Polaris Charter Academy was honored with the inaugural Think It Up Award for Classroom Innovation and Excellence from the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), recognizing the school’s students and teachers as “Pioneers” for their outstanding work on their Voices for Change podcast series and Peacekeeper Rally for a Day of Peace that explore race, stereotype, and gun violence in their West Humboldt Park neighborhood.
The national Think It Up award celebrates students and teachers who exemplify the great work happening in America’s classrooms. Polaris’ community-centered student-initiative to combat racial stereotypes and build positive relationships between youth and the police was selected from thousands of submissions by the Education Advisory Committee comprised of representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ExxonMobile, Ashoka’s Start Empathy Initiative, DonorsChoose.org, EL Education, Learning Heroes and America Achieves.
Polaris, which is one of eight winning teams of students and teachers who were selected from thousands, will receive $5000 in DonorsChoose.org funding credits that will enable students and teachers to continue their transformational work in the classroom. In addition to receiving the first-ever Think It Up Innovation Award, on July 31st, Polaris students Amiya Mahone, Andre Partee, and Jaquan Wade along with their teachers Molly Brady and Francesca Peck, walked the red carpet at the “Teen Choice 2016” awards at the Los Angeles Forum, where their peacekeeping work and their Think It Up award was recognized during pre-program activities.
