Amid cuts, Simon Youth Academy students put on fundraiser

Beth Brunton, a coordinator and educator at the Simon Youth Academy at Northgate Mall in Seattle, Wash., is like a lot of nationwide teachers, facing reduced budgets and program cuts.

What’s different is that Brunton and her students are taking action to offset the cuts.

“Our students took all the initiative and came up with the idea for what turned out to be a delightful event that raised funds and the profile of our school,” Brunton says.

The event, hosted in March at Northgate Mall, a Simon Property Group development, was dubbed the Spring Fling Silent Auction. Brunton says mall vendors and other supporters donated dozens of desirable items, ranging from a gold-and-diamond pendant valued at $400 to $50 gift cards to event tickets and group dinners.

Attendees also heard from the academy’s at-risk students, who are on their way to earning their high school diplomas thanks to the school’s unique and flexible learning environment. Academy tours also were part of the event.

Photos courtesy of Simon Youth Academy
at Northgate Mall

“Our auction items raised $2,000 and individuals in attendance and our event sponsors contributed another $8,000 to benefit our programs” Brunton says.

The money will pay for a life coach to come to the academy weekly to work with students on personal and professional development. It also will fill the gaps created by budget cuts to purchase supplies and meet other daily needs.

Brunton says there is a long list of supporters deserving of recognition for the auction’s success, including the Northgate Mall management team. In an article reported by the local blog site Maple Leaf Life in the days before the auction, mall manager Matt Bourassa explained his support, saying that the mall, as a cornerstone of the community, was the best place to host an event supporting local school programs.

In addition to fundraising support, Northgate Mall, in partnership with Simon Youth Foundation, provides the academy’s classroom space in the mall at no cost.

“We deeply value our partnerships with Simon Youth Foundation and Northgate Mall,” Brunton says. “While our Seattle School District and other districts nationwide are facing difficult budget choices, education partners like SYF and Northgate Mall help keep costs down and alternative schools open.”

SYF students go for win at international DECA contest

Senior high school student Amanda Miller spent much of the current academic year refining a proposal for the business she wants to start, a nonprofit that would use community donations to purchase bundles of blankets, coats and Bibles and distribute them to the needy.

Now the business she thought up to help others may actually help Miller advance her young business career with a win at a major competition.

Miller and three other students from an alternative learning academy in Missouri that is supported by Simon Youth Foundation will compete with as many as 14,000 other worldwide students in a business entrepreneur contest at the DECA International Career Development Conference, April 30-May 3, 2011, in Orlando, FL.

“You want to always do your best, but I did not expect to even be named a finalist of the district competition,” Miller says. “I ended up winning the DECA district competition, finished third at the Missouri statewide competition and earned my place in the international conference.”

Amanda Miller, third from left. Janessa Mitchell, fourth from left.
Blake Bolin and Caleb Carlisle, sixth and seventh from left.

Miller and fellow seniors Blake Bolin, Caleb Carlisle and Janessa Mitchell will represent the Simon Youth Academy at Independence Center located in Independence, MO, at the DECA international competition. The school, which operates inside the Independence Center mall that is owned and managed by the Simon Property Group, offers its students an alternative, business-focused curriculum.



Bolin and Carlisle, working as a team, and Mitchell and Miller, working independently, have spent their senior year at the academy developing their three business projects. Bolin and Carlisle went on to win the statewide DECA contest in their respective category, and Mitchell and Miller both placed in the top four of their judged events to move on to the international competition.

“Our Simon Youth Academies exist to bring hope to students that their academic and professional dreams can be realized,” says J. Michael Durnil, Ph.D., president and CEO of Simon Youth Foundation. “We are so proud of the students from the academy at Independence Center who have chased their dreams and caught them by earning a spot in the international DECA competition.”

Carol Bolin, the academy’s administrator and its single teacher, says that in addition to their DECA business proposals, the students in her program complete eight-week internships and are responsible for managing the Independence Center’s gift wrap service.

“Simon Youth Foundation’s support of our academy has given these students opportunities that most kids their age do not have access to, and they will prove very successful in their future endeavors because of their experiences,” Bolin says.

“I did not know what Simon Youth Foundation was until I began studying at the academy this last year, but I now appreciate every little thing I’ve been able to do with its support,” Miller says.

The students behind the business presentations selected as the best at DECA’s international conference could receive scholarships and trophies or ribbons of recognition.