During the week of Oct. 17-21, Collegiate School 8th Graders will use the city as their classroom, gain design thinking skills, and offer their Millennial perspectives to local civic and nonprofit leaders who are interested in strengthening and sustaining the programs they lead.
The students will be immersed in Envision Richmond, a Collegiate-based capstone project that enables the entire class of 8th Graders to learn about the needs and challenges in the community in which they live, and consider how they can be part of the solution.
More than 20 area organizations throughout the city and surrounding areas will welcome groups of students to their locations, where top leaders will share their vision and goals, and answer the students’ questions.
“The 8th Grade students develop a strong understanding of some of the challenges facing our metro area through interviewing and connecting with the people impacted by these issues,” said Clare Sisisky, Collegiate’s Director of Responsible Citizenship. “The students also hear from some of our regions most innovative and persistent change-agents so they too can develop a sense of hope, responsibility and empowerment for how to work together with others towards a future Richmond they envision.”
The students will take this knowledge, pair it with the design thinking and collaborative-processing training they receive during the week, and on Friday, Oct. 21 make formal presentations to the organizations’ leaders about potential improvements. Later during the school year, in spring 2017, the student groups will return to the sites they visited to perform a service project related to their initial recommendations.
Since Collegiate launched the program in 2012, the students’ efforts have contributed to tangible change in Richmond, including:
• Having their ideas incorporated into the plans for the BridgePark across the Manchester Bridge;
• Leading to the establishment of an after-school program at Oak Grove Bellemeade Elementary School in partnership with the YMCA;
• Leading to the installation of new bus shelters and stops for GRTC,
• Leading to a campaign to recruit new foster care families for older children.
The students have gone on to lead a book drive for children living in a group home, provide care packages and bus passes to residents of a homeless shelter and purchase items to send to military members overseas.
Students are scheduled to travel in small groups to designated sites in Richmond throughout the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 18. The sites were chosen based on various issues Envision Richmond invites them to explore: foster care, homelessness, education and literacy, green spaces, wellness and physical activity, teens and mental health care, the judicial system, military service, living and working with developmental or physical disabilities, and immigration and refugees.
The partnering sites include:
Home Again
Urban Farm
Catholic Charities
Va. Home for Boys and Girls
Bikes in Richmond
Monroe Park Conservancy
St. Mary’s Hospital pediatric ward
Virginia War Memorial
Sportable
J.R. Tucker High School
Greater Richmond ARC
Virginia Treatment Center
Henrico Drug Court
This capstone program allows students to use the knowledge and skills they are developing in their classrooms in a real world context, said Laurie Shadowen, a Collegiate Middle School teacher who also serves as Director of Envision Richmond.
“Students learn 21st century skills – empathy, critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, communication – and gain confidence to make a difference in their community,” Shadowen said.
To learn more about this innovative program, visit collegiate-va.org/EnvisionRichmond.
During the week of Oct. 17-21, Collegiate School 8th Graders will use the city as their classroom, gain design thinking skills, and offer their Millennial perspectives to local civic and nonprofit leaders who are interested in strengthening and sustaining the programs they lead.
The students will be immersed in Envision Richmond, a Collegiate-based capstone project that enables the entire class of 8th Graders to learn about the needs and challenges in the community in which they live, and consider how they can be part of the solution.
More than 20 area organizations throughout the city and surrounding areas will welcome groups of students to their locations, where top leaders will share their vision and goals, and answer the students’ questions.
“The 8th Grade students develop a strong understanding of some of the challenges facing our metro area through interviewing and connecting with the people impacted by these issues,” said Clare Sisisky, Collegiate’s Director of Responsible Citizenship. “The students also hear from some of our regions most innovative and persistent change-agents so they too can develop a sense of hope, responsibility and empowerment for how to work together with others towards a future Richmond they envision.”
The students will take this knowledge, pair it with the design thinking and collaborative-processing training they receive during the week, and on Friday, Oct. 21 make formal presentations to the organizations’ leaders about potential improvements. Later during the school year, in spring 2017, the student groups will return to the sites they visited to perform a service project related to their initial recommendations.
Since Collegiate launched the program in 2012, the students’ efforts have contributed to tangible change in Richmond, including:
• Having their ideas incorporated into the plans for the BridgePark across the Manchester Bridge;
• Leading to the establishment of an after-school program at Oak Grove Bellemeade Elementary School in partnership with the YMCA;
• Leading to the installation of new bus shelters and stops for GRTC,
• Leading to a campaign to recruit new foster care families for older children.
The students have gone on to lead a book drive for children living in a group home, provide care packages and bus passes to residents of a homeless shelter and purchase items to send to military members overseas.
Students are scheduled to travel in small groups to designated sites in Richmond throughout the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 18. The sites were chosen based on various issues Envision Richmond invites them to explore: foster care, homelessness, education and literacy, green spaces, wellness and physical activity, teens and mental health care, the judicial system, military service, living and working with developmental or physical disabilities, and immigration and refugees.
The partnering sites include:
Home Again
Urban Farm
Catholic Charities
Va. Home for Boys and Girls
Bikes in Richmond
Monroe Park Conservancy
St. Mary’s Hospital pediatric ward
Virginia War Memorial
Sportable
J.R. Tucker High School
Greater Richmond ARC
Virginia Treatment Center
Henrico Drug Court
This capstone program allows students to use the knowledge and skills they are developing in their classrooms in a real world context, said Laurie Shadowen, a Collegiate Middle School teacher who also serves as Director of Envision Richmond.
“Students learn 21st century skills – empathy, critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, communication – and gain confidence to make a difference in their community,” Shadowen said.
To learn more about this innovative program, visit collegiate-va.org/EnvisionRichmond.