Secondary Education

 Michigan Educators Membership Program

The Michigan Educators Membership Program (MEMP) is a pilot program created by Optimist International-Michigan District, to help educators challenge their students to excel in some of the world’s most prestigious, youth development competitions and programs.

Optimist International is one of the world’s oldest youth civic service organizations which completes tens of thousands of activities annually that impact more than 2.5 million youth.  Our worldwide volunteer organization is made up of more than 2,500 local Clubs whose Members work each day to make the future brighter by bringing out the best in children, in their communities, and in themselves including:

• Optimist International World Oratorical Championship where thousands of youth delivering inspiring speeches compete for a Michigan District scholarship award of $2,500 with the District winner advancing to the Regional Competition with the winner receiving a $5,000 scholarship and the eight Regional Winners advancing to the World Oratorical where the winner receives a $15,000 scholarship.  Past participants have included well known individuals and leaders such as Michael J. Fox, Julia Roberts and President Barack Obama!
• Optimist International Essay Contest where the District Winner receives a $2,500 Scholarship. Neil Patrick Harris is a past entrant who won the contest.
• Junior Optimist International is its own service learning organization with 15,000 youth members with clubs throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Africa and beyond.
• Optimist Junior Golf is one of the largest and well-renowned junior golf tournaments in the world. Progressive qualifiers lead to the Optimist International Junior Golf Championships where more than 600 golfers from around the world participate each year.
• Youth Appreciations recognize youth for a variety of reasons, including their achievements at school, dedication to community service, improvement in their grades and doing their best in sports or the arts. This activity allows Optimists to build the self-esteem of the youth in their community and show them that their efforts and hard work really do make a difference.
• Internet Safety programs are based on statistics showing that 99% of all teens have access to the internet and 94% of students admitted to being cyber bullied and did not tell an adult. The importance of protecting the children in your community is a major undertaking and Optimists Clubs can play a vital role.
• Tri-Star Sports provide an optional activity Clubs can sponsor that focuses on three skills competitions in each of the following sports: basketball, baseball, soccer, football, inline hockey or ice hockey.

The MEMP is essentially a Michigan District On-Line Optimist Club that includes educators from public and private sectors including home teaching. The goal is to eventually give all educators in Michigan the tools to help their students excel. Michigan District Optimist believe all students, in all schools should have an opportunity to participate in Optimist programs, even if there is not an existing Optimist Club in the community to sponsor the activities.

In celebration of the upcoming 100^th anniversary, Optimist are committed to reaching 100,000 new students through educators  – and you are invited to be one of them.

If you are interested in accepting our invitation and giving your District, your school, your classroom, your student(s) and yourself a chance at the good life of being an Optimists, then please click the following link and join the MEMP https://mieducatorsmp.portalbuzz.com/

 

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