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The SEL has renamed the Senior Scholarship to the Mildred Church Dandridge Memorial Scholarship.

This scholarship will be awarded each year to a senior who exemplifies the joy, spirit, empathy, positive outlook and selflessness that Mildred Dandridge did every day in her life and work. This scholarship will go toward furthering the recipient’s education at the college or university level. 

 

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In Memoriam: Mildred Church Dandridge

Mildred was fundamental to the forming of SEI and helped write one of the first SEI grants in 1999. She acted as SEI’s Education Program Director until 2007, working with countless schools and engaging youth in their communities. She worked diligently to build SEI programs, where she engaged elementary through high school students to be part of the climate solution. She taught high school students to assess small business energy use, developed a year-long suite of curriculum scaffolding climate instruction for 4th and 5th graders. She worked with countless districts to use their facilities as a teaching tool, helping reduce energy use in school through student and staff behavior change. Though she “retired” in 2007, she still remained a member of the SEI team and ran our Building Operators Certification Program and helped launch The SEL. Mildred wrote key curriculum for both SEI and The SEL and assisted in laying the foundation for key curriculum to receive University of California A-G approval for The SEL, as well as obtaining college credit for the courses. Throughout these contributions, Mildred sought ways to help train young people to take a clearly defined environmental leadership role in their communities.

In addition to all of her accomplishments at SEI and The SEL, Mildred was an integral part of her community. She volunteered her time to start Odyssey of the Mind at the Dixie School District in San Rafael, as well as the innovative GATE program that focused on creative math projects. She was the treasurer of the East Bay Peace Action Network and served on committees at the El Cerrito Library and El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee. Before she joined the SEI and The SEL team, she was the Director of Academic Advising and an adjunct faculty member at The Sage Colleges in Troy, New York. She helped to found The Sage Colleges Women’s Center, where she empowered young women to have the confidence to take on anything they wanted in their lives and careers – to be feminists. Mildred believed by developing an environmental leadership role, young people have the potential to change the way they think about themselves and the environment. It was all of these accomplishments and more that lead to Mildred being honored with the Purpose Prize Fellowship in 2007 and becoming a multiyear awardee of the YWCA Woman of the Year Award.

As instrumental as Mildred was in establishing SEI and The SEL, it is her heart of gold and vibrant smile that we will miss the most. Mildred put her voice and action behind her values and gave 200% to these organizations. Many of us at The SEL have worked alongside Mildred for years and miss her immensely.