Community Service Award Finalist: Mia Gordon
By: Dave Woodman, KARK 4 CSA Producer
Updated: February 24, 2012
Mia Gordon of Greenbrier juggles her schedule at the Faulkner County Juvenile Court
Building with class and work schedules.
"She is a full-time graduate student and works ...she does all this, so we're just blown away with what she's doing," says Fay Shepherd, a volunteer coordinator.
"Mia volunteers in a number of ways with our court, but she not only does the things that we already have in place, she comes up with ideas.
Ideas such as a book club and after-school tutoring for youths in the juvenile court system.
"I asked around different people and we just started to build the program
the tutoring program was a big one for me because i think that education is a huge, has such a huge impact on future goals and future achievement," Mia Gordon added.
Tutoring...mentoring...coping skills... steps toward rebuilding the lives of kids with major challenges... Kids like Ashleigh Hendrix, a runaway and drug addict at 13.
"I was tired of running and I was tired of being sick all the time. I decided to make things right, so when they put me in drug court I gave it everything I had.
"These kids are coming to us with problems. And we've been lucky enough in working with Judge Rhonda Wood to be more proactive instead of reactive in working our cases here.
"And I wish I could just hire her and offer her, you know, she needs to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. But she's committed to getting her PhD and then she'll go on and do
such brilliant things."
Mia has also developed and taught a domestic violence course and an ACT prep course, and is the youngest member of the Conway Morning Rotary Club.
"I love it and it's such a cool program because you get to meet so many different people and it's like a family."
