Recent News

Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (FM&T), LLC awarded a $4,000 grant to the district’s Academy of Engineering (AOE) program. Honeywell FM & T has been an active partner with the district’s AOE since its creation in 2011.  

Honeywell’s grant money is earmarked for several projects, including expanding Project Lead The Way (PLTW) courses at Ruskin and Hickman Mills Junior High, piloting a new computer software engineering course and buying the materials necessary for those two projects.

Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (FM&T) is one of eleven strategic business units of Honeywell International. Honeywell FM&T manages and operates the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City Plant under a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. The administration’s premier nonnuclear manufacturing facility, the Kansas City Plant employs 2,700 people and provides diverse engineering and manufacturing services for national security operations.

Support Kansas City, a local nonprofit providing business and development support services to other nonprofits, announced the winners of the 2013 Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership Award and Community Assistance Council has been granted the award for an agency with a budget of $1 million or less. Awards were presented on April 17th.

This award is distinctive because it honors these agencies for their strong fiscal management and sound strategic focus. "Over the last four years we've seen the response to these awards grow. I think it reflects the commitment to excellence by nonprofit staff and boards in our community. As the nonprofit sector has responded to the changing economic climate, we've seen how strong leadership has helped agencies better manage change and continue to serve the growing needs in our community," said Debra Box, Executive Director of Support Kansas City. 

For over 35 years, Community Assistance Council has provided resources and services for those facing economic challenges in Kansas City, empowering individuals and families to achieve sufficiencyfisufficiency sufficiency through the delivery of direct emergency assistance, education and advocacy. "We are honored to receive Support Kansas City's Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership Award. We've worked hard over the last three years to increase our capacity through enhanced governance, strategic planning and fiscal management. Through best practices, Community Assistance Council is better positioned to help stabilize area families who are struggling through tough economic times," said Carol Bird Owsley, Executive Director of Community Assistance Council.

Support Kansas City is based in Mission, Kansas, and provides nonprofit organizations in Kansas and Missouri with business and development expertise, empowering them to focus on their missions. 

Time and time again, from educators and community leaders alike, the Chamber hears how important mentoring is to the successful growth and development of the kids in our community.

"There is no greater gift one can give another than the sharing of his or her heartfelt interest and concern in them and their development", said Ron Sleptiza, President of Avila University.  "Mentoring matters and pays huge dividends to both the mentor and the mentee."

With this in mind the South KC Chamber's Education Committee has set a goal for 2013 to promote the YouthFriends program and ask our business and community leaders to participate by donating one hour of their time each week with students from the Center or Hickman Mills School Districts.  The committee would like to see at least 200 volunteer hours by year's end.

"Youth are the future of our businesses and our community and ensuring their success guarantees a great future for our community," said Jessica Hunter, Mazuma Credit Union and Chairman of the Education Committee.

YouthFriends is a mentoring program in which students are paired with an adult that agrees to spend one hour each week with their mentee.  This is typically done during the day at the student's school.  Mentors can have lunch with their buddy, help with homework, read a book or simply be a good friend who listens.  Volunteers may choose the school they would like to volunteer in as well as the age of their mentee.

For more information on the YouthFriends program visit www.youthfriends.org.  To volunteer for this program contact Vickie Wolgast at vwolgast@southkcchamber.com to get an application.  You may also download an application from the YouthFriends website, just be sure to note that you are signing up with the South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

Avila University was named to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. This designation, administered by The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and the U.S. Department of Education, is the highest honor a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

Avila University was admitted for the fifth consecutive year to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its work in serving the dear neighbor without distinction, one of the key missions of the university and a pillar of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who sponsor the university.
“Avila has a long history of service-learning and believes strongly in preparing our graduates to be active leaders and participants in an ever-changing world,” said S. Marie Joan Harris, Ph.D., CSJ, Avila’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “We’re honored to receive this prestigious award and owe much of it to the faculty and students themselves. They’re the energy driving our commitment, and they’re the ones who make it all happen.”

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which has administered the Honor Roll since 2006, admitted a total of 690 colleges and universities for their impact on issues from literacy and neighborhood revitalization to supporting at-risk youth. With more than 4,500 institutions of higher education in the U.S., that puts Avila among an elite 15 percent of universities and colleges receiving this honor.

