For most of my twenty-year education career, I have worked to connect students to the world in which they live. This year with the support of my fellow Prichard Committee Fellows and coaches, I narrowed my focus to the following philosophical and programmatic questions: What if we ask young people to define the communities they belong to and what those communities value, then, with their guidance, design a learning experience around those values? Will community-connected learners stop asking, “How can I get my grade up?” and start to ask, “How can I learn more so that I can continue to use my passion to help my community after this class ends?” And, what happens if grades are not determined by compliance and performance but instead celebrated honest, reflective engagement in a process?
To engage these questions, I started slowly in a current events elective at my high school. Students scheduled into the course were there to discuss the news and the underlying issues those events presented; they were not anticipating engaged action.
Together, we first established discussion norms, all of which centered around the phrase, “assume positive intent.” Students then began guiding our classroom focus by bringing events and topics to the classroom for small group and whole class analysis. My part was to listen to and guide using various formats from simple hand raising to structured, Socratic-style seminars and extended asynchronous online discussion. Using what I observed, I reached out to Paul Laurence Dunbar (PLD) community members who were connected in some way to those issues.
Several PLD Safety Resource Officers (SRO) came in to discuss perceptions of having police in a school building, the role of the police in a community, and, yes, news national stories of violence directed toward minorities by police. They returned for multiple follow-up conversations that led to them working on two action projects later in the school year. Our new men’s basketball coach and student services coordinator, Murray Garvin, entertained us with his inspirational style and was challenged by students on race, gender, and “cancel culture.” Our Latin-outreach liaison Saul Fajardo spoke with a small group of Latino young men about their desire to conduct a forum related to raising expectations for Latin American Youth at PLD. This process helped solidify our norms and establish a trust and curiosity culture. This allowed for the next phase of the class.
Once our classroom culture had been established, I shifted the class focus away from new topics to why the topics they brought in were important to them. My guiding question was, “What in their life experience drew them to these issues?” Students responded with different versions of “because I feel connected to it…” or “It impacts me or the people around me….” This led us to explore that connection further. Together we decided that we needed a word that defined that almost indescribable connection for the sake of efficiency of conversation. The community seemed to work well. Led by students, they defined “Community” as “a connection to the people and our environment.” We then began to narrow and define our idea of community.
Students began to define the specific communities they belonged to and shared those with the class. Naturally, these connections were widely varied. Most identified multiple communities to which they felt connected, from family they see every day to web-based connections with people they had never met in real life (IRL).
As they narrowed their community conversations, students began to identify obstacles, problems, and areas of interest within specific communities to which they belong. I asked them to explore a potential “action project” that they could develop and implement that might positively impact one of their defined communities. Students worked alone or in groups to develop an “action project pitch” to present to the class and workshopped with a “glows and grows” large group feedback cycle. Students presented all pitches before the end of the first semester, and a few projects began before the winter break. After students pitched their plans, they created SMART (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time reliant/based) goals for project accountability.
Initial Pitch Highlights:
- Partner with local Pitbull rescues Safety Resource Officers (SRO), admin, and “at-risk students” to train fostered pit bulls so that they become more adoptable
- Enhancing “Opportunity Equity” through public transportation. Specifically, adjusting public bus routes to serve PLD after school so more people can participate in after-school activities
- Create a student support team for students who are new to the U.S.
- A group of Latin American young men developed a forum focused on raising expectations for LatinX students at our high school
- A podcast that highlights the stories of the people who live in the Cardinal Valley neighborhood in Lexington, KY – a recent immigrant-rich community
- A mini documentary that focuses on the class and its projects
- Our high school’s SROs and youth leaders’ partnership focused on increasing communication and connection
- Creation of a simulation highlighting the issues surrounding affordable housing in Lexington
- Creation of a “Netflix-like” book recommendation system based on the available books in the school library
- Memory bias and how it influences our online choices and our internet info bubble
- Address the sense of isolation children in military families feel when they move through the creation of an online community connecting children to each other
- Use existing connections to University of Kentucky athletic medical trainers and add athlete-specific mental health services to what they provide student-athletes at our school
- “I have no idea what to do because I do not have a community, and I do not like people.”
All the projects on the list were started, some completed, some are ongoing, and several were abject failures. But every single one of them was an incredible learning experience connecting students to their communities and their learning. However, one does stand out.
The final pitch on the list was less of a pitch and more of a complaint. After participating in a few pitch workshops, a senior approached me asking for an alternative assignment. Upon further discussion, I learned that Chen Hao Jiang worked every day in what he described as his family’s “Chinese Fast Food Restaurant.” He hated cooking inauthentic food and did not like the demanding people he was forced to serve.
