Campus Connection

UWL faculty member earns award for his exceptional contributions to the city

Jacob Sciammas is the kind of guy you want to live next door. The UWL faculty member and alumnus has played a major role La Crosse neighborhood revitalization projects and has spurred inter-city collaborations that have resulted in a healthier, happier place to live. He gets paid in smiles. “I’m a well-paid volunteer,” he jokes. But Sciammas, ’12, a lecturer in Recreation Management and Therapeutic Recreation, hasn’t gone unnoticed. He earned the mayor’s Sara Sullivan Award for 2016, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments and exceptional contributions made by a City of La Crosse resident. The award is named after Sullivan, a former city council member and UWL faculty emeritus who was dedicated to La Crosse neighborhood revitalization. This is the first year the award has been given to someone other than Sullivan. La Crosse Neighborhood Association Leaders presented the award to Sciammas at the 2016 La Crosse Mayor's Neighborhood Conference, April 9, 2016. Sciammas takes pride in building multi-neighborhood partnerships in La Crosse — with a particular passion for neighborhoods around UWL. He is co-chair of Grandview, Emerson Neighborhood Association, a non-profit group dedicated to neighborhood preservation and improvement in the neighborhood that abuts UWL’s campus. He is also co-founder and president of the newly formed La Crosse Neighborhoods Inc., a non-profit that supports neighborhood associations around La Crosse by working together on structural and financial challenges they face. “When I began the neighborhoods weren’t talking much to each other and each of us were often reinventing the wheel,” says Sciammas. “There were also areas that had no neighborhoods or were struggling to keep an association going. By the simple advent of a monthly meeting, which we call the ‘All Neighborhood Leaders Meeting,” we now share best practices, steal each other’s forms and templates, and collaborate on issues that affect us all.” Sciammas is always working alongside leaders from other neighborhood associations to help them form new plans and accomplish goals, says Vickie Unferth, chair of the Washburn Neighborhood Association who helped select this year’s winner. He has a gift for inspiring people to take action, she says. “Jacob will come up with an idea or someone else will, and he doesn’t just talk about it. He says ‘let’s get going on it,’” says Unferth. “So many things he gets involved in — they actually happen.” For example, he started the first community food forest meetings, which resulted in a community food garden being planted at the YMCA La Crosse this spring to provide healthy food and education to the community. He also regularly reaches out to communicate and collaborate with UWL students and administration as items come up that involve the surrounding neighborhood such as parking, student rental conditions, stadium impacts, roadway improvements and more. “Students and parents of students, as well as faculty and staff are much more likely to choose a university based on the quality of life than ever before,” says Sciammas. “So, in my opinion, one of the lowest hanging fruits for UWL is to improve the neighborhoods and community immediately surrounding campus.” He’s worked on a number of community initiatives including saving Memorial Pool; EcoPark to Myrick Park center transition; Coulee Connections roadway study; Hixon Forest trail access; streetscaping improvements; neighborhood capital improvement projects, plans and surveys; community events and coalitions; and much more. Sciammas does all of this in addition to his full-time teaching gig. Why? Sciammas’ says his goal was to get civically involved when he moved to La Crosse with his wife about five years ago from Seattle. He attended a neighborhood association meeting in fall 2013 to get to know his neighbors. By the second meeting, he was elected co-chair of Grandview, Emerson Neighborhood Association (GENA). Since he became a leader, GENA’s active membership email list has climbed from 75 to 255 people. Sciammas says La Crosse residents deserve to realize livable neighborhoods and gathering spaces for diverse people sooner rather than later. He believes that happens by moving out of traditional neighborhood silos and building networks across the community.   - Jacob Sciammas, ’12, earned a master of education - professional development degree from UWL.