Our Educator of the Year
Educator of the Year Jennifer Kraft (left) with her son, Aeshwynn Kraft-Sharma, and Friends' Executive Director Margaret Frisbie.
On Saturday, February 22, Friends of the Chicago River presented the 2024 Educator of the Year award to chemistry teacher Jennifer Kraft of Garcia High School located in the Archer Heights neighborhood on Chicago’s Southwest Side. The prestigious award recognizes outstanding participation in the Chicago River Schools Network (CRSN), Friends’ flagship education program. The award was presented at the 28th annual Chicago River Student Congress held on the campus of Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU).
In addition to her exemplary teaching, Kraft is also the founder of Project Awaken whose mission is to empower and motivate people with spinal cord injury and other disabilities to partner with the disabled community to share their triumphs over life situations.
An 11-year teaching veteran, Kraft teaches environmental science where she incorporates river curricula developed by the CRSN. She also leads field trips with the CRSN to the river where students conduct water quality tests and remove litter from the downtown Riverwalk as well as learn about the persistent harmful effects of litter on the environment. In the classroom, Kraft created lab stations for the students to test drinking water, pond water, and turtle water so that they could later compare tests against the results from the Chicago River. Kraft also appreciates how the CRSN helps the students act locally by testing the water and cleaning up litter while understanding the importance of environmental stewardship both locally and globally.
“Working with the Chicago River Schools Network provides hands-on resources that broaden my ability to teach the impact of water quality on aquatic creatures and for students to get practice being environmental scientists both in the classroom and in the field which stimulates their curiosity and deepens their learning,” said Kraft. "My students may not have access to these resource without the CRSN but are part of the next generation of community leaders, teachers, and environmental professionals, and these learning experiences help to inspire them to care for our region’s natural assets, our river, and its wildlife.”
More than 260 students from nearly 40 schools across the watershed participated in the Student Congress this year. The Student Congress is a distinct forum for students to interact in a professional conference-like setting, where they teach each other about science, nature, and climate resiliency using data from their studies of the Chicago-Calumet River system. The Student Congress offers unprecedented access to environmental professionals, which includes NEIU professors as well as students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences who share their college experiences and river-related course work with participants. The students also learn from and connect with dozens of organizations and government agencies including the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Forest Preserves of Cook County, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
Since its founding in 1996, the CRSN has engaged more than 500,000 students and teachers in science, language, and history activities at river locations, north and south. During the past school year, the CRSN’s student impact was more than 25,000 including hands-on experimentation and research on field trips to the river with Friends’ staff and through the hundreds of teachers who have been trained to use our river curricula.
