The Community Coordinator’s Collaborative (C3) recently named the recipient of Maine’s first annual Excellence in Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) Programming Award during its end-of-year celebration.

The award was given to Sheree Inman, the Cooperative Work Coordinator at South Portland High School. Sheree was selected for her outstanding commitment to student-centered practices, her understanding the necessity of equitable and accessible options, and her ability to showcase the importance of relationship-driven partnerships and interactions in her work.

ELOs are hands-on, credit or credential bearing experiences outside of the traditional classroom with a community-based career exploration component. They frequently take the form of internships, work-based learning, or a series of job shadows connected to academic learning standards. These valuable learning opportunities are becoming available in more Maine schools each year, and C3 developed the award alongside these programs to highlight the quality work being done by those in the field.

The C3 group collectively includes staff from more than 50 educational institutions across the state and is responsible for spearheading the statewide Virtual Career Fair, a widely successful virtual option for students to explore careers when in-person options became unavailable to them.

The recent statewide virtual event is one of the key factors in Sheree’s nomination for the 2021-2022 Excellence in ELO Programming Award. The 2-day, virtual event included community support from more than 110 businesses offering career presentations, 2500 registrations and approximately 10,000 staff and students participating from more than 50 schools.

“Due to her ELO work, collaboration with MaineC3 and work with the virtual career fair, she has been a huge asset to not only her own district but many teachers, programs and students across the state,” said someone who nominated Sheree for the award.

Sheree Inman is the Cooperative Work Coordinator at South Portland High School. She has been in this role for 3 years and an educator for 21 years. Please join us in congratulating Sheree in this well-deserved award!