Unatego Takes Top Prize in ‘Student Voices’ Contest

By BILL BELLEN
ONEONTA

Monday, November 24 marked the culmination of the fourth annual “Student Voices, Student Choices” presentation competition.

This event, organized by the Community Foundation of Otsego County, serves as an opportunity for students from across the county to engage in philanthropic projects in their respective communities.

The event took place in Hartwick College’s Slade Theater, where six teams of students from private and public schools gave 10-minute presentations on their projects and efforts to aid their communities.

Beginning in 2022, this competition was open to all interested schools, though in a more simplistic fashion.

“In the first year…they were asked to come up with a local issue, team up with a nonprofit, and make a presentation, and everyone would get funded at different levels,” explained CFOC Executive Director Jeff Katz.

“The second year, we started doing a September orientation at Hartwick College to prepare the schools a bit better on how to present, how to research, and the professor at Hartwick at the time posed a completely different objective. He said to the students, ‘Find the local need and come up with an idea and a project to address it.’ That was a game changer,” Katz said.

Participating students have developed projects to address food insecurity, hygienic necessities, health issues, and more. Katz noted how these are key foundational pillars of CFOC’s goal of building a stronger community, complimenting and praising the work of student groups past and present.

The CFOC reaches out in February to participant schools to provide them information on the intent, goals and guidelines of the upcoming event, Katz said. Teams are put together shortly before the mid-September orientation, to which representatives from all schools are invited, regardless of their participatory status. CFOC representatives visit participating schools following the orientation until November to receive and deliver feedback and guide participants.

Hartwick College has been involved with the “Student Voices” competition since 2023, with the Hartwick Institute of Public Service being partnered with the CFOC for the past two years. The orientation at Hartwick sees each school’s team paired with a currently enrolled Hartwick student to support the groups’ processes and help develop their proposals.

“This gathering is truly one of the highlights of my year,” wrote HIPS Co-Director Professor Zach McKenney. “It showcases the creativity, passion and vision of the young people in our community…The students do an amazing job articulating their hopes, confronting challenges and offering bold ideas for the future. Their voices matter deeply, and their choices help shape the direction of our region.”

Cherry Valley-Springfield, Edmeston, Milford, Morris and Unatego all sent delegates to this year’s event, as did the private Otsego Christian Academy. Presentation topics included literacy focus by Milford, pet vaccinations by CV-S, and the addressing of food pantry concerns by OCA. Each team presented over the course of the evening to a panel of judges, as well as a crowd of between 120-140 people. Though each project was awarded $2,500.00 from CFOC, four students from Unatego won the night for their presentation on raising mental health awareness in their community.

“The students first surveyed the community to find out what the concerns were and they found that 68 percent of those surveyed felt mental health was an overwhelming concern,” wrote Unatego Team Advisors Lexi McHenry and Kim Trask in a joint e-mail. “They then had to brainstorm what a project would look like addressing these concerns…The students then started researching what nonprofit to work with, and contacted NAMI of Delaware and Otsego Counties. Somewhere along the way, the students decided they wanted to create a movable space in our school, where students could gather together and create a sense of community and belonging.”

With Unatego carrying home this year’s trophy, CFOC officials are already looking ahead to the next chapter of the “Student Voices” competition.

“It’s always nice to make the first contact with the school advisors,” said Katz. “I love meeting the kids, particularly the school visits where we sit one-on-one with their team, and you really get to get a flavor of not just the team and what they’re doing, but of the school. I’d love to see more people come out. It’s such a fun night.”