WTVI receives American Graduate Community Engagement Grant to address the high school dropout crisis

The high school dropout rate is one of the biggest crises facing the United States today. According to a national Diplomas County 2010 report, in Education Week, three out of every ten students in America’s public schools fail to finish high school – an average of more than 7,200 students drop out each day.

WTVI was recently awarded an American Graduate Community Engagement Grant in the amount of $20,000 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The grant is designed to help PBS stations work with their local communities and diverse audiences to address the high school dropout crisis. Goals for the initiative include:

• Helping communities better understand the dropout crisis, its impact on local communities and the country as a whole


• Partnering with other organizations to address issues of vital importance to the nation and to local communities


• Working with adults (parents, mentors and volunteers) who can support and influence at-risk youth


• Promoting and providing pathways to existing community resources.

For details or more information, contact Bev Dorn-Steele, WTVI Community Engagement Director, (704) 371-8840 or bds@wtvi.

Local teacher wins PBS Teachers Innovation Award

One of our local teachers has done something very special. PBS, America’s largest classroom, has announced the winners of the national PBS Teachers Innovation Awards. Sponsored by The Henry Ford and SMART Technologies, the awards honor teachers from across the country who inspire young minds and display innovative use of public media to improve learning.

Patricia Yu, from the Cannon School, in Concord, is that special teacher. On July 19, 2011, Beverly Dorn-Steele and Elsie Garner, from WTVI, presented the second place award to Patricia for her entry from the 9th grade Chinese class she teaches at the Cannon School.

Patricia’s students worked very hard on their Chinese weather reports. The weather report video project challenged students to report the weather in Chinese, write a script, read maps and improve public speaking skills. View the video.

WTVI encourages all teachers to take advantage of the standards-based instructional resources on the PBS Teachers website at www.pbs.org/teachers and all of WTVI’s local outreach programs from tutoring to live events to reading programs. Visit www.wtvi.org today.

WTVI welcomes new board members for fiscal year 2012

At WTVI’s annual meeting on June 30, 2011, CEO Elsie Garner started the new fiscal year by welcoming new board members and announcing new board officers who will preside over WTVI’s mission to provide education, culture and citizenship.

New board members are: Dee Dixon, Amy Dawson, Jonathan Pullin and Donald Tate. New officers elected were: Liz Downing, chair; Lal Vishin, vice chair; Lou Fuller, treasurer; Patty Perkins, secretary; and Bennie Darden, member at large. Board members re-appointed were Larry Seitlin, Marilyn Richards, Tim Flanagan, Hilda Gurdian, Bill Taggart, Bari Gorelick, Tom Bickford and Elsie Garner. The board passed a unanimous resolution thanking outgoing members Fran Farrer and Hattie Leeper.

“I am excited about the new year and our board,” said Garner. “We have new, local productions to promote and community outreach strategies to truly make Charlotte and surrounding areas better places to live, go to school and enjoy family entertainment.”

WTVI’s board, drawn from diverse roles across the community, holds the FCC license, sets policy and raises funds for the organization. This year the board will focus on local productions, community outreach and new fundraising approaches to ensure the station does not experience another budget shortfall.

WTVI is an important portal for local producers to propel documentaries into the national market. Upcoming locally-produced programs include “100 Years of Folk,” a documentary on John Belk, local segments for the PBS Arts Festival, and "Overdraft" from Davidson producer Scott Galloway, a look at how the national debt affects people on a grass-roots level.

The WTVI board meeting schedule is posted at http://www.wtvi.org/about_board.cfm. All meetings are open to the public.