Welcome to the empathy to impact. Podcast we are back today connecting with some high school change makers from Serra High School and Notre Dame Belmont High School.
and we are talking to some change makers about some really cool projects that they're going to be involved in my guests today are Rowan, Vicki, and Bella, and we are going to be having a conversation about some courses they're taking at their school. How that's inspired them to get involved in some projects in their community and the impact they're having through their work. But before we get started I'm going to pass over to my guests to say a quick Hello.
Hi, my name is Rowan, and thank you for having us today.
I'm gonna interrupt and go to character a little bit, if you say like, just let them know your school, and maybe you know you what grade you're in. That'd be great.
Career, yeah.
But tell me when you're ready.
Hello! My name is Rowan, and I am a senior at Sarah High School, and my project is mini makers.
Hi! My name is Bella. I'm a senior at Notre Dame, Belmont and Vicky, and I founded bridges between bars.
Fantastic. I can't wait to hear a little bit more about your projects, but before we get started I want to talk about a course, that this is how we got my attention. You guys were in a showcase recently, some of your classmates sharing your project, and my colleague, Sophie Pico, kind of put me in touch and said, Hey, you got to check this out, and your teacher, Mr. Rushton. We were able to connect, and really excited to be able to share your story, and
not every school has a course called Creative Solutions for the global good. What is that about how? Tell me what inspired you to sign up for that class, and a little bit about what that class is all about.
Is a very collaborative class there. I mean the the spiel that our teacher likes to give is when we start our class. You don't raise your hand, you jump in whenever you'd like. It's a very open class, and it's meant to be that way to allow the students to be collaborative with each other, not just with us, with the teacher, so that it's the spotlight's a lot more on us than it is on the teacher or the content.
Each year each student picks a project or a group of students picks a project, and we work on that throughout our entire time at the class. So actually, all 3 of us have been taking this class for 2 years now. So all of our projects are at least 2 years old.
To add on a little bit to that. Rowan mentioned that we pick a project to work on while with our time during this class, and we actually only meet around once or maybe twice a week. And this class has no tests, no home, or we do have some homework, but no tests, and our main goal is just to work on our projects the whole year.
Yes, and how I like to put it is a good description, for the classes in high school students are given a passion project. But this is basically for one to 2 years. And for me, what drew me to this class was the title in itself creative solutions for the global good.
I believe my junior year. I was very interested in studying international business, international studies just around those sectors. And so when I heard the word global and solutions. I was very drawn to the class, and adding on to what Vicky and Rowan said at the end, towards the end of each semester we present our projects and our progress of them to parents and other people attending these presentations at the school.
Rowan and Vicki. What inspired you to sign up for this class.
I had taken design thinking at Sarah High School, and I really enjoyed it, and the teacher said that I should be in get in contact with our with Mr. Hurley, and so I did a test day during my sophomore year, and then I was enrolled by Junior Year.
For me. I already had 2 friends who have taken this class in their sophomore year, so they told me about it, and I thought what they did in the class was really interesting, and their projects were also really interesting. So I wanted to join as well.
A lot of times when we think about high school classes, we are sometimes really focused on grades. and how we get those grades is often through traditional assessments, like tests or essays and stuff like this, but to be able to have a space where you can come up with an idea for a project and have the time to really take that to a meaningful level is pretty special.
How does that kind of fit with the rest of your high school experience. When you're thinking about a class that doesn't have any grades, it doesn't have any tests. And it's really kind of a different structure to your class. How does that fit with the rest of your high school experience?
I think it provides that good balance of exploring creativity and being in a comfortable environment where you feel free to share your ideas, to explore different topics and just see what is going on around in the world. And another interesting aspect about the class is that
we have been able to connect with schools throughout the entire world schools in Africa, schools in Asia. And that's not really something that we get just in your typical math class or English class when you're sitting at a desk in school. But also, I think, just having that
being in that classroom environment where you're not pressured into scoring an A on a test. It just makes it a lot more. I wouldn't say carefree, but it just makes you more relaxed, and I think that does tie into some. I mean, psychology proves that, you know. Sometimes when you're in a more relaxed environment, your creativity, your brain spirals more. And then you're you're thinking more, and
that that's definitely been. That's been a good touch on in comparison to all the other classes. When it's it's more staggered. And there's there's a steady basis. So this this class stands out in that in that way.
I agree with Bella. It's definitely different. But the values and things I've learned from this class. I can also apply to my other classes.
I love that. Just how transferable that is to your other classes. That's so cool. Sorry, Rowan. Go ahead.
