Great Stories and Pictures

Promise Fellows Will Grant from Parkview Center School in Roseville and Kaylie Burns from Prairie Seeds Academy shared with me some projects that they have recently engaged in at their sites.  Check out a short description and look at their pictures, maybe you'll even be inspired by them.

Will is involved in Parkview's out of school program Friendship Connection, a group made up of 4th - 8th graders from the school.  In their space, a large white wall needed some sprucing up, and the team leaders decided to spearhead a mural project for their members of the program to help complete.  Their theme was P.E.A.C.E, or Peace, Equity, Action, Community, Environment - an acronym that is also the school's motto.  Students were excited and actively engaged in the project, which produced a pretty cool end result.  Check out some pictures of the mural and its construction below.  

                                                               

    A work in progress

  

   Friendship Connection Member with Mural

    The finished product

Kaylie Burns had this to say about her service learning group:

The service learning group at Prairie Seeds Academy is in full swing! Tuesday, October 12 found the entire youth cohort of 50 kids and 15 adult volunteers packing meals at Feed My Starving Children in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. This year, the cohort is focusing on green concepts, zero-waste, and helping people through these ideas. The cohort saw an awesome opportunity to help children less fortunate than themselves and also think about how to remedy the waste that Americans create every day.  Many of the students (and volunteers) were touched by the event. In her post field trip reflection, 9th grader Bao Vang said, “I really liked it because I got to be a part of something big. Everyone was kind and encouraging.” Ginseng Thao, also a ninth grader, wrote, “I loved it! I wish to go there again. I only wished that it lasted longer. I never worked so hard in my life before. So this was a very good thing for me.” Sandwiches and drinks donated by local Subway restaurants and picked up by trusty volunteers rounded out the day. 

The effect of Feed My Starving Children’s message was not lost on any student. And many were grateful for the opportunity. Raymond Lee (sixth grade) felt “good, and excited, because lots of food was able to be packed with everyone’s help.” The staff and volunteers at FSMC helped everyone feel valued and important to the final product and created a wonderful service-learning environment for the 120+ adults and children participating on Tuesday. Though not the first service-learning opportunity the students have had, it might have been the most affective, Martin DeLeon asserted, “Our cohort is helping the world. I love saving lives and helping the environment.” 

Thanks for sharing your stories guys!  If you'd like to share YOUR story, contact Spencer (promisefellow@mnyouth.net) 

Happy MEA!

Suicide Prevention Lecture

In lieu of the recent suicides across the nation, it is time to getting talking about suicide awareness and prevention. Please join Dan Reidenberg who is the Executive Director of SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), for a FREE lecture at 5:30pm on Monday, October 25, 2010 at Coffman Memorial Union, Mississippi Room.

SAVE is a national non-profit agency working to prevent suicide and help suicide survivors and those suffering with brain illnesses. He is also the Managing Director of the National Council for Suicide Prevention, serves on the Steering Committees for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the Advisory Committee of Reachout.com. Dr. Reidenberg is also the US Representative to the International Association for Suicide Prevention.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among people ages 15-24, and the second leading cause of death in college students. Each year, 1,100 college students are lost to suicide. One in four college students struggle with a mental illnesses, such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, or eating disorders.

This event, free and open to the public, and is part of the Magraw-Fuller Lecture Series. For more information, contact Eva Widder at ewidder@umn.edu or by phone at (612) 626-5146.

If you end up going, let me know what you thought of the event!