Foundation honors 250 students for making good grades

Friday, Aug. 1, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Deidre Miller, founder of the Strong, Intelligent, Beautiful and Independent Foundation, stands with motivational speaker Jeff Yalden. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Deidre founded the Strong, Intelligent, Beautiful and Independent Foundation, which helps to encourage students in first through 12th grade to stay focused and remain on the honor roll.

According to a press release, she believes the foundation should recognize students who are capable of being an honor roll student, others who feel ashamed of being on the honor roll for fear of peer pressure of being called ‘‘geeky” and others who are excelling in their studies but are not receiving the recognition they deserve.

SIBI Foundation offers monetary awards to students who are on the A or B honor roll each semester and quarterly.

On June 14, the foundation’s first monetary award ceremony for students was held at Middleton Hall in Waldorf.

During the ceremony, more than 250 students of the 300 students enrolled in the program were recognized for their academic achievements and received more than $11,700 in the form of checks and college funding accounts.

The young founder, nervously standing in front of her peers told the students, ‘‘Congratulations and keep up the good work,” according to the release. She also expressed gratitude to the parents and thanked them for their support in helping to keep the students focused.

The mistress of ceremonies, Sharon Lewis of Metropolitan Bride LLC, applauded the young founder for her hard work and generous heart in creating the foundation and praised the award recipients.

‘‘When I was 9 years old, my mind was far from thinking about a foundation,” Lewis said. ‘‘At that age, I was more focused on playing with an Easy-Bake Oven.”

To keep the young audience entertained, SIBI invited Jeff Yalden, a youth motivational speaker, to talk to the students about the importance of being responsible and taking time to think. Yalden shared stories from his life, including what it is like to be a father of two teenage girls and his personal challenges, such as learning strength from his wife who survived thyroid cancer.

He also urged students to be responsible for the way they represent themselves.

For more information or to donate, go towww.sibifoundation.org.