Professor Receives 2018 Rose Tree Media Optimist Club Award
(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA • February 21, 2018)—Madeline Somerville-Reeves, a professor and counselor at Delaware County Community College, received the 2018 Rose Tree Media Optimist Achievement in Education Teacher Award earlier this month.
Working directly with young people, optimists organize and conduct many types of events and programs for youth. The Rose Tree Media Optimist Club is part of Optimist International, a worldwide volunteer organization consisting of more than 2,500 local clubs. The Rose Tree Media Optimist Club also is a non-profit member of the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce. Being an Optimist Club member means being intentional about volunteering time and talents to help with projects in order to make a difference in the life of a child, whether it be attending meetings, or planning activities, such as fundraisers.
Somerville-Reeves is a leader in working with youth, both at Delaware County Community College and in the community. As a professor and counselor in Delaware County Community College’s Career and Counseling Center, she helps students successfully acclimate to the College offering services, such as student self-assessment, career exploration and educational goal setting. She also is a volunteer advisor for the College’s Black Student Union, as well as the coordinator for the College’s Black Student Retention, which works through mentoring and various programs and activities to help minority students enroll, matriculate and graduate from the College. Somerville-Reeves also is president of the College’s faculty union.
In addition, she is the eastern region director of the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education, Inc., which works to afford Pennsylvania students of color educational opportunities. She also is board vice president of the non-profit Children Empowered by Love, Inc., which seeks to uplift the self-esteem of at-risk, young children in foster care settings, orphanages and in homeless shelters, both domestically and abroad. Somerville-Reeves also is a team leader in the greeters ministry at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Aston.
Photo Caption
Madeline Somerville-Reeves, a professor and counselor at Delaware County Community College, is the recipient of the 2018 Rose Tree Media Optimist Achievement in Education Teacher Award. Shown in the photo are from left: Optimist Club Member Dr. Joseph Haviland, Associate Professor of Teaching/Instructional at Temple University; Delaware County Community College’s Acting Provost Mary Jo Boyer; Somerville-Reeves; and Mitchell Murtha, dean of Counseling and Completion Services at Delaware County Community College.
