AN ALTERNATIVE?

Current seniors may remember Community School, but the majority of students are not familiar with what used to be another option to the traditional, college-preparatory learning that UAHS promotes.

Started by a team of teachers who wanted to provide an alternate pathway for students, Community School grew to be a center for engaged learning, emphasizing democratic decision making and holistic learning taught by English teacher Melissa Hasebrook and social studies teacher Rob Soccorsi.

“We saw kids who were really, really bright but they weren’t performing as well as they could, they weren’t engaged as deeply as they could be,” Hasebrook, one of the founders of Community School, said in describing the impetus for creating the program.

Designed to be interdisciplinary, Community School was also a place where small cohorts thrived inside the larger student body. At times, students would be able to vote on which topics to cover for a given quarter.

In its prime, Community School members were still required to complete a final senior project, known as Odyssey, but it differed greatly from Capstone, emphasizing hands-on experience rather than academic writing.

“[Odyssey] required a lot of responsibility but basically what we did was for the final nine weeks of a senior’s year, we canceled their classes. They were excused from all Community School classes, which gave them at least half a day, and if kids were smart and worked ahead, then they were excused from all classes, which most of our kids were. [Then] they would go pursue internships, [trying] to figure out ‘Is this what I want to do when I get to college next year?’” Hasebrook said.

Hasebrook said that during

The 4 Components of Capstone

In order to pass the Capstone course, a student must successfully complete these four components.

1 Literature review

Students must research the existing literature on their topic of choice. Prior to this, they should devise six essential subquestions that their research will center around. Students will write a literature review that addresses these questions.

2 Devised research

In this component, students use what they’ve found in their literature review to study their topic on their own. This can include an experiment or a survey. Following this, they will write an applied research report.

3 TED Talk

In the third component, students prepare and deliver a TED-style talk presenting their findings.

4 Process

The fourth component relates to the process itself.

“ The course is laid out so that you can do it a bite at a time,” says Capstone Coordinate Greg Varner. “And that process is also a grade.” the course of Odyssey, students were connected and met periodically with a mentor who was familiar with the student’s field of interest.

“I had one student who wanted to learn more about fashion design and sewing. [...] She knew she wasn’t going to do anything with clothing [in college], so she wanted to play around with it while she had that nine week chunk of time. She connected with a mentor who was teaching her how to sew, and she began to sew and picked up thrift store things to rework and turn them into high fashion pieces,” Hasebrook said.

During the COVID lockdown, and subsequent transition between buildings, Community School fell to the wayside, and brought Odyssey with it.

“When we first started planning the building, there was actually a part of the building that was slated to be for Community School, one of the common spaces,” Hasebrook said. “And then there were some issues.”

Community School has to date not made a return.

“We just lost it. It was just gone. [Because] it really [needed] more support than it got,” Hasebrook said.

Student Perspectives

Marie Fowler, a current Capstone student, is researching how circadian rhythms affect one’s daily functioning.

“I’m trying to find the scientific explanation as to why some people have different sleep cycles than others,” Fowler said. “Some people stay up really late and they still function fine the next day [because] they sleep in, [or] even some people will stay up and not sleep as long and still function completely fine, from what I’ve found. I think it’s really interesting to see the individual differences.”

Fowler said that the regimented Capstone process has helped guide her research.

“I like the templates we’ve been given and the reminders that we have in class. We even have a ‘forecast,’” she said.

This forecast gives guidance on what students should be doing in and out of class for every day in the Capstone semester.