Brewing a Third Place

Where did Upper School teachers Dina Cohen (French) and Megan Bellwoar Hollinger (Theatre) get the idea to lead students on a journey to create their own pop-up coffee shop on campus? “It started with an interest in coffee culture,” says Dina. “But I think we really gravitated toward the idea of the ‘third place.’ That didn’t come first, but it became the focus.”

Dina and Megan conceived of the project as an Ex-Term class titled “Creating the ‘Third Place’ — a Deep Dive into Café Culture.” Taking place the last two weeks of the school year, Ex-Term is an opportunity for Upper School students to go on mini-adventures guided by pairs of teachers, called “co-pilots,” to learn more about a particular subject. But what started as a simple idea — something to do with coffee culture — expanded far beyond a simple cup of brew.

“There are so many ways to enter this space as educators,” says Megan. “For us it became about entrepreneurship and design and, yes, coffee. We became really discerning and hyper-critical about our coffee: sourcing, roasting, blends.”

Dina and Megan were motivated by the concept of the “third place,” a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenberg to describe a space that exists as a groundswell of community.

“This third place is not your first place, which is home, or a second place, which is work,” explains Megan, “but a third place, where you go to spread ideas, spend time with friends — start revolutions! It’s your spot, like the bar in Cheers.”

The Ex-Term experience took them all across the greater Philadelphia area to local cafes that would provide inspiration for their own. The students would observe each cafe as an individual space, analyzing it and responding to the differences in the cultures of each place.

“Each place has its own approach,” says Dina. “Take, for instance, The White Horse in Jenkintown. It’s all about sustainability. From the lengths they go to to source everything to the processes they have to make their own milk, it’s incredible.”

After going to almost 10 different coffee shops and cafes and learning how to roast coffee from AFS’ own Upper School English Teacher Andrew Bickford, the time came for the group to set-up their own pop-up coffee shop.

“They were just on fire with it from the beginning,” says Megan. “We got to use the Farmhouse building as the location for the pop-up, which was an amazing opportunity. But they learned very quickly that we had a limited budget. It really forced them to be creative.”

The students got to work very quickly designing their own beverages based on what they enjoyed personally and what was popular in the cafes they had visited.

The cafe appeared as if from overnight, and it was packed from the beginning. “There were so many people who showed up,” says Megan. “It really became a little hub in the school that appealed to our different senses. Nice music, a diffuser, artwork, a comfortable couch. They were very intentional about creating an atmosphere of respect, setting the right mood. They sourced student-created art from Amy’s art room and featured it. So it wasn’t the student commons. It was asking for a different kind of behavior.”

Throughout the Ex-Term, every student got behind the counter and learned to make espresso drinks, so they each got an opportunity in the pop-up.

“We talked about how we would need systems,” remembers Megan. “Like, you need to take the order, you need to give the order, you need to make sure to restock. And everyone was kind of like ‘Okay, okay, whatever, whatever.’ But then when it started, this flood of everyone arrived and our group had to go ‘Oh, it’s time to get serious.’”

“Of course, there wasn’t enough space for 12 students to sit behind the counter at the same time,” says Dina, “so we had a couple of shifts. The first shift would leave and the second shift would need to reestablish everything. And I was really impressed with their resilience and creativity.”

In the end, would they have done anything differently?

“We sold out of coffee drinks within, like, the first 45 minutes,” says Megan. “They just kept coming! I don’t think the kids had any sense of how that was going to go down.”

Dina laughs. “We weren’t prepared for that much success!”

As they explained, part of the issue was that the group did not have access to an espresso machine, and had to figure out how to make a lot of strong espresso coffee drinks without one.

“There were a lot of late nights brewing jugs and jugs of coffee — which we then ran out of in 45 minutes,” admits Megan. “But that's okay. Even after that brief window, we still had hot coffee.”

“When you’re a teacher, you’re always working backward and forward,” says Dina. “You have an idea, a plan for something, but then sometimes things don't go the way you expect. And I think the students got a taste of that. But they put on something magnificent that the whole community could be proud of. And — I think — many of them hope it will make a return.”

During Ex-Term, teachers are free to develop their own experiences within a few guidelines: They have to be experiential, interdisciplinary and not traditionally academic. And most importantly, there needs to be a culminating experience or product to show off what the group learned.

That culminating experience was the key, says Megan, to unlocking a fuller understanding of the Ex-Term.

“Dina and I knew that we wanted to have them do their own pop-up,” she explains. “So we worked backward from that to make sure they had the information, resources, and time to implement what they learned from these visits.

“It’s exhausting for the teachers. But for the kids, those last two weeks of school are always the hardest. How do you keep them engaged? You have to offer them the opportunity to do something real, an experience that’s going to teach something that they couldn’t get in a traditional class. That’s how you’ll get them to come to the experience with enough energy to keep the teachers running — that and enough coffee.”