot behind the library and tilled most of it to make a garden.  It has individual spots that people reserve and garden.  Through a grant, I was able to buy a shed and supplies available to the gardeners.  So far, the garden has been successful even with the dry year southern Iowa has had.