“Congratulations to Avila University, its faculty and students for its commitment to service, both in and out of the classroom,” said Wendy Spencer, chief executive officer of CNCS. “Through its work, institutions of higher education are helping improve their local communities and create a new generation of leaders by challenging students to go beyond the traditional college experience and solve local challenges.”

Serving the dear neighbor always has been integral to Avila’s stated mission. Upon arrival at the school as new students, the entire class, along with student mentors, faculty and staff, are loaded onto buses and taken to an area food bank. Avila’s Campus Ministry annually is the largest and most active group on campus. And, in 2012, Avila began sponsorship of Jerusalem Farm, a Catholic service retreat in urban Kansas City, Missouri.

Inspired by the thousands of college students who traveled across the country to support relief efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, CNCS has administered the award since 2006 and manages the program in collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, and the American Council on Education. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors, including the scope and innovation of service projects, the extent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, the school’s commitment to long-term campus-community partnerships and measurable community outcomes as a result of the service.

More information about Avila University’s community service efforts can be found at www.avila.edu. More information on eligibility and the full list of Honor Roll awardees can be found at www.NationalService.gov.

Ozanam's "Thyme for Kids" Plant Sale will be held on Friday, April 26th from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, April 27th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. inside the greenhouse on Ozanam's main campus located at 421 E. 137th Street; Kansas City, MO 64145. This event is free and open to the public.

Visitors can shop from a variety of annuals, perennials and herbs grown by the boys and girls participating in Ozanam's Horticultural Therapy Program, which offers at-risk youth a chance to learn how to nurture and care for living things while drawing correlations to their own lives. Handmade garden decorations will also be available. Volunteer support will be provided by the Kansas City Young Matrons.

Since 1948, Ozanam has helped thousands of boys and girls who are dealing with emotional, behavioral and learning disabilities by providing on-campus residential and day treatment programs in addition to transitional living services for young adults, mentoring programs for youth in foster care, and school consultation services to schools throughout the Midwest.

For more information about Ozanam or the plant sale, please contact Kim Gregory, Special Events & Development Manager at 816-508-3606 or Kim.Gregory@ozanam.org. You can also find additional details on the Ozanam website at www.ozanam.org.

The Hickman Mills Educational Foundation will once again partner with the Third and Long Foundation to hosts their annual celebrity golf tournament.  The event will be held on Monday, May 6, 2013 beginning at 9:30am at the Blue Hills Country Club & Golf Course.  Visit these websites for more details www.hickmanmills.org or www.thirdandlong.org or download a brochure.

Missouri Gas Energy's Energy Sense program is all about saving undefined money and energy.

When you update your home with a new, high efficiency, natural gas furnace or water heater you can actually save money! Not only can you get an instant rebate and a 2013 tax credit, but using natural gas to heat your home also saves you money each month.

Deduct the rebate right from the cost of purchase and installation of your qualifying furnace or water heater when you use a MGE Preferred Professional. If you plan to use a different provider or are looking to receive credit for a previous installation, you can download the rebate form from our website and receive the rebate as a credit on your MGE bill.

Go to GetEnergySense.com for qualifications, to find a Preferred Professional in your area or to download a rebate form.

Learn more about Energy Sense

Continuing a period of unprecedented growth and momentum that began more than a year ago, Avila University announced it had enrolled a record class of full-time undergraduate students for the spring 2013 semester.

Avila has 1,889 students enrolled this spring. Of that total, 948 are full-time undergraduate students, an all-time high and an increase of more than 10 percent from spring 2012. Avila truly has been celebrating a blessed time in its 97-year history of providing a top-notch, values-based education that fully prepares students to go out and make meaningful contributions in the working world and beyond.

“As our students continue to thrive in the classroom and provide service to the community, Avila’s mission and culture are becoming well-known to prospective students,” said Brandon Johnson, director of undergraduate admissions. “The opportunity to receive an excellent education and make this world a better place is why so many are proud to call Avila home.”

The latest spring enrollment figures are just the most recent evidence of Avila’s upward trajectory and proof of its commitment to its students. Last fall, the University announced that 100 percent of its faculty and staff contributed to the University’s Centennial Campaign. Avila’s faculty is highly regarded with more than 75 percent holding the highest degree in their respective fields. And 100 percent of Avila’s students perform community service and/or service learning. In fact, in 2012, students performed some 206,000 hours of service, valued at more than $4 million to the local community.

