Make time for extra-cool extracurriculars

Extra-Cool Extracurriculars

Find after-school activities that enrich, engage and inspire your student

BY SARAH SEKULA

Twin brothers Miles and Morgan Brody, 13, regularly volunteer with their parents at a Rochester, N.Y.-sanctioned homeless encampment called Peace Village. The brothers noticed there were several tiny houses at Peace Village built by students at the nearby Rochester Institute of Technology.

It dawned on the Brody twins that they could likely do the same. They already had experience building ax handles, garden beds and wooden knives. “We like building things and thought, ‘Why not build a shelter for the homeless?’ Our dad called the city and found out they needed a whole bunch of tiny houses,” Morgan says. >

Miles and

Morgan Brody are working to build shelters for a local homeless community.

The project required more space and resources than the Brody family could take on alone, so they asked Kima Enerson, a teacher at the twins’ school, for permission to use the school’s MakerSpace, a wood shop space that also houses a teaching kitchen, a robotics area and a greenhouse. The Harley School’s MakerSpace equipment allows students to craft furniture, create prototypes on a 3D printer and design sets for school plays.

Enerson gave the green light, and the project turned into an extracurricular activity for the brothers and four other middle school students. Eleven high school students are helping out, too. Using Tinkercad, a 3D modeling program, students modified an existing design blueprint to create a model for the home, including paint colors and other details. Their focus is on developing modular pieces that go inside the buildings to make them feel more like a home, including a platform bed, corner shelving and a rotating shelving unit.

“Middle school students want to fix things and make them better,” Enerson says. “This project is a terrific example. There is a spirit of ‘Let’s figure it out!’ here at Harley, and students understand how to do the necessary work to make things happen.”

Beyond the tiny-home afterschool project, The Harley School offers clubs and activities for a variety of interests, including a microfarming program with a focus on entrepreneurship. Students are redesigning the school’s rooftop garden in order to grow and sell their own products and determining what to plant so that it supports a butterfly beltway. The proceeds will help fund other sustainability-oriented projects at school.

MAKING EXTRACURRICULARS A REALITY

For parents and students wondering how to make similar activities a reality at their schools, Enerson recommends a team approach. “Having a physical space for projects is great,” Enerson says. “This makes everything easier, of course. But lots of it is about the school community and philosophy itself, and having a strong group of parent volunteers, community connections and faculty who are willing to say ‘yes’ to help students realize their ideas.”

An effective way to introduce these sorts of programs is by enlisting outside organizations for help. “Schools may not have the resources or know-how to teach darkroom photography,

GET CREATIVE

Students at The Harley School participated in a project expressing themselves through movement, choreography and the performance arts. taekwondo or any number of other creative extracurriculars, but an organization already in your community probably does,” says Arash Fayz, the founder and executive director of LA Tutors, a private tutoring company. “In some cases, these organizations may even be able to raise funds or put PTAs in touch with donors to help introduce these sorts of programs into schools.”

The International Center of Photography, for example, provides photography extracurriculars in New York City public schools. And the nonprofit Fencing in the Schools offers fencing programs to students across the country. Virtual STEM program Big Dreams Bloom encourages girls to be worldchangers by participating in >

Students can

foster their creativity and find community through a variety of activities.

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club-style chats and completing science and art projects. The organization mails activity bags to students in the U.S. and Canada.

“If such programs exist in your community or in the area of your child’s interest, seek them out and ask what it would take to get them into your child’s school,” Fayz says. “If you don’t find exactly what you are looking for, pre-existing programs in other school districts or in other types of extracurriculars can serve as a model to propose to your PTA or to outside organizations that might be willing to partner with your school.”

A CLUB FOR EVERY INTEREST

At Laurel Springs School in West Chester, Pa., students can choose from an array of extracurricular courses, including foodie-focused activities, a meditation group and a pen pal club. The school’s travel and tourism club strives to help kids develop global awareness and expand knowledge of the hospitality and tourism industry. In the TED-Ed speech club, kids discuss their favorite TED Talks and create their own TED Talk-style speeches. There’s even a club focused on discussing all things superhero.

These creative programs

Emily Blomquist is

the founder of Big Dreams Bloom, a virtual STEM program for young girls. are not only enjoyable and educational, but as a bonus, they can really stand out on a college application.

“Nowadays, many schools have phased out wood shop to make more room for AP classes, so students are missing out on these large-project opportunities involving real-life, hands-on work, communication and collaboration,” says Enerson. “Not to mention helping others in the community. Students could definitely include this type of work on a college application, and they would most likely want to do so because it is something different.” l