2023 -- H 6497

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2023

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

RECOGNIZING AND HONORING MARGARET BRENNAN AND GWYNNE MILLAR ON

RECEIVING THE PRESIDENTIAL INNOVATION AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENTAL

EDUCATORS (PIAEE)

     Introduced By: Representatives McGaw, Cotter, Shekarchi, Blazejewski, Chippendale,
Cortvriend, McNamara, Donovan, DeSimone, and Ajello

     Date Introduced: June 07, 2023

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, The Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators recognizes

outstanding teachers “who employ innovative approaches to environmental education and use the

environment as a context for learning for their students”; and

     WHEREAS, Learning is a process of discovering just who and what we are, and it is

often a teacher who puts before us the promise of who and what we may become. Both Margaret

Brennan and Gwynne Millar have inspired their students to envision the possibilities, to have

confidence in themselves and their abilities, and to believe in a future full of promise, and for

their dedication and excellence in teaching, they have earned this year’s Presidential Innovation

Award for Environmental Educators; and

     WHEREAS, Ms. Brennan and Ms. Millar will receive a Presidential award plaque, an

award of up to $2,500 to be used to further their professional development in environmental

education, and a congratulatory letter. Their respective school systems also receive an award of

up to $2,500 to fund environmental educational activities and programs; and

     WHEREAS, Margaret Brennan earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the

University of Rhode Island, and after teaching in Tiverton and at the Thompson Middle School,

became a Science Coach at Portsmouth Middle School in August of 2019; and

     WHEREAS, Ms. Brennan is a strong proponent of outdoor learning as the best way to

engage students. Putting this philosophy into practice, she and her class created a student-led

farm called Portsmouth AgInnovation. The project included writing multiple grants, engaging her

student’s imaginations to brainstorm, research, and created a vision for the project, and seeing it

through the final execution of being built and completed; and

     WHEREAS, Gwynne Millar is a mom, wife, Zumba Fitness Instructor, and a biology and

environmental sustainability teacher at Exeter-West Greenwich High School; and

     WHEREAS, Ms. Millar envisions true learning as more than just memorization, so to put

her beliefs into action, she encourages her student to choose the problems they hope to solve

through experimentation and choice boards. Their decision was to investigate matter cycling, and

in particular, by investigating the problem of excessive food waste accumulating in the state’s

only landfill and testing different composting methods in order to develop an effective program

for their school; and

     WHEREAS, Every successful person in the Ocean State owes a great measure of their

achievement to the dedication and hard work of the teachers who inspired them to find the very

best in themselves and to make the most of that discovery. Margaret Brennan and Gwynne Millar

have certainly qualified as being the “best of the best” and have wholly distinguished themselves

as worthy of our praise and admiration; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

congratulates and honors Margaret Brennan and Gwynne Millar on receiving the Presidential

Innovation Award for Environmental Educators, and wishes them the very best of health,

happiness, and success in all their future endeavors; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to Margaret Brennan and Gwynne Millar.

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