BEING THE CHANGE Exploris School’s award-winning refugee project by SETTLE MONROE
A GROUP OF STUDENTS AND TEACHERS FROM DOWNtown Raleigh’s The Exploris School recently set out on a simple mission – to be the change they wanted to see in the world. They kept their focus local, and worked as a team to help Burmese refugees living in Raleigh. What they didn’t know was that their work here at home would gain them recognition on a world stage.
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The team of 18 fourth and fifth graders were participants in a global program called Design for Change that teaches children how to impact their communities for the better. They started by researching problems plaguing their community. When they learned of a nearby neighborhood with refugees in need of fresh produce, they knew they had found their cause. Their solution was so impressive, and so simple and replicable,
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HELPING HANDS Exploris student Warren Gray delivers fresh kale to Ni Ni Myint, whose lack of access to healthy food inspired an award-winning project. Below, Gray and fellow students carry the kale they’ve harvested.
that it was recognized as the top Design for Change project in the nation. Last December, three of the students on the Exploris team and four of their teachers traveled to Beijing, China to represent the United States and present the project to teams from 40 countries at the worldwide Be the Change conference. “We didn’t know we would get to go to China when we started helping the refugees,” says fifth-grade student Addie Furr. “But it is really cool that it worked out like it did. The best part was seeing how children all across the world were doing small things to make a difference.” The worldwide program is structured to guide students to address problems and devise solutions through four steps. The first encourages students to empathize with people facing a problem. The second step has them imagine what the problem’s solution could be; the third is to do something about it; and the fourth is to share that solution. Amanda Northrup, a fourth-and-fifth-grade teacher, spent weeks teaching her students how to conduct interviews during the first stage so they could better understand the people at hand and problems they face. When the students interviewed Ni Ni Myint, a
all photos courtesy Sonja McKay
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