Photo by David Loreto |
Usually, WKCD reporters write the stories on our website. But in Your Stories, we showcase the best examples our readers send in about how they created “powerful learning with public purpose.” Each story includes a first person interview with WKCD, links, examples of student work, and, often, supporting curricula and guidesheets. (If you have a story to tell, click here.)
Girls Helping Girls | Fremont, CA
[6.03.08]
At age 15, Sejal Hathi of Fremont, California founded an international nonprofit called Girls Helping Girls. Hathi, now 16 and finishing her junior in high school, just launched Sisters for Peace Network.
Turn Your World Around | Scarsdale, NY
[3.03.08]
Tara Suri founded H.O.P.E. (Helping Orphans Pursue Education), an organization dedicated to raising funds for orphanages in India and Sudan, when she was just 13. Now a junior, the 17 year-old has expanded her mission to include bringing laptops to children in the developing world.
Youth Photography in the Mathare Slum | Nairobi, Kenya
[1.30.08]
“Hometown History” | Skowhegan, ME
[11.27.07]
For ten years, a team of teachers at Skowhegan Middle School in Skowhegan, Maine has inspired their students to become local historians. Students have published in-depth research and historic photos, they have produced videos and essays, and they have created a website to display their huge body of work. They are now putting the finishing touches on a historic walking tour of Skowhegan…
“Pass It On” | New Haven, CT
[11.27.07]
For the past five years, students in the Four Corners course at Common Ground Charter High School have been mapping the histories of four diverse New Haven neighborhoods—neighborhoods the students live in and know well. The project allows them to take what they are experts in and link it to U.S. History content and writing skills. Now, the students are publishing their findings on a new website.
“No Sides to Walk On” | Brooklyn, NY
[11.27.07]
Artist Lisa Wilde has been teaching English at Brooklyn’s Wildcat Academy for ten years. Her students come with lives and dreams broken by poverty, foster care, disabilities, absent fathers. Every semester, she lures her students into a one-week poetry seminar. Over lunch and other cracks in the school day, Wilde draws or paints their portrait…
"Dear Mr. Douglas" | Yakima, WA
[11.27.07]
Though Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas died nearly 30 years ago, students at the high school he attended in Yakima Valley, Washington continue to write letters to and about him. At A. C. Davis High School, American literature students have used the life and work of Judge Douglas as a lens through which to study and discuss everything from The Scarlet Letter to the events of 9/11, by writing letters to scholars, lawyers, and even Douglas’ family.
“Stayin’ Alive” | Melbourne, FL
[11.27.07]
When Allyson Brown first learned about malaria as a high school junior, she was shocked to learn that the mosquito-borne disease is the number one threat to children in Africa. In the face of such a devastating—but entirely preventable—global killer Brown wondered, “What can one person do?”…
"Rocking Their World" | Minneapolis, MN
[10.03.07]
For five days this past summer Women in Music MInnesota ran the Girls Rock 'N' Roll Retreat (GRRR), a rock and roll camp for girls ages 10-17. In the camp, which was held in Golden Valley, Minnesota, the 35 participants honed their musical skills, formed all-girl bands, and participated in seminars on the music industry. Fourteen-year-old Lauren explains: "I came to camp with a passion for music – that’s all! I had no background in knowing how to play an instrument or read music. Within a week, all that changed, and by Friday afternoon I was in a band, on stage in front of a large crowd proudly displaying my talents!"...
"Get Outta My Face" | Bend, OR
[8.01.07]
Ten Oregon teens, tired of being the fattest and most unfit generation ever, have taken matters in their own hands and launched a nonprofit organization and website dedicated to combatting the fast food, big marketing, and conventional media that target youth. Using the latest digital technologies, they are telling food industry advertisers, "Get Outta My Face," and outta our way...
“Lead, Act, and Change: Youth Empowerment and Possibility in a Democratic Society” | Senior Capstone Project at Boston Leadership Academy, Boston, MA
[7.10.07]
In the school year that just ended, teacher James Liou and his seniors took on a new challenge at their six-year-old pilot school in Boston. They launched a unique program that combined historical reading, participatory action research, community internships, and the writing of a 40-page research report. Their focus: the social and historical forces that have shaped and continue to shape the lives of Boston’s residents, particularly its young people. To graduate, all the school's seniors had to complete the project, called a "capstone”…
“Choices/Decisiónes” | TheatreWorkers’ Project and The School of Communications and Global Awareness, Los Angeles, CA [7.10.07]
For two years, the Los-Angeles based TheatreWorkers’ Project and The School of Communication and Global Awareness at Manual Arts High School, in South Central Los Angeles, have teamed up to create documentary theater written and performed by Manual students. This year’s performance, Choices/Decisiónes—about teen pregnancy and the global AIDS epidemic—played to packed audiences…
