Agard receives

Kathy Agard, executive director of Grand Valley’s Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, has been honored by The League, a national youth-service organization. The League launched nationally in November with the purpose of empowering students to serve their communities by providing resources for teachers.

Agard was named Most Valuable Player during an awards ceremony June 11 in New York City. The luncheon was hosted by actress and singer Queen Latifah.

“The celebration for the first year of The League was a joyful event, recognizing the students and their teachers who are making a difference in communities,” said Agard. “The students are also learning about the history, economics, geography, and relationship to government of philanthropy. I was thrilled to be recognized for playing a part in creating this new movement to teach philanthropy in the K-12 schools.”

Agard was honored for her service at the Johnson Center and for her past service as director of Learning to Give, where she led a team of educators in the development of more than 1,200 lesson plans on giving, service and civic engagement for use in K-12 classrooms nationwide. Learning to Give merged with The League to move the teaching resources created by Learning To Give to a national scale.