The Outstanding Volunteer of the Year was established by the Committee of Community Activities (CCA) to recognize the immeasurable outreach efforts made by local section volunteers. Each local section has an opportunity to recognize one individual annually for demonstrating extraordinary outreach volunteer service within the section.
Since she was an undergraduate student, B.J. Yakes has been volunteering with ACS and local sections. With CSW, she enjoys participating in their outreach events including NCW demos, the USA Sci. and Eng. Expo activities, and career sessions. When teaching, she is “Dr. Why” that helps children learn the wonderful world of “Why?”. She endeavors to create hands-on experiments for students which match their core curricula. She especially enjoys engaging children that are typically under-represented in science as seen in her outreach to minority and lower-income area schools. Her goals are to make science accessible, approachable and fun for children
