Spring Awards, YES! News, and More!

YES! Quarterly

Spring 2019

3rd Annual State Award Competition

The Third Annual YES! State Award Ceremony was held at Target Field on May 12th, attended by over 100 YES! students, coaches, staff, and supporters. YES! works hard to bring opportunities like these to its students where they can showcase the hard work they do throughout the school year!

Awards were presented to the students near home base during the pregame show. New London-Spicer Middle School was awarded the 2019 State Champion All Star Award and Northern Lights Community School was awarded the 2019 State Champion Water Stewardship Award. Read more about these teams and their achievements!

YES! Regional Awards

At the end of each school year, YES! teams present their projects to a panel of local experts who act as judges. Overall awards were presented to teams that excelled in goal setting and teamwork, community leadership and education, and ecological impact and literacy. A separate award was bestowed for water stewardship. $4,000 total was awarded to this year's regional award winners:

West-Central/Northwest
1st Place: Sartell
2nd Place: New London-Spicer Middle School
3rd Place: Tie: ROCORI and Lac qui Parle Valley
Water Stewardship Award: New London-Spicer High School

Southern and Metro

1st Place: Sleepy Eye
2nd Place: Westbrook-Walnut Grove
3rd Place: Minnetonka
Water Stewardship Award: New Prague

Northeast

1st Place: Northern Lights Community School
2nd Place: Carlton
3rd Place: Wrenshall

Congratulations to all the teams involved in the various competitions this year as each teams' dedication, innovation, and passion was evident throughout every project they completed.

Winter Workshop Highlights

Over 200 students and coaches attended the 15 customized Winter Workshops YES! offered this year. Here are some highlights:

Water is Life: This workshop allowed students to connect with experts and gain information on water quality and aquatic invasive species.
Go Native to Improve Water Quality: Rain gardens, water quality, climate change and what we can do to improve our water were all topics of discussion at this workshop.

Duluth Energy: Students gained insight into how energy is being used and generated in one of Minnesota's most populated cities.

From Pond to Prairie: An exploration of how water and land is impacted by human activity and how students can help mitigate negative impacts was the focus of this workshop.

YES! Alumni Spotlight: Brooke Tschida

Brooke was involved in the YES! program for 5 years while in 8th-12th grade at Royalton. Throughout the years she participated in YES!, Brooke worked on a variety of projects including constructing and racing an electric car and solar-powered boat, constructing a solar-powered trailer, creating an outdoor classroom, and planting projects.

Brooke is thankful for her participation in YES! and states, "YES! helped me gain insight on local and global problems and helped me become more aware of what I could do to help."

She is thankful for her YES! coach, Marty Bratsch, for his role in her YES! career and notes, "Our YES! team brought together the school, teachers, and community, giving us a connection that not many other communities can say they have."

Read more about what Brooke had to say about her experience with YES!

Welcome Taylor!

We are excited to announce that Taylor Templer has accepted the position as West Central Coordinator! Taylor had been acting as interim West Central Coordinator while Ali (Dahmes) Lien was on maternity leave. In addition, we want to thank Ali for the great work she accomplished with YES! over the past 2 years.

Did You Know...

YES! Program Director Shelli-Kae Foster co-presented with Rivers Edge Academy and Edison High School for the session "Getting to Green in MN" at the 9th Annual National Green Schools conference on April 8th. The session portrayed 3 replicable programs to engage students and staff with hands-on place-based sustainability models. Click here for highlights.

In This Issue

State Award

Regional Awards

Winter Workshops

Alumni Spotlight

Welcome Taylor

Did You Know...

Quick Links

Youth Eco Solutions

Current Teams

News

Events

Contact Us

Follow Us!

YES! empowers youth to partner with their community to create economic and environmental vitality through hands-on learning and team-based projects.

YES! provides a unique opportunity for students to learn by engaging directly in community efforts that lead to dramatic demonstrations of renewable energy technology and conservation practices and exposes them to how science is applied in real life.

YES! Program Partners

Major Program Funders

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