LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Melissa Tracy was nominated by an anonymous student.

"I highly recommend Melissa Tracy as a candidate for the LifeChanger of the Year Award," her nominator said. "I have had the honor to be Mrs. Tracy’s student for the past three years. She is a determined, organized teacher who is a dynamic force in her classroom. Throughout my past three years of high school, Mrs. Tracy has motivated me to join several clubs and apply for several leadership positions.

Odyssey Charter School is fairly small and still developing. Mrs. Tracy has been a major contributor to the campus. She has led many campaigns for a more "green campus." Mrs.Tracy started off with the plastic bag campaign. For this cause, her classes created posters that were put up around the school to spread awareness regarding plastic. This resulted in each student bringing in plastic bags. In February 2019 alone, Odyssey Charter School collected over 500 pounds, or 34,000 plastic bags.

Later, with all the knowledge and research that was collected by her AP Human Geography class, her students went to the Delaware Legislative Hall to talk to 14 senators and representatives to encourage a bill to ban plastic bags in Delaware. Not only was this a success, but Delaware will now have a ban on single-use plastic. Drawing things to close, every student from her AP Human Geography class personalized tote bags, delivered them, and read a book regarding the environment to 2nd graders. 

Another project Mrs. Tracy spearheaded was participating in the UNLESS Contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Zoo. Through this contest, her AP Human Geography researched an endangered species. One of their presentations was on the Rodrigues Fruit Bat, which was later presented to several 7th-grade classrooms at Odyssey to increase their knowledge of endangered species. Later, this resulted in a Zero Waste Fair hosted by her AP Human Geography class to educate the entire school regarding plastic, recycling, compost, and more.

Additionally, Mrs. Tracy developed a school garden with her environmental club. When the garden was first being built, it was as big as eight beds. Currently, it has 24 beds, with hopes to triple it’s size furthermore. By tripling the garden and planting a variety of vegetables, Odyssey Charter plans to donate to various food banks and shelters. To this day, 70%  of the garden's produce is donated to local food closets in the City of Wilmington, totaling 1,000 pounds of fresh vegetables to date. The garden initiatives would not be possible if Mrs. Tracy was not already a recipient of over $20,000 in grant funding to expand the indoor and outdoor gardening program.

Mrs. Tracy has also been able to start and teach a new Food Studies course that enhances the on-campus animal program. The school currently has chickens and classroom pets such as turtles, lizards, hedgehogs, and various fishes. Additionally, the campus has portable classroom supplies for outdoor classroom sessions and benches for study halls. All of these initiatives have been possible because of Mrs. Tracy. 

A final project of the 2018- 2019 school year was a Geo-Inquiry Project conducted by Mrs. Tracy's AP Human Geography class. In this project, students researched the city of Wilmington, DE and discovered how food deserts affect the city and its people. The interesting part about this project is that all groups had to make a video and share it as a spring harvest dinner organized by Mrs. Tracy. Building off of the spring harvest dinner, Odyssey Charter hosted its very first Fall Harvest Dinner, reuniting families and the Greek culture sponsored by the Odyssey Charter Gardening Program.  Additionally, as of this year, Mrs. Tracy has advised and mentored student leaders across the state of Delaware to organize a student-led Environmental summit. This Youth Environmental Summit is to empower, educate, inform, and activate students statewide regarding leadership in sustainability, and zero waste principles.

"This school year, Mrs. Tracy has implemented an indoor hydroponic program that has enabled students to donate 100% of the hydroponically grown produce. She gave me the opportunity to use this system as apart of my own Independent Agricultural Studies course, and she led and assisted me on the right path," said her nominator. "I underestimated the impact the hydroponics system could have."

This year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mrs. Tracy has worked with students to hydroponically grow leafy greens for people who are food insecure in Wilmington, Delaware. Approximately 1,000 pounds of produce that have been donated. In addition, Mrs. Tracy is managing a garden since the school closed in March, with 1,000+ pounds of fresh produce donated to small non-profits. During this holiday season, she worked with students to make tote bags for the homeless. 

Mrs. Tracy accomplishes all these tasks without hesitation and with a positive attitude. As the Delaware Charter School Teacher of the Year, she has led efforts to fundraise over $100,000 for Odyssey Charter and even earned the National Green Ribbon Award from the US Department of Education. As an energetic, entrepreneurial teacher, she always strives to make a change and to provide an excellent learning environment for all students.

"Mrs. Tracy’s care for others is evident in something as simple as caring for our class pet, Aries the lizard, with a motherly love. It's evident in something like helping me through my scholarship process for the University of Delaware as a freshman in high school," said the student. "Sometimes, you are blessed with so much, you do not know how to even say thanks. I have been blessed with a teacher who treats me like her own child."