![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Roots-Academy-at-Oakland-Cemetery.png\")
Roots Academy at Oakland Cemetery (Courtesy HOF)<\/p>\nThe American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has selected Historic Oakland Foundation (HOF) as a recipient of the\u00a0History in Progress (HIP) Award and Award of Excellence\u00a0for the\u00a0Oakland Roots Academy.<\/p>\n
Formerly known as the Youth Hardscape & Landscape Team, the Roots Academy is an opportunity for students to learn and grow their employment skills alongside Oakland\u2019s award-winning horticulture and preservation professionals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith an increased emphasis on student leadership and civic engagement, we have seen the efficacy and impact of the program reach a wider audience of students throughout the application, interview, and summer experience,\u201d Ted Ward, HOF\u2019s Director of Education & Youth Programs, said in a press release.<\/p>\n
Roots Academy at Oakland Cemetery (Courtesy HOF)<\/p>\n
The\u00a0AASLH Leadership in History Awards\u00a0are the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history. <\/p>\n
The\u00a0HIP Award, given at the discretion of the AASLH Awards Committee, is an additional award for an Award of Excellence winner whose nomination is highly inspirational, exhibits exceptional scholarship, and\/or is exceedingly entrepreneurial in terms of funding, partnerships, collaborations, creative problem solving, unusual project design, or inclusiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cReceiving these awards is a testament to the way the Roots Academy program has grown over the past three years,\u201d HOF CEO & president Richard Harker said in the press release. \u201cAs the quantity and interest of the student participants expanded, we responded by extending the summer program to provide a year-round leadership development track for selected students completing the Roots Academy summer program.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Students attend monthly leadership seminars throughout the school year, while also diving deeper into Oakland\u2019s Horticulture and Preservation programs through leadership in annual volunteer days for each department.\u00a0 This leadership program culminates with students attending Park Pride\u2019s annual Parks & Greenspace Conference to connect with industry leaders and develop partnerships for their return to Oakland the following summer.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2026, we incorporated the\u00a0Green Skills Crew\u00a0(first-year cohort), which is mentored and led by the\u00a0Green Leaders Crew\u00a0(second-year cohort) students who completed the leadership development program.\u00a0 This structure has enabled Oakland to expand the philanthropic support for the program and grow the program to serve 30 students in the summer of 2026. Learn more about Oakland Roots Academy at\u00a0oaklandcemetery.com\/roots-academy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has selected Historic Oakland Foundation (HOF) as a recipient…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[17854,143,22443,145,144,148989],"class_list":["post-367369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-historic-oakland-foundation","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-cemetery","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-roots-academy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}