I was just going to say. Besides the fact that it starts an hour before school. It's always a class I look forward to. You never know what's going to come. Our classes are not always tailored around our projects. Sometimes we are talking about our projects, how to improve them or sharing them with people like Bella said.
But most of the time we're learning about interesting people. We've had. Guest speakers come in and talk to us from around the world, Ceos, and entrepreneurs and people that we can be inspired by, who. even if they have nothing to do with our project, at least give us an idea of how they were able to go about doing whatever they did, and how we can apply that to our projects.
I think there's definitely some value connecting with people who are looking to do good in the world and be change makers and just being inspired by some of the work they did, but thinking about not just the product, but the process. And I think a lot of that is transferable. Maybe they're working on a different topic, like you say, or something that's not related to your project. Their process, and how they approach that, I think, can be really valuable.
And.
One of the go ahead.
One of the things they talk most about is usually their failures, which, when working on a project, is something that always comes up, no matter what the project is, there's always a failure at some point. So, learning how they were able to navigate, that is usually very important.
100%. I think a lot of times in school. We're not put in positions where
you know, we often say we value mistakes, and we need to learn from our failures. But our assessment policies aren't necessarily lined up that way. They're trying to encourage us to kind of focus on those A's. But when we have those opportunities to genuinely learn from the process generally learn from our failures. Come back to the table redesign. That's a hugely valuable process, I think, and being able to kind of live, that in this class is so cool.
Absolutely. It's it's not a class where, if you fail the test, you leave it, and you go on to the next, like the next test you're you're still with the same problem. It's how do I re, look at it in order to have a new solution.
For sure. One of the things you mentioned a moment ago was about international collaboration. I want to circle back to that a little bit. And maybe you could share a little bit about how that works in your class, how these international collaborations have added to the learning experience for you, with your project and with your learning. In this class.
We've connected with schools throughout the world on mainly zoom, but I mean separate from that. Vicky and I were lucky enough to go to Kyoto in Japan last year. And there are other students in the class who've actually gone to Japan and even like Hong Kong, to present our projects at global forums and sharing our ideas with
students at at those schools. And those experiences have just been very eye opening because just seeing what their culture is like and how they're going to perceive your work and your project, and to hear their reactions and their questions and really understand what their interests are, was, has just been a great experience, but mainly how we connect with schools throughout the school is on on zoom
when we're in class. So sometimes we'll come to class early and we'll we'll log in. And one really interesting thing that I've noticed from these connections is that almost each school in, let's say, a different city, different town, or different country they all have. Each class has almost like a focused, has a specific concentration. So I think.
for example, in Cape Town. I noticed that most of the students there spent time working with technology and how to enhance that at their school. But then we connected with a school in the Philippines, and it felt like they were more connected with the environment. And just those specific concentrations, I think, really show which parts of the world have, let's say, XY, and Z issues, or are focusing on the environment climate change while others are maybe focused more on social issues.
So just seeing that range of different problems that people are addressing. That's been very interesting to see.
And
To Bella. I definitely think that the international, like connection, aspect, has really opened my eyes like we get to hear a ton of different amazing ideas, and, like Bella said, we were lucky enough to travel to Japan, which is very different, like the culture there, but every question that they asked, were so valuable to our projects, and it was just really nice to see that like eye-opening aspect of the world.
These Zoom Meetings that we do with the other schools around the world are really interesting because we're able to compare our projects and see how they differ, and how like, where our minds were going when we were picking our projects. But one of the fun parts about it is, not only do we talk about our projects, but we also just get a time to sit and chat with these kids that are our age, but live completely different lives. Yet they're not so different.
And it's it's really fun to talk with people from around the world.
And then both of our projects last year were chosen to be on the International Speaker series along with one other student, and we were able to present our projects to over a hundred people from over 2 from over 20 different countries, which is really an amazing opportunity, especially to get all the feedback from people that I don't know with enthusiasm about the work I've done which really shines light on how important it is, and how people are interested on what students have to say.
Absolutely. I think this is such a cool experience. I'm just sitting here kind of taking this all in and having these opportunities to connect with students from around the world. And Ron like how you say that. You know, there's different experiences out there. But also
there's a lot in common with students from different places around the world. I'm really grateful for my opportunity to work with schools from different parts of the world. And you're absolutely right. Kids are kids and to be able to kind of share ideas like this and be able to see the value of your project. But also we're talking about like place-based kind of issues that students are exploring, based on where they are in the world. And the context that that presents in their community.
So I think it's really cool. I want to zoom in on your individual projects and give you a chance to share a little bit with another large audience on our podcast about some of the work you've been doing. And the impact that's had Belen and Vicky, you've worked together on your project. I wonder if you would be okay to start sharing and giving us an overview of your sorry giving us an overview of your project and the community you're working with. And the impact that's had.
