NTLP INSPIRATION AWARDS

For 18 years NTLP has recognized and rewarded teens for their involvement and excellence in a wide variety of areas during the inspirational closing ceremony at each NTLP leadership camp.  Now, NTLP is proud to announce that we recently became a Presidential Volunteer Service Award Certified Organization!

Not only can our teen achievers receive a Presidential Service Award but they will accept their Inspiration Awards on stage from some amazing community leaders who will be honored for their commitment to empowering and inspiring youth to change the world!

Teen honorees will receive the following for verified volunteer hours earned over the past 12 months:

* Personalized Certificate (with individual’s name)
* Lapel Pin (bronze, silver, or gold depending on total volunteer hours)
* Congratulatory Letter from the President of the United States
* Letter from the President’s Council on Service & Civic Participation

The Amazing Community Leaders who will be Honored Announced

The following are the Community Leaders that NTLP will be Honoring with the President’s Volunteer Award.

Ms. Jill Roberts

While studying psychology and pre-medicine at Georgetown University, Ms. Jill Roberts combined a love of dance and business by co-directing the Georgetown University Dance Company while holding the position of Director of Dean’s Affairs at the Georgetown University Business School. She performed in and has choreographed for various D.C. and national dance projects and performed with D.C. dance companies, Jazzdanz.dc and CityDance Ensemble.

In September of 1999, Ms. Roberts became the Founder and Director of the D.A.R.E.® America Dance Program, a nation-wide after-school program established to bring dance into high-risk schools as a positive alternative to drugs and gang violence. In December of 2000, Ms. Roberts took on a larger role with D.A.R.E. as Director of after-school programs (D.A.R.E. P.L.U.S.), and of The National Youth Advisory Board. Approximately 90,000 students are positively influenced by the professional dance company, peer and community performances and over 18,000 students have participated in DARE Dance classes to date.

Additionally, Ms. Roberts continues to teach tap and jazz to children and adults, direct the Soles of Steel Dance Company and serve as Chairman of the Board at Joy of Motion, one of the largest dance institutions in the U.S., based in Washington, D.C. In Ms. Roberts’s free time, she volunteers at the Lombardi Cancer Center, working with patients and staff through dance therapy in weekly “stress reduction” stretch/movement classes.

Dr. Marlena Uhrik
Dr. Marlena Uhrik has provided programs and services for children and their families for over forty years. Throughout her educational career, she has taught aspiring teachers around the world and has received numerous local and national awards for improving the quality of life for children and families. She has been recognized in the US Congressional Record for her outstanding contribution to her community and is currently a consultant for the California Department of Education.

Dr. Uhrik is the author of A Guidebook for Family Day Care Providers, The ABC’s of Home Improvement, and In Grandpa’s Hands: A Child’s Celebration of Family. She is the founder and past Executive Director of The Kids’ Breakfast Club (TKBC), a non-profit organization designed to promote the healthy development of children and their families.

Working as a consultant for the California Department of Education, she is a member of the Governor’s Prevention Advisory Council (GPAC), where she is the lead for the statewide implementation of Student Assistance Programs (SAPs), along with the Prevention of Underage Drinking program for at-risk youth.

Dr. Uhrik holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership, a Masters in Educational Administration, a B.A. in SocialScience. She has been recognized by numerous civic, , and governmental groups for her accomplishments, including the US Congressional Record, and National Community Hero Olympic Torchbearer. She lives in Sacramento, California with her husband and has two grown children and three grand children.

Betty Cunningham
Betty Cunningham has spent all of her adult life, both professional and volunteer, dedicated to the prevention of substance abuse and child abuse. Her vocation and avocation is quite simply ensuring that young people have the best opportunities for their future. As an adult, her community service began as a volunteer in her son’s classroom. From there, her commitment to empowering youth to maximize their potential led her to working with the Child Abuse Prevention Council, Shasta Community Regional Foundation, Health Improvement Partnership, Californians for Drug Free Youth, and the Drug Free Communities activities. Through all these programs, Betty was able to hold true to her mission—empowering youth.

Ms. Cunningham has worked in the substance prevention field since 1980. She became a part of the movement that began when the then First Lady Nancy Regan introduced the Just Say No program and the concept of substance abuse prevention task forces. Her philosophy is that if you increase resiliency and protective factors, and decrease risk factors in the lives of our youth we will provide the building blocks necessary to bridge youth into strong healthy adults.

A founding board member of the Shasta County Chemical People, Partners for A Drug-Free Community, she has been Executive Director since 1996. Chemical People’s focus is youth leadership and youth development through empowerment and service to the community.

Ms. Cunningham has been the recipient of a State of California Youth Award and a Special Congressional Youth Award. She is a recent recipient of Shasta County’s Public Health Excellence in Health award, the Shasta County Probation Department’s Vision Award.

Betty’s strong commitment to youth is more than just a statement. She puts her belief into practice by routinely hiring high school, college-aged, and recently graduated young people and provides them opportunities to develop their potential and gain practical experience.

Although Betty has devoted countless hours to all the youth and families in Shasta County, her greatest pride comes from her family which includes husband, Gary; son, Shane; daughter-in-law, Janice; and especially Logan, her 10 year old grandson.

Her favorite saying is “I kept looking for somebody to solve the problem – Then I realized that I am somebody!”

Ms. Joanna Iwata
Considered a visionary leader in her educational and non-profit leadership career, Ms. Joanna Iwata’s dedication and passion to provide innovative youth-based social justice programs has helped to transform the lives of over 30,000 young people.

As a first generation college student, Iwata was acutely aware of the lack of support service for “at risk” youth and particularly for students of color within the university system. She got involved with the Asian American Tutorial Project providing tutorial services for teenagers from area high schools and other student leadership positions at USC. At graduation she received the Order of the Laurel for outstanding leadership and service to her campus community and the rest from there was history.

In the early 80’s, by working closely with young people through her diversity and leadership training programs, she gained notoriety through her inspirational work with college students and civil rights leaders such as Russell Means (co-founder of the American Indian Movement) and the late Reverend Ralph Abernathy.

She designed and moderated a successful college talk-show program (The Discovery Series) at Wake Forest University in North Carolina focusing on a wider variety of social justice and contemporary issues in the 90’s. Upon leaving higher education in 2007, Iwata was featured in two national publications for her innovative work in the area of diversity, change management and inclusive excellence.

Ms. Iwata is currently the Executive Director of the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation (OVYF), and continues to work closely with youth from first generation, low income and “at risk” teens to the academically gifted students through their leadership and mentorship programs. This spring she was involved with over 100 teens and adult volunteers to set up 20 different vegetable gardens in one day to address food sustainability among needy families in the Ojai Valley. She also serves as the chair of the S.A.F.E. Coalition focusing on valley-wide initiatives to address youth violence and gang prevention programs.

Ms. Iwata has her Masters in Inter-American Studies from the University of the Pacific and her Bachelors in Spanish and East Asian Studies from the USC. She lives in Ojai, California with her family and her daughter, Noelani, will be a freshman at Colorado College this fall. She enjoys composing and performing original compositions on guitar and piano and is a big fan of American Idol, So You Say You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars (as she used to compete in a college ballroom dance team).