The John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service Awarded to Nicholas Ascienzo
Nicholas Ascienzo with Red Hook community supporter Linda Greenblatt (L) and Nancy Keeney (R), president of the Red Hook Faculty Association, at the close of the 2020 Nourish Your Neighbor food drive.
Nick Ascienzo has dedicated his life to serving the Red Hook, New York, schools; the Hudson Valley; and people across the United States. He is the definitive example of community minded and engaged.
Ascienzo grew up in nearby Kingston and began teaching in the Red Hook Central School District after graduating from the State University of New York at Albany, where he majored in mathematics and was named a SUNY Albany Hall of Fame athlete in baseball. For the next forty-two years, he taught mathematics—seven years at the Linden Avenue Middle School, then more than three decades at Red Hook High School, where he ran the AP Calculus and IB Mathematics programs, and coached baseball and softball teams. He also worked at Dairy Queen, co-owning several franchises from 1979 to 2000.
At the high school, Ascienzo, or “Mr. A” as he is widely known to students, became one of the most admired members of the faculty, and also was a leader of the Red Hook Faculty Association.
Ascienzo further solidified his commitment to the community when he created the Ascienzo Family Foundation (AFF). Approaching retirement, he began pondering how to use the assets from his Dairy Queen franchises, and realized that his biggest assets were his students. He asked a handful of Red Hook High School students to help him create a foundation with a shared purpose and vision. These students became the AFF Board of Directors. The foundation was incorporated in 2015, the year before Ascienzo retired.
The Ascienzo Family Foundation focuses on poverty alleviation, educational opportunities for the underserved, and services for senior citizens. The programs it supports have ranged from the Red Hook Harvest Backpack Program, addressing food insecurity, to CultureConnect, providing after-school activities for English-language learners attending Red Hook schools. In response to COVID-19, the foundation played a central role in the development of Red Hook Responds, a community volunteer initiative that offers meals, assistance to senior citizens, and resources for local families during the pandemic.
The foundation has also supported programs in which Bard students are active, including MLK Day of Engagement activities and the annual Middle- and High School Debate Tournament at Bard. AFF was an early sponsor of Brothers at Bard, which runs a mentorship program for young men of color at Kingston High School, Ascienzo’s alma mater.
Ever the educator, Ascienzo has incorporated more than forty of his former high school students into the foundation as AFF Ambassadors, who play a central role in decision-making. “We learn as much from our students as they learn from us,” says Ascienzo. Through Ambassador Grants, AFF has expanded its reach, assisting such endeavors as the Sunflower Bakery in Maryland, which provides employment opportunities to adults with learning differences, and Crossroads Family Center, a homeless shelter in East Boston.
Teacher, coach, volunteer, and AFF founder, Ascienzo is a model for young people on how a committed citizen can make a difference. As one colleague stated, he “will go out of his way to see a need and fulfill it.”
The John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service was established in 1990 to recognize extraordinary contributions by Bard alumni/ae and others to the public sector or in the public interest. It continues Bard’s tradition of honoring public service embodied in the Episcopal Layman Award, which was given until 1983. The Dewey Award honors the eminent American philosopher and educator John Dewey, the father of progressive education and an outspoken advocate of a system of universal learning to support and advance this country’s democratic traditions.
Post Date: 08-22-2020