Yeah. So I'll start. And Vicki and I, we share the content of this project since we've been working together since the very beginning. But our project is called Bridges between bars, and its goal is to support people who are currently incarcerated by the creation of holiday cards which we conducted at our school at Notre Dame, Belmont, and we had students write holiday cards for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. There was about
over 700 of them, and we are part of a network called Excel network, which is a nonprofit organization tied to the archdiocese of San Francisco. So they're part of the Restorative Justice ministry. And that's how we made that connection with the prisons, because Vicki and I are not able to visit the jails yet. So that's how we were able to transfer those cards and make sure that they get into the prisons, and we became connected with this project
because I joined A. I attended this breakfast, and it was in St. Mark's Church, and I had no idea what this breakfast was for, and the 1st time I attended one I was just helping serve food, and someone had mentioned that there were going to be former prisoners who were sitting with us, and at 1st I caught myself by surprise, and I think at 1st I initially felt I initially felt very. I felt bad, because it's like, I have never thought
of people who have been in prison right? And I think for me, I was definitely curious to hear what their stories were, but also I just I felt bad, and it almost made me reflect on society as a whole, and how isolated and forgotten they almost are! And so there was this man. His name was Stanford. He's gone through rehabilitation. He's part of a nonprofit now that
is, connecting people with service opportunities, and he shared his story of his life before he was in prison. The obstacles, traumas, challenges he faced while being incarcerated, and then what his journey was after being released. And it was just like the most touching, grounded, meaningful experience that I've ever had, and I will truly say it was life changing because it opened my eyes to their side of the story, to their perspective, and it was
like a prime example of how people can change, and how second chances should be given to people who want to change and want to take those opportunities, but also just understanding that people don't necessarily have all these resources, and that when you come out of prison it's, I mean, the question really comes down to
the balance between punishment and rehabilitation, and how to navigate those complicated questions. So with that being said, that's the I would say, the base of our project, and I know Vicky has a lot to say as well, and she'll share more about what we've done and what we've done more with our projects.
Yeah. Adding on to Bella, another aspect of our project is hosting charity events. So this past December it was our second year volunteering at the Christmas Angels event, which is for kids who have parents who are in prison, or kids who have been exposed to like domestic violence, and what we do is we dress up in like holiday costumes like Santa costumes, and we paint, do face painting for the kids.
And, like Bella mentioned, we got involved through Excel, and basically each month there's breakfast that you get to attend, and we get to hear the stories that formerly released inmates. They're like their personal stories, which is so inspiring. And
this past weekend, Bella and I actually had our like last breakfast since we were graduating, which is kind of sad. But excel has helped our project a lot. And yeah, like, Bella said, the cards, we send the cards like to the Excel network so they can send it to the person.
Yeah. And I just wanted to add one more thing just for context, more about what excel does. So these monthly breakfasts are opportunities for people to listen to the stories of people have been released, but also to make donations. So what excel does is they provide stipends for people who have been released for their future education, future endeavors. And so that's what the goal of excel is to do to really just support people once. Just so, they have a place to go when they're released, right? Because they don't have many resources.
have limited awareness on technology and what's going on around in the world. And so it's just making that transition from while in prison to the outside world easier for them.
Thank you so much for sharing about your work. This is definitely a marginalized community that I don't think a lot of high school students like you said, even think about, let alone think about how we might support a group like that. So I think it's so inspiring to hear how you got involved in this community, and the kind of work you're doing to have an impact
on the lives of some people in this community. And I love, how you're talking about their stories. This is something that we're really passionate about at. Inspire citizens thinking about the power of storytelling. And I think that's such a cool aspect of your project. So thanks so much for sharing. I'm gonna pass the microphone over to Rowan to hear a little bit about his project.
Yeah, my project is mini makers. So for the last 2 years I've been building a workshop at a local elementary school to teach young students, aged 6 to 13, how to use tools that would be commonly found around their household.
So I partnered with a local elementary school, and they gave me a cinder block shed on their campus, which I basically took, and I emptied it. I shred it. I stripped everything out of it, and I've added, I painted. I added new outlets, pegboard for storage, new benches lighting.
and then filled it with tools, and this spring I created the 1st lesson plan and had the opportunity to teach the 1st lesson, which went really well. But it was definitely a learning experience for both me and the student. I'm no teacher. So it was interesting for me.
I've been in the engineering field for quite some time now, doing internships and jobs so, and I've been working with tools my whole life. So it's it was fun to take something that I'm so passionate about, and turn it into a space where young students can find their own love for engineering and and stem. and giving them a space where they can be creative. Yeah. So I was very, very fortunate to have that opportunity.
