“Building a team from strangers was probably the thing that stood out to me as the biggest thing learned about leading a team. When we started school this year, this class was quiet as a mouse because no one knew one another. Students were from varied backgrounds and different social groups. I was not sure how this would work, or if it would work at all. The big turning point was the lifeline lesson. Students who didn’t know each other actually opened up to one another and bonded over life struggles during the sharing portion of that lesson. I watched this team come together over the course of the project and eventually become pals. It was so nice to see, from a teacher perspective, how these kids who were so different from one another become a team.” – Robin Perry, High School teacher
“The Lead4Change experience was wonderful for me. It is always great to give students an opportunity to make a difference in their community, and the Lead4Change lessons help guide the students through that process, allowing them to feel more independent than if I was directing their work. They were able to look to each other for guidance and leadership, and they felt empowered to explore causes that interested them. Watching the students develop leadership skills and complete their project brings a sense of pride in their willingness to try something new and practice skills that they are not asked to use in many of their core classes.” – Kelli Etheridge, Middle School teacher
“According to Lesson 12: Share Your Story – the students reflected on the following: “By participating in this project we learned more about the community and other people who we do not encounter very often. We learned about responsibility, organization, scheduling and teamwork. We feel that the we learned can be used in any project, group or assignment that we encounter in the future”. – Michele Minoso, High School teacher
“This Lead4Change experience impacted me greatly in better understanding the challenges my students must overcome just to be functioning students in my classroom. Of the group of five students participating in this team, four of them had a direct connection to abuse within their own household or someone close to them. The thoughtful discussions this group had, in particular, about physical and mental abuse was eye-opening to me.” – Amy Sullivan, High School teacher
“The Lead4Change experience allowed me to help my students to problem solve and overcome obstacles; this will not only prepare in their futures by knowing how to handle themselves in stressful situations, but it could also help them when dealing with things that could be frustrating and cause them to have feelings of anger towards a situation. This service project allowed the students to work through their obstacles and pivot when necessary in order to get the job done.” – Deanne Reynolds, Middle School teacher
“First and foremost, the Lead4Change experience allowed me to truly feel like I was back in the swing of things when it came to teaching. Over the last two school years, dealing with all the negative impacts of the pandemic had really started to adversely affect my entire teaching process. I have always created my course content, and classroom structure for Project Based Learning. Online teaching made it extremely difficult to implement many of these projects. I appreciated having the opportunity to utilize the Lead4Change lessons and structure to help develop a deeply impactful project for our local community.” – Mike Verhulst, High School teacher