CollegiateMagazine-v1

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ENVISION RICHMOND SCENES FROM HOMECOMING MINDBLOWING STEAM 1

Envision Richmond Rafting into downtown Richmond was a great way to start off a week of focus on ways to make the city a great place to live and work for everyone.

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fter the students arrived by raft, they divided into small groups and visited various sites to learn about needs and projects underway. Ted Elmore (page 4), president of the Richmond BridgePark Foundation, explains to one group his vision for a “Low Line” (vs. New York’s High Line) park that would bridge the James River.

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Middle school teacher, Maria Benson, overlooking students Conner Webb, Milan Mehta, Quin Timmerman, and Riley Foster.

Caroline Laskin, Liam Bellamy, and Andrew Kauders explaning their Illumistop idea.

Having learned about population groups who could be better served, the student teams considered attributes of those people to gain a better understanding of their needs. Middle School teacher Maria Benson (top left) looks on as Connor Webb, Milan Mehta, Quin Timmerman and Riley Foster work on a design solution to the lack of greenspaces in the city.

They ultimately created a model of a rooftop garden.

Envision Richmond coordinator, Laurie Shadowen (page 7), chats with former Collegiate classmates Shelley Daughtrey ‘98, senior account manager at West Cary Group, and Boz Boschen ‘98, director of digital at Neathawk Dubuque & Packett, who came to campus to share information about branding and marketing ideas with the 8th Graders.

Fun, challenging and educational, the exercise was a fitting beginning to a week of activities.

Caroline Laskin, Liam Bellamy and Andrew Kauders (top right) explain their idea for Illumistop, a bus stop that offers shelter, bright lighting and an alert system to let riders know the timing of the next bus.

Panels of representatives from local agencies (page 6) listened to the student presentations, asked questions and offered feedback.

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CITY CLASSROOM 8th Graders tackle real challenges faced by area organizations and offer thoughtful solutions in Envision Richmond, the Middle School capstone experience.

On a beautiful clear morning in October, the 8th Grade class boarded buses to ride to the edge of the James River where they were given paddles, life jackets and instructions for rafting on the waters that lead right into the heart of downtown Richmond. Fun, challenging and educational, the exercise was a fitting beginning to a week of activities that, using the city as their classroom, exposed the students to important issues facing Richmonders. By week’s end, they had devised creative proposals to help solve them.

Three years ago a group of teachers lead

by Cathy Melton, now-retired Director of Economics Education, and Clare Sisisky, then Director of Global Education, considered a number of ideas for a capstone Middle School experience for our 8th Graders. The result: Envision Richmond, a program that aims to foster lifelong responsible citizenship by giving our students the skills and confidence they need to make a difference in the world around them. “The program fits perfectly into our Responsible Citizenship initiative as it involves civic engagement, economic literacy and service,” says Ms. Sisisky who is now Director of Responsible Citizenship at Collegiate.

The program was piloted with a small group of 8th Graders for two years and offered to the entire grade level this year. Divided into teams, the students visited various locations throughout Richmond including Tricycle Garden, Home Again, the Virginia War Memorial, GRTC and the downtown YMCA. They rode a GRTC bus the length of a route, played hoops in wheelchairs, pedaled their bicycles around downtown and toured

Ted Elmore explaining to students his vision for a “Low Line� park.

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Many thanks to these individuals who made time to explain the issues on Monday and return to view some possible solutions on Friday.

TI M BA RHAM JONATHAN OWENS GRTC K E LLY HICKOK Resources for Independent Living K IM WATSON JOHN WAL KER Greater Richmond ARC RUTHI E BURKE Cameron K. Gallagher (CGM) Foundation S E QUOIA ROSS Tricycle Gardens BRA NTLEY T YNDAL L Sports Backers/Cycling 5

MAT T C R A N E Richmond Cycling Corps G I L E S H A R N S B ER G ER Groundwork RVA, Inc. K E I T H WH I P P L E ‘ 98 Waterstreet Studio C L A I B O R N E S CO TT M ASO N ‘ 78 Virginia Home for Boys and Girls BEBE TRAN Foster Care/Catholic Charities S E A N MO N R O E JOLINDA UNDERWOOD Home Again PAUL GALANTI Virginia War Memorial STEPHEN ROSS VCU Military Student Services T R I C I A P U RY EAR VP, Community Engagement, YMCA ALAN CARNEY St. Mary’s Hospital (Pediatric) SKIP LONG Church Hill Academy C AT A N T H O N Y Sportable C AT H Y ME LT O N Former Envision Richmond Coordinator

a homeless shelter. Through those activities, they learned first-hand about challenges Richmonders encounter and the agencies that serve them.

