The President of the United States recognizes those who volunteer for causes across the country with the President’s Volunteer Service Award program. Citizen Schools engages thousands of volunteers every year who give their time to middle school students, mentoring them on topics such as video game design, mock trial, stock market investments, and more. After one semester in the classroom, hundreds of volunteers go on to teach again, for several semesters and even several years in a row.

This year an impressive total of 402 volunteer “Citizen Teachers” were recognized  by the President at the gold, silver, and bronze award levels. Each level corresponds to an incredible amount of time and effort spent inspiring students:

43 Gold award winners for teaching four of the past four semesters

70 Silver award winners for teaching three of the past four semesters

288 Bronze award winners for teaching two of the past four semesters

Over the past few months, our Citizen Teachers have been receiving their awards at appreciation events across the country. Jin Ellington, Manager of External Engagement for Citizen Schools North Carolina, said, “It was very satisfying and exciting to see the pride that our Citizen Teachers felt about being awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service Award! A number of them invited their managers and loved ones to attend alongside them at the event. Each volunteer who received an award walked away at the end of the night feeling proud of their accomplishments - some rededicated to return for another semester, and all invigorated about being part of a movement of dedicated citizens who are impacting the students of the local community.”

Join us in celebrating these mentors for helping students to dream big and reach their full potential. In particular we would like to mention the 43 volunteers who received the Gold award. Congratulations on your accomplishment and significant impact on students’ lives! We thank you all for your service.

Massachusetts:

Esther Chou, Northeastern University

Susan Freeman Northeastern University

Daniel Gonyea, Microsoft

Bill Good, Massachusetts Youth Rugby

Emily Hodge, Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP

Robert Mersereau Sr.

Kyle Moran, JPMorgan Chase

Erin Quinlan, Massachusetts Youth Rugby

Sivananda Reddy, Fish & Richardson

Amarynth Sichel, Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo PC

Alan Su, Google

Brittany Suprenard, WilmerHale

North Carolina:

Joseph Austin

Brian Bolt, Cisco

Rachel Clark, Environmental Protection Agency

Rebecca Dodder, Environmental Protection Agency

Jerry Diehl

Arthur Everett

Elvira Johnson, CPCC STARS Alliance

Sonya Johnson, CPCC STARS Alliance

Kim Kiesow

Ed Lau, Microsoft

Carol Lenox, Environmental Protection Agency

Peter Smith, NCSU STARS Alliance

Hong Zou

New Mexico:

Julia Barnes, Santa Fe Community Foundation

Kristin Browning-Mezel, Hot Shot Services

David Dunlap

Eric Fria, Intel Corporation

Alexander Gancarz, Santa Fe Community Foundation

Colter Gollihugh, AKKA

John Paul Gonzales, Project GUTS

Gene Guiterrez

Louis Sinoff

Gary Topp, LabCorp

Yvonna Yeadon-Lando, Fidelity Investments

New York:

Brian Baer, Baer America

Donna Fontana, Fidelity

Alex Jenkins, The Juilliard School

New Jersey:

James Hainis, H.E.A.R.T Martial Arts

Douglas Reagan, Cisco