February 5, 2009

Almaden Country School wins Samsung education award

Almaden Country School was one of 30 first-prize winning schools from across the country to win Samsung’s prestigious Hope for Education Award, receiving more than $60,000 in technology, software, cash grants and educational television programming packages from Samsung, Microsoft Corporation and DIRECTV Inc.

Almaden Country School parent Phil Remaker wrote an essay won a contest from Samsung’s Hope for Education. Receiving the larger than life check are, from the left, Karen Mahoney, elementary science teacher; Remaker, author of the winning essay and ACS parent; Dr. Ole Jorgenson, head of school and kneeling in front are Matthew Remaker, an ACS sixth grader and his sister Valerie, a fourth grader at the school.

It was the only school in California to win and was selected from a pool of nearly 8,000 entries.

“The Hope for Education Award is a wonderful honor for our school, and I credit our robotics coordinator, Karen Mahoney and her coaches, for the thousands of hours they give to the children in the program. Robotics is an extension of our educational philosophy at Almaden Country School — we believe that every child has gifts as a learner, and our task is to help children discover their talents and passions,” said Ole Jorgenson, Almaden Country School Head of School. “Our robotics teams embody our commitment to make learning fun, and by recognizing our success, the selection committee affirms our philosophy. We are thrilled to be selected for such a prestigious award.”

Thousands of essays were submitted through students, parents, teachers and principals looking for their community schools to benefit from this unique program. This year’s essay question addressed the environment, asking entrants, “How has technology educated you on helping the environment and how or why has it changed your behavior to be more environmentally friendly?”

Almaden Country School parent Phillip Remaker submitted an award-winning entry about teaching students how the energy they use every day affects the environment. The essay concluded with, “The eye-opening, concrete and vivid results that they produced through technology now help them to make more environmentally sensitive choices in their lives.”

Remaker, who has a daughter in fourth grade and a son in sixth grade, has done volunteer IT work at Almaden Country School for the past eight years and coached one of the school’s FIRST LEGO League Robotics teams for three years.

“The LEGO Robotics competition usually has a research component, and I enjoyed getting the kids excited about the topics that we had to research,” said Remaker. “When I saw the Samsung contest, I recognized the link between using technology and helping the environment that came from the LEGO competitions, and the essay nearly wrote itself from that experience.”

Almaden Country School will receive technology from Samsung including its award-winning and energy efficient LCD high definition televisions, laptops, multi-function products, smart phones, digital camcorders and cameras, blu-ray players, LCD computer monitors and color printers, as well as Microsoft’s latest, award-winning software. The program’s newest partner, DIRECTV, will provide cash grants and the SCHOOL CHOICE® educational television programming package.

“The students and teachers can’t wait to get this technology in their hands,” said Gary DeMoss, director of Technology for Almaden Country School “Whether it is investigating a question on the Internet, discovering a new part of the world through video, presenting knowledge with a multimedia project or making a connection far beyond the classroom walls, our students will be making use of these products and learning how technology can be a positive tool in our world.”

Samsung’s Hope for Education contest was first announced in 2004 at the opening of the Samsung Experience, a creative technology emporium in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Since the original launch, more than 280 U.S. schools in 43 states have benefited from more than $9 million in technology, software, cash grants and educational television programming package.

For a complete list of winners, visit www.hopeforeducation.com.

“With programs like Hope for Education, we have the opportunity to help bridge the technology gap that many of our schools face,” said D.J. Oh, president and CEO, Samsung Electronics America.

“Microsoft is proud to be part of Samsung’s Hope for Education program – recognizing deserving schools that are exploring how technology can make real, impactful environmental contributions to our world,” said Anthony Salcito, general manager of U.S. Education at Microsoft. “The tools we are providing these winning schools will facilitate students’ learning and discovery in new ways.”

“DIRECTV is proud to support this educational initiative,” said Caroline Leach, vice president of Communications for DIRECTV. “Television does not exist in a vacuum, so to us, being a good corporate citizen stretches beyond the living room and into the classroom. We hope this year’s winning schools can benefit from our cash grants and SCHOOL CHOICE® educational television programming package.”