What a cool opportunity for these students to now have this space that many, many students are going to have an opportunity to connect with something that you're passionate about, but to be able to take on some projects and be creative and try some new things when they otherwise wouldn't. And that required a lot of resilience and perseverance. By the sounds of things you have this space. That's
means a lot of work. And to put in the time put in the work, and sort of see that vision come to life. I think that just sounds so amazing.
Definitely it it definitely. It took a few months just to take it from the State. It was into something where I could even start to start building. So it was definitely a fun project.
Thinking about perseverance and resilience. That's something that really comes into long-term projects like this. Can you share a challenge that you faced at some point in your project, and how you were able to overcome that.
During the beginning of our project, since we had students from our school write the holiday cards. A lot of students had questions on. Why we were writing cards for prisoners, or why are we doing this? And the very 1st time we did the cards was for Thanksgiving, and we always do like a quality check. We open all the cards, and we just take a look on like what's inside. And
some of the messages weren't very nice. So for a second time doing the cards, we had our principal show. This video during one of our assemblies, where we made.
Oh, sorry, Vicky. I think we lost you.
Oh, sorry we spoke about empathy in general, and.
Sorry, Vicki, can I interrupt you? Can you just talk and just kind of pick up from where you're talking about your principal showed a video.
Can you hear me?
Yup can hear you now. Oh, okay, sorry. Can you just pick up your story from the part about where your principal is showing the video.
Our principal showed a video that we had made just talking about empathy and why we were doing what we were doing. So that was one of the 1st challenges that we faced.
I think.
Oh, sorry I was.
Go ahead, continue.
I was just gonna say, the second time we did the cards. The video did like really make an impact, because after like seeing what the students had wrote like. It was really like heartwarming to see how like their mindset has changed. So yeah.
Yeah, just adding on to what Vicky said. The 1st round of cards were were a bit rough, I would say, like Vicki mentioned, they were not the nicest words in there, and not even just seen in the cards. We would go around classrooms, making sure that everyone was on task doing their cards, and we would be hearing the conversations people were having. Just, I want to say, mocking, but just more of like judging this this group of people, which I mean from an from a
from their perspective, without little context, without awareness of the struggles that they've gone through. It is completely normal for that to be the 1st narrative. But that's why we made that video changing that narrative and our our head of school also, just not necessarily targeted only at our project, but just empathy in general, and how to see people beyond what you see on the surface, and to be a bit more understanding.
So I think not only did this help us with our project, but it just helped people change their perspectives in general, and just as people.
One of the biggest challenges that I faced during making my workshop was definitely just me. Looking inward and finding, like it took almost a hundred hours to build this workshop, so doing the time management to remember that
if I'm not spending the weekend working on it, I should put in a day during the week, or at least making some movement each week to build it, because building a workshop from scratch is such a large endeavor that you can't. It's not something you can procrastinate till the end, because you won't get it done. So over the last 2 years I've put I mean, I have a hundred logged hours of being in the workshop, but that does nothing
of looking at the time. It took me to go to the hardware store or the designing I've done outside of school, or the the time it's taken to pick which tools I want to put in the workshop. So definitely controlling my time, and and making sure that I was always moving in the right direction.
Thanks for sharing. I think that's really inspirational to think about some of the challenges faced, but also how those were overcome. And I'm so inspired thinking about these cool projects. And I want to share a little bit with our audience. A lot of our listeners are teachers or school administrators, people connected to schools around the world.
Why do more schools need to offer courses like creative solutions for the global good and advanced solutions for the global good. Why do more schools need to offer courses like this?
It's a class that I think every student enjoys, at least in in our class. It's there's so little stress yet there's so much benefit from the class that I think it's such an important class, and I've helped Mr. Hurley with many of the open houses for Sarah High School, and I've talked on behalf of the Innovation Department and
the faces of everyone parents and teachers that hear about our class. They're always inspired. They always think it's such a cool class, and all the parents talk about. I wish that this was a thing when I was at school. So even just looking back should tell us about what people should be doing in the future.
