State Farm® Youth Advisory Board announces new Associate Board Members
Bloomington, Illinois, June 18, 2008 -- The State Farm Youth Advisory Board welcomes 17 new youth leaders as board members.
As a leadership board, they oversee $5 million each year in grants awarded to youth-led service-learning projects. In 2007, the board awarded grants to address disaster preparedness, driver safety, financial education and access to higher education/closing the achievement gap.
The new members range in age from 17 to 20 and were selected from more than 250 national applications. Through a virtual environment, they commit about 15 hours a month to the board and convene four times throughout the next year. These new members will serve along with the existing members.
New board members will receive a $3,000 scholarship for their first year and may serve a second term and receive an additional $5,000 scholarship. Board members use the scholarships for post-secondary education at a four-year, two-year, or vocational training program.
"We value this opportunity to engage youth as strategic leaders partnering with State Farm to help improve their education and their communities. As we work together to build strong, safe, well-educated communities, their leadership is critical to our nations' success." said Kathy Payne, Senior Director – Public Affairs at State Farm.
Board members were chosen to represent each of the 12 U.S. State Farm zones, the Canadian zone and representatives from national service-learning partnerships. The new board members:
Board Member |
Location |
Kristen Hood |
Gibson City, Illinois |
| Arielle Dixon | Oakland, California |
| Jane Wu | Calgary, Alberta Canada |
| Paul Baumgardner | Louisburg, Kansas |
| Avantika Handa | Miami, Florida |
| Eraj Din | Algonquin, Illinois |
| Alyssa Bisanz | Mesa, Arizona |
| Erin Muckey | Corsica, South Dakota |
| Cynthia Villamizer | Murfreesboro, Tennessee |
| Franklin McLaurin, Jr. | Garner, North Carolina |
| Christina Johnson | Bronx, New York |
| Brandon Ibarra | Blackfoot, Idaho |
| Ryan Sprinkle | Fayette, Alabama |
| Greg Weatherford II | Little Elm, Texas |
| Tara Suri | Scarsdale, New York |
| Siddharth Damania | Maple Grove, Minnesota |
| Sunia Arlf | Strongsville, Ohio |
For more information about the State Farm Youth Advisory Board visit www.statefarmyab.com.
For questions or more information, contact Dawn Fones, Public Affairs, at (309) 766-2259.
About State Farm
State Farm® insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the U.S., is the leading insurer of watercraft and is also a leading insurer in Canada. State Farm's 17,000 agents and 67,000 employees serve over 77 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and more than 1.9 million bank accounts. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 32 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com® or in Canada statefarm.ca®.
About Service-learning
Service-learning is a teaching method which supplements classroom studies with hands-on projects that address pressing community issues and problems. To learn more about service-learning visit www.nylc.org, www.ysa.org, and www.service-learningpartnership.org.