“It is essential that our students actually visit various sites around the Richmond area and interact with people outside of Collegiate’s community, so they broaden their knowledge base and feel more empathy for those most affected by a specific challenge,” says Middle School teacher Laurie Shadowen, coordinator of the program. “It’s also imperative that our students collaborate and do some creative thinking away from the traditional classroom in settings where they are more inspired to think beyond the textbook and class discussions. At first, the issues seem so big (like homelessness, foster care, lack of green spaces in the city), but as they learned strategies to narrow the problems, they became much more manageable. So often in life people see big problems and choose not to do anything because it seems so overwhelming, but if you whittle it down, then people feel

Thinking About Design Design thinking is a way to approach challenges in a thoughtful and fun way while applying the four C’s — collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication.

As our 8th Graders tackle the challenges they identify at each of the community sites, they follow the steps of design thinking to generate creative solutions to problems.

1 Visit to the site to learn about its goals and challenges and, by interviewing those who use the services.develop empathy by understanding what it means to be one of them.

2 Critically assess and narrow their focus to a few specific types of individuals affected by the challenges.

3 Collaborate/develop ideas to try to solve a few specific needs of those folks affected by the issue.

4 Create a 3-D prototype of an idea for a solution.

5 Communicate a possible solution to a panel of experts from the community.

more comfortable acting. That’s what we try to do in this ER Program -- give students strategies to feel like they can do something.”

group learn so much in the fall. “The energy that our students bring to all of their ideas is contagious, and I am truly inspired by their desire to make a difference,” says Mrs. Shadowen. “Having been involved for the last three years and seen the process ignite so much passion and interest in young teenagers, I believe Envision Richmond plants the seeds for change in the next generation.”

The energy that our students bring to all of their ideas is contagious, and I am truly inspired by their desire to make a difference.

Back on campus, the teams got to work, using the design thinking process (top right) as a method for understanding needs and generating ideas for solutions. Prototypes were developed aand marketing experts helped them with logo designs and promotional language.

On the last day, panelists, most of them hosts for the students’ visits earlier in the week, came to campus to listen to the final team presentations.

In the final phase of Envision Richmond, this spring the 8th Graders will decide on some type of community outreach in partnership with the organizations that helped their

8 T H G R A D ER S R EFLEC T O N EN VI SI O N R I C H M O N D “Before Envision Richmond I had no idea that there was any problem with refugees or immigrants. I knew the basics but I had never thought to consider the problems that the families and their children would be having with new students. Now that Envision Richmond is over, I have a new perspective on how to create an effective and efficient solution and to make a presentation about it. I will definitely use these tactics throughout my life.”

“It was really an eye opener to go off campus

and see different problems in our city.

ER showed me that we really can make a difference in our community even if we aren’t adults yet. It also showed me that there is so much that should to be done for our community.”

“I think the best part about collaborating with my team was the fact that everyone in our group understood the issue, and people were creative in coming up with ideas for solving the issue. We each brought different and unique ideas, strengths and weaknesses that all really worked together and came out with a strong and positive outcome. Just like the real world.”

“I loved talking to the panel! Sure, it was stressful getting up there and presenting our idea, but watching them listen to our idea, watching them nod when we said something, and watching them clapping and appreciating what we did was very inspiring. I also loved how all of our ideas came together. Everything else in the week was really fun too!.”

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Laurie Shadowen, chats with former Collegiate classmates, Shelley Daughtrey and Boz Boschen, who came to campus to discuss branding and marketing ideas with the 8th Graders.

A S A M PLI NG OF SOL UT IONS Envision Richmond is not just an exercise that begins and ends during one week in the fall.

One local entity is taking the ideas of past Envision Richmond students very seriously — the Bridgepark Foundation, which is working on Richmond’s “Lowline” project, is interested in these students’ idea for sidewalk murals that would lead visitors to the river.

The following are a few of this year’s ideas conceived by 8th Graders as solutions to some of the challenges they observed in the Richmond community » 7

F O O D D E S ER TS » Refrigerated food lockers dispersed throughout the neighborhoods, filled with fresh produce from Tricycle Gardens from orders received from the corner markets.

H O ME L E S S NESS » Turning abandoned buildings into apartments for homeless through a homeless job training in construction program.

I MMI G R AT I O N / R EFU G EES » Mentors - students help with academics, adults with social issues and jobs.

MI L I TA RY VETER AN S » Build a place for military

G R TC B U S SER VI C E » Well-lit bus stops with special light that would indicate if bus is on time or behind schedule.

SP O R TS FO R P EO P LE W I TH P H YSI C AL D I SAB I LI TI ES » Uniteable - a camp for kids with disabilities and able-bodies kids to participate in sports together FO STER C AR E » Creating awareness campaigns in schools and outside of grocery stores that includes flyers and other information about youth who are awaiting care.

veterans to go to relax and/or get treatment and counseling. A calm tranquil setting.

E D U C AT I O N / LI TER AC Y » Develop a program that has buses take underprivileged children to different job locations to learn about a variety of career opportunities

TEEN S AN D M EN TAL H EALTH » Forming a camp-like experience for teens with anxiety or depression. Families and support dogs would be included in this camp.