Community Foundation of the Ozarks

Students from four south-central Missouri schools attended a kickoff for the third class of the South-Central Student Leadership Initiative, designed to develop skills to create future community leaders for the Ozarks region.

Six additional south-central Ozarks schools will participate in this pilot project of the Rural Schools Partnership, an initiative of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. Sigler is beginning his second year of the two-year program, while Collins is beginning her first.

Students from Alton, Bakersfield, Dora and West Plains attended this year’s kickoff event on Friday, May 10 at Shannon Hall, Missouri State University – West Plains’ Mountain Grove satelitte location. Missouri State University-West Plains is a partner on the SCSLI, along with the RSP, the MSU Rural Education Center and the Thomasville Place-Based Learning Collective.

The students were welcomed by CFO’s south-central region staff associate, Carol Silvey, based in West Plains. The students will have opportunities to learn from both adults and peers through activities that emphasize the RSP’s mission of place-based education that connects rural schools and their communities.

Two speakers, both from the medical field, shared thoughts and advice with the students, who also had time to get to know one another during the morning event.

First, Jeanne Looper, Chief Operating Officer for Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains, talked about her rise to the C-suite of medical administration and the traits someone might need to rise to a position of leadership. The former secretary for Sam Walton, who as a single mother returned to school in her late 20s to become a nurse, told the students that they should always be willing and ready to take on a task, and also to value where they come from.

“Think of ways you can be helpful and make an impact,” said Looper, who rose through the nursing ranks and into administration. It’s not the place she thought she’d wind up, but she knows she’s still making a difference. “Every time I hire a physician, I know I’m making a huge difference for the people of this area.”

Over lunch, Mountain Grove-based physician Dr. David Barbe spoke to the students. Barbe who opened his own clinic in Mountain Grove in the 1980s, eventually affiliating 1997 with St. John’s (now Mercy), will begin a year as President of the Board of the American Medical Association on June 1. Barbe is also the board chair for the Mountain Grove Area Community Foundation.

Like Looper, Barbe urged students, above all, to be present and engaged in their lives and activities, embrace and share their talents, and be ready to step through a door when it is opened for them. “A lot of life is just showing up,” Barbe said.

The next session for these students is planned for October.

On Thursday, May 2, the Rural Schools Partnership and the Community Foundation of the Ozarks invited educators, administrators and students to Thomasville, Mo. for the fourth consecutive year to celebrate rural schools and those who continue to help them thrive.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Arthur Mallory, a longtime state education official and rural schools advocate. Like  many educators, Dr. Mallory is a noted storyteller, and he didn’t disappoint. Among the anecdotes he shared with the gathered teachers (and future teachers) were memories negotiating rural Dallas County school politics with his father, D.A. Mallory, who was recognized on two occasions in Time magazine for his work in the area. Dr. Mallory was presented with a copy of one of those magazines, as well as an

eight-page article about the Mallorys by former CFO President Dr. Gary Funk that was specially printed for this year’s Rural Schools Rendezvous.

The afternoon agenda featured Springfield educators Dr. Judy Brunner and Dr. Karen Scott, who spoke primarily to the members of the Ozarks Teacher Corps. They presented best practices for everything from classroom management to safety in a crisis situation, drawing on their extensive classroom and administrative experience to help prepare the OTC’s crop of teachers-to-be for their looming jobs in the classroom. The 2013 class of the Ozarks Teacher Corps was also introduced; look for photos on this site later this week.

Finally, the Rural Schools Partnership awarded $70,000 to six organizations as part of the 2013 Coover Place-Based Education grant round, a partnership with the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Regional Grantmaking Program of The Commerce Trust Company.

This year’s recipients are:

• Aurora Youth Empowerment Project: $2,500 to expand on programs and partnerships to help fight the growing poverty problem in Aurora and Lawrence County.

• Clinton Christian Academy: $9,162 to help fund Project Conserve, through which students take a hands-on role in environmental education and sustainability practices with the goal of being better environmental stewards.

• GLADE (Green Leadership Academy for Diverse Ecosystems) and Logan-Rogersville R-II Schools: $9,250 to expand their mission to bring effective environmental education strategies to area schools and train teachers to recruit and mentor GLADE students for community conservation activities.

• Placeworks Arts Initiative: $30,000 to expand into more schools and offer new programming — including, for the first time this fall, musical and theater arts projects — to teachers across southwest Missouri.

• Reeds Spring R-IV School Foundation: $9,695 to expand the district’s In-Vessel Food Waste Composting Program.

• Willard R-II School District: $9,393 for technology and transportation costs associated with natural resource studies and expanding the school’s 21^st Century School initiative.

Michael Chatman (left) and SBJ Editor Eric Olson

Michael Chatman, CFO Senior Vice-President of Philanthropy and Regional Affiliate Partnerships, was this morning’s guest at the Springfield Business Journal’s monthly “12 People You Need to Know” breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn. The series, an editorial initiative of the paper to bring the people and stories they write to life for an audience of professionals, features editor Eric Olson in a one-on-one conversation with a Springfield-area newsmaker.

Questions for Chatman, who joined CFO in Spring 2012 after several years in southern Florida and 15 years working for Anheuser-Busch’s philanthropic department, touched on:

CFO’s specialized role in Ozarks philanthropy: “Our secret sauce is really in our thought leadership. We know the community, have knowledge, and can help donors vet charities that are having the greatest level of impact, and work with estate planning attorneys as well as financial advisers.”

Strategies for promoting corporate giving and philanthropy in the Ozarks: “Part of [corporate giving] is altruistic, but some of it is cause marketing. I think corporations should get something in return for sponsorships and giving … I would love to see the Community Foundation here play a major role in working with businesses in establishing corporate business funds and putting together corporate giving plans to make their giving more purposeful.”

His 225,000-strong Twitter audience and popular weekly giving Tweet-chat “Why I Give”: “‘Why I Give’ is a vision I had about two years ago to give donors and philanthropists and humanitarians an opportunity simply to share their giving story. It’s been beyond my wildest imagination to have people internationally … take a part in that. It’s taken on a life of its own.”

If you would like to read more about the SBJ conversation with Michael, or about the “12 People You Need to Know” series in general, go to sbj.net.