Jean Schiro-Zavela - Serve Virginia

Jean Schiro-Zavela

RICKETTSFRAN10131--C-CAP Director Fran Ricketts 10/24/2013 MATT ARMSTRONG PHOTO

Jean Schiro-Zavela

May 3, 2023

Congratulations to Jean Schiro-Zavela – winner of the 2020 Governor’s Volunteerism and Community Service Award for Outstanding Adult Volunteer! Since 2011, Jean has dedicated 1,700 hours of volunteer time to Britepaths, a financial literacy program in Northern Virginia. Jean volunteers providing administrative support to the organization and is responsible for entering all of the data needed to implement, assess, and report on the program. In the first 11 months of 2019, Jean was instrumental in documenting and tracking the 900 individuals who attended free financial literacy education classes or who met with a financial planner. Additionally, she entered data for and tracked another 663 individuals who attended one-on-one sessions with a financial literacy mentor. Her competence, commitment, and passion has helped hundreds of Virginia families become financially self-sufficient. Read more Volunteer Stories! Submit a Story!

SecureTech360

Story of Service: SecureTech360

Congratulations to the SecureTech360 - winner of the 2020 Governor's Volunteerism and Community Service Award for Outstanding Small Business! SecureTech360, a cybersecurity and IT consulting firm located in Springfield, has a small staff of less than 20 employees making a huge impact. Employees have committed to serving more than 300 hours mentoring students and participating in several walks to raise funds for a variety of causes. SecureTech360 has also donated more than $30,000 to several different local charities and provided more than $15,000 in scholarships monies to several nonprofit organizations dedicated to educating and serving underrepresented communities. SecureTech360 has made a...

Denise Carl

Story of Service: Denise Carl

Denise Carl, Richmond Area Healthy Futures Opioid Project AmeriCorps State Member of the Year (Robert E. Wone Award for Exemplary Service) - The Wone Award was established in memory of Robert E. Wone, who served on the Governor’s Advisory Board on Service and Volunteerism from 2002-2006 and dedicated his life to volunteering for charitable organizations and offering pro bono legal service. The award recognizes an exemplary AmeriCorps member who has exhibited the same dedication to community service and civic engagement as did Mr. Wone. Ms. Carl was practicing law when she changed the trajectory of her life and was inspired to...

Isabel Gross

Story of Service: Isabel Gross

Isabel Gross, an AmeriCorps member with the Aspire! Afterschool Learning - Learning Links program in Arlington, saw the spark of excitement recently working with a student on his science fair project. “(My student) Brian and I were . . . building different kinds of bridges and seeing how many books they would hold before breaking. We were trying to figure out why some bridges held more books than others, and Brian came up with a number of potential factors -- length, different binding materials like glue, tape, and twine -- but could not determine conclusively which one of these had...

C’erra Rhodes

Story of Service: C’erra Rhodes

C'erra Rhodes is a first-year Virginia Collage Advising Corps adviser at Madison County High School, having graduated from Radford University in 2023. She attended Charlottesville High School, where a VCAC college adviser supported her with her own college application process. “I was served by VCAC advisers throughout my junior and senior high school years," recalls C’erra. “I wanted to serve as a VCAC adviser because I remember the challenges I faced during the college application process as a first-generation student. Without the guidance of my VCAC adviser, I'm not sure if I would have navigated it successfully on my own.”...

Cathie Cummins

Story of Service: Cathie Cummins

Congratulations to Cathie Cummins of Union Hall - winner of the 2018 Governor's Volunteerism and Community Service Award for Outstanding Senior Volunteer!As a pediatric physical therapist for more than 30 years, Cathie Cummins has seen firsthand the needs that exist in the community for assistive equipment for children with disabilities. Recognizing that resources were limited and adaptive equipment was too expensive for many families, Cathie began adaptive equipment loan programs in both Northern and Southwest Virginia. After identifying a successful model and a statewide need, Cathy started Children’s Assistive Technology Service (CATS) which provides for the re-use of pediatric rehabilitation equipment...

Mary Hines

Story of Service: Mary Hines

Senior Corps Foster Grandparent of the Year Mary Hines, Peninsula Foster Grandparent Program, Hampton Since 2005, Mary Hines has traveled nearly an hour each day to make made it her mission to be a source of encouragement for children. She regularly shares a poem she wrote for the students which conveys that they too can transform into a butterfly from a cocoon. Ms. Hines has been instrumental to other Foster Grandparents and future volunteers by sharing her experiences. She has been recognized in the past with several awards for service, including the Presidential Award for Service. Ms. Hines is a wonderful...

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