“We’ve done more renovation and new construction in the last two years than we’ve done in the last 50,” said Avila President Ron Slepitza, Ph.D., CSJA. “Not only have we steadily been increasing our enrollment, but we have our most academically qualified class in our history based on ACT scores. Our faculty is engaged with student learning. Our students enjoy experiences that enrich their learning, prepare them for life and for success in the world.”

AT&T invested more than $875 million in its Kansas City area wireless and wireline networks from 2009 through 2012, with a focus on expanding 4G LTE mobile Internet coverage and enhancing the overall performance of its networks.

People in Kansas City increasingly depend on mobile Internet connections for communication, entertainment and productivity at work, at home and everywhere in between. AT&T’s continued investment is designed to deliver superior levels of service, with network enhancements driving improvements in key areas of the mobile Internet experience: 4G speed, broad coverage and network reliability.

AT&T’s significant investment over the past four years is delivering customers a stronger network performance. The AT&T network kept 99 percent of all Kansas City-area wireless calls connected in the fourth quarter of 2012 (October through December).

“We know the mobile Internet has become central to our customers’ lives, and we’re committed to driving both investment and innovation to deliver the best possible experience over the AT&T network,” said John Sondag, president of AT&T Missouri. “While third-party and internal testing shows that these investments are paying off with excellent service for Kansas City customers, we are continually planning and deploying network enhancements to improve service in the future.”

2012 Network Enhancements Deliver Faster Speeds, Broader Coverage to Customers

AT&T customers are benefitting from more than 90 wireless network upgrades in key categories in Kansas City during 2012, including activating new cell sites, adding capacity, upgrading cell sites to provide fast 4G LTE mobile Internet speeds, deploying high-capacity Ethernet connections to cell sites, and adding or upgrading Distributed Antenna Systems, which boost wireless coverage and capacity in buildings and at major venues like convention halls or sports arenas.

AT&T launched 4G LTE in the Kansas City area in November 2011. AT&T 4G LTE is the latest generation of wireless network technology and provides faster mobile Internet speeds undefined up to 10 times faster than 3G**undefined and improved performance on a variety of mobile smartphones and tablets. 

The AT&T 4G LTE network has been nationally recognized for its speed and coverage. AT&T 4G LTE delivered faster average download speeds than any of the competitors in PCWorld’s most recent 13-market speed tests, and telecommunications industry analyst firm Frost and Sullivan awarded AT&T its North American Mobile Network Strategy Award for the second year in a row in 2012.

"Across Kansas City, this robust investment in the AT&T wireless and wireline networks is important to spurring the economy and creating jobs. In our wireless world, mobile and broadband networks create economic opportunities for health care, manufacturing, education, transportation and public safety and virtually every other economic sector,” said Steve Hahn, president of AT&T Kansas.

Planned Investment to Expand Reach of Wireless and Wired Broadband

AT&T recently launched Project Velocity IP (VIP), a three-year investment initiative to expand and enhance its wireless and wired IP broadband networks. As part of Project VIP, AT&T plans to increase the density of its wireless network by deploying more than 10,000 macro sites, more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems, and more than 40,000 small cells. Through this initiative, we also plan to:

• Expand 4G LTE to cover more than 300 million people by year-end 2014
• Expand the AT&T wired IP broadband network to cover approximately 75 percent of customer locations in our wired service area by year-end 2015
• Expand the AT&T fiber network to reach 1 million additional business locations by year-end 2015

Avila University President Ron Slepitza, Ph.D., CSJA, appeared on the hit ABC show “The View” Feb. 6 and surprised the Sterling family of Blue Springs, Mo. by offering $500,000 in scholarships for their seven children. Lauren and Scott Sterling’s family grew by five when the couple recently adopted five Peruvian orphans. “This ensures our children get an American education and bright future. We are so grateful,” said Lauren Sterling. Slepitza said, “What the Sterlings have done touches our hearts, and this is an opportunity where everyone can say ‘YES’ and help this wonderful family. We are honored to live our mission in the tradition of our founding Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, to serve the dear neighbor without distinction.”

Pictured are, left to right, The View co-host Sherri Shepherd, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the Sterling family, co-host Joy Behar, Slepitza, Ann O’Meara, Avila’s assistant vice president of marketing and communications, and co-host Whoopi Goldberg.