I think this is a very unique class in itself. Given the name creative solutions, it really touches on students connection with their creativity. It connects with students and their passions, their care for the world. And.
like I mentioned before, it's almost like a class for a passion project. I know other schools have passion projects as part of their curriculum, but this class makes you focus and teaches you how to be consistent with it, but also how to overcome different obstacles, and how I like to say it is! It's almost like your project is your child, so you have to keep nurturing it, and you have to tend to. You have to consider all these factors that
that make it, that make it the way it is, and it's a representation of who you are. And I think it tells a lot about how you think the environment you're in. But also just the collaboration we get from this class, the open space we're in, and just the ability for all of us to be together and to share our ideas openly and freely without feeling the pressure of judgment or stress of being graded, based on what
I think, find, I find interesting where we don't have to take notes or take exams, and just that pressure, that it's like relieved pressure, in a sense. And that's what makes this class so engaging, unique and wonderful, because it's a safe place to be in that I think all students should have an opportunity to be in.
I definitely think that all, all schools should have this class for me. This class had actually made such a big impact on my life, because honestly, before this class, I wouldn't. This isn't something
typical, typically that you do at school, like in your math class or English class. And I think this class has taught me a lot from, you know, time, management, and like taking initiative. And, like Bella said, like nurturing your like, child, you know, like what you put in it you get out of. So I've also learned a lot of great life lessons from this class.
And I.
To me, go ahead, Ron.
Everyone that's in these classes elect to be there. So it's really fun to talk with people who are like minded and are wanting to get the same thing out of the class as you.
As you.
Which is always fun to be surrounded by those people.
And one thing I wanted to add is that this is your project. It's not someone else's. So I think this class also really helps you gain leadership skills, and no one's going to be telling you the steps on how to do it. It's something that you have to learn on your own. And I just think, being able to take initiative like that is a very important skill that needs to be taught at an early age.
Beautifully said, all of you. I think all schools need to be offering a class like this. I think it's such a great space to let you explore your passions, engage with some real issues. do some things where you might fail, and learn from that, and be able to have a positive impact in your community through the work you're doing, also to be able to stick with a project for 2 years. And here we are at the end of that 2 years for all of you.
What are you most proud of? There's a lot of inspirational kind of moments I know, along the way from what you shared. What are you most proud of about your experience with this class?
For me. It's leaving behind a workshop at this school that will stay there forever. To to have spent so much time and effort on something that I'm so passionate about. and then to let it go into the hands of the school and have them take it further. I'm really excited to let it go and see what happens with it, and see how the school continues to grow. It.
For me. I'm really proud of the community that I've built through this project, and also we received feedback from the cards, like the prisoners like write letters back to us, and one of the feedback said that. you know, like our cards made him feel human again, and I think I'm just most proud of being able to at least impact one person's life.
For me. I'm most proud of helping people who are incarcerated feel seen just as Vicky mentioned, especially with the feedback that we got from the cards, but also just changing the narrative and opening or changing the narrative and helping people become more open minded about this group of people ranging from sharing our project with people at our at our local school, to all the way in
Japan, with students where their criminal system is completely different. And I'm also proud of how Vicky and I have stayed consistent with excel excel network started around Covid in 2020. So it's relatively new, and Julio Escobar, the founder of it. He's always told us that with our help we've helped him grow, excel, and and help become more known, especially in the Bay area, and to just support
the people who are coming out and helping them to access to education and what they want to do in the future.
So inspiring. Thank you all for sharing that this is such an amazing experience to be able to kind of have this to look back on as your high school experience to be able to engage in a project that's meaningful to you. That leaves you feeling this way and leaves you just like, Vicki said, impacting the lives of other people. And I think that's just magic.
Veronica. One more quick question before we wrap up any aspirations to teach after this time with your lesson planning and working in the makerspace.
I? It's grown on me. I would not say no, but there's definitely a lot of improvement that needs to come. I am going to school in England next year. And so I'm looking forward to studying engineering, and then hopefully come back and and see what happens. Then.
Cool. all right. Well, a big shout out to Sarah High School and Notre Dame Belmont for giving these amazing opportunities to students at your school also big, shout out to Rustin Hurley and Rita Lee, the teachers in this program, who are clearly visionaries and doing some amazing work to inspire this kind of work with their students.
I'm feeling so inspired. I want to thank Bella and Rowan and Vicki for sharing their story with our podcast listeners and all the best. As you guys get ready to graduate and move on to your next adventure.
For having us.
Thank you.
You guys were fabulous. It was awesome, and we're even on time. Barely.
I just wanted to add one thing in mister, we've created these videos at the end of our time that basically show in video form all the work we've done over the past 2 years. So Mr. Hurley could send you those videos that would give you a good visual idea of the work we've done.
Are you guys? Okay? If I are we allowed to link those in our show notes to let people see.
I'm I'm fine with that.
I love it.
Mcdonald.
Yeah, I'm good.
Okay, I'll I'll send you those.
And Mr. Hurley, I've finished my last one which I've emailed to you.
I will, I will get it and review it, and and get it.