However, when I asked about what “real Chinese food” was, he lit up with palpable joy about how each dish had a story and how Chinese families come together, circling a large table to share their lives as they shared their family-specific versions of food together. He said cooking for that purpose was different, and it made him happy to do it. I asked, “What if you were able to share that with a community?” After a suspicious look, he said, “Let me think about it.”
Chen returned to class and asked if he could serve a meal at “a shelter or something.” I approved, then learned that Chen already had one chosen and was waiting to hear back after reaching out. Chen planned, budgeted, fundraised, and executed a meal for the Lexington Rescue Mission in less than a month. Together with his father, he cooked and helped distribute over one hundred meals.
He told me about how he loved meeting the people at the LRM, describing them as passionate people who had no time for nonsense. He shared pictures of the food and the people he met. He used words like connection, accomplishment, and even the phrase “my community.” He then asked, “I know it’s December but am I done with the work for this class now?” I asked if he felt done, he sighed and said, “I guess that means no.”
We brainstormed the next steps. Returning to school after winter break, Chen proposed an authentic Chinese meal for which people could buy tickets. We discussed it as a possible fundraiser for the Lexington Rescue Mission. The catch was that we could not use his family’s restaurant.
Chef Ouita Michel is a community-minded James Beard Nominated restaurateur based in Midway, Kentucky. She had helped with previous student-led projects, so I ran the idea by her, and her response was immediate – “Let’s do it!”
Ouita and Chen met via Zoom, and they were off. With Ouita, Chen developed a “Kentucky Proud” authentic, four-course Chinese meal served in a western format at her farm-to-table Lexington restaurant Honeywood. Chen took over the kitchen and showed Ouita and her Head Chef, Cody DeRossett, how to make the family-specific dishes he wanted to present. She donated her kitchen, staff, and promotional team to a ticketed “Jiang Family Meal at Honeywood to benefit the Lexington Rescue Mission.” Seventy tickets were made available at thirty dollars apiece. Chen was convinced they would not sell more than fifty. About a week before the event, Chen sold 168 tickets, selling out the dining room.
The night of the event, Chen Hao Jiang dressed in a suit and tie, met patrons at their tables, described the dishes, made recommendations, and thanked people for coming. He saw teachers, former teachers, friends, and people he did not know enjoy his food. He watched them talk excitedly with each other and those at tables around them about his food. Chef Ouita explained to patrons that she had learned new techniques from Chen and had never tasted anything like the lamb dish he made. Among the community Chen created were Fayette County Schools Superintendent Dr. Demetrious Liggens and his newly named Academic Services Superintendent, Meocha Williams. Chen Hao saw a community he did not know he was a part of come together because of his talent and passion. After expenses, $2000.00 was raised for the Lexington Rescue Mission.
When Chen returned to school, he was again excited to talk about all that he had learned and the people he had met. It astounded him that Chef Ouita and Chef Cody would give their time and resources to someone they didn’t even know. At no time did Chen ask about a grade. At no time did Chen ask if what he was doing was good enough for an “A.” Our long conversations led to a conversation about using food to create and serve the community. It was after that conversation that I reached out to Chef Isiah Screetch at Spark Community Cafe in Versailles, KY.
After school was out, Chen met with Chef Screetch at Spark Community Cafe in Versailles. Spark is a student-initiated non-profit restaurant focused on reducing food insecurity in Woodford County, Kentucky. Chen and Chef Isiah Screetch discussed another possible ticketed Chinese meal at Spark to raise money for the cafe and kick off a traditional cultural meal series. Once again, this person with no community has expanded his connections to an ever-broadening group. Later Chen reflected that he would never have done anything like this had he not been pushed outside of his comfort zone and that he has started to explore the idea that his talent as a cook might be used to connect people as he grows forward into his life.
Chen was one student with one project in a classroom of enthusiastic, community-minded young people. All of whom developed projects they cared about. Not all projects were completed, some fell well short of initial goals, and some carried forward through the summer and into the next school year. I am confident that because the class started with questions that put the student at the center of their own learning, the young people in this class began to rekindle a passion for learning. I think these excerpts from their final reflections/letters of advice to the next class make that point for me.
“I had to push beyond my comfort zone.”
“I had to learn so much about recording…before I could even get started on my project….”
“I would never have given something like a ‘pitch’ to a group, much less to police.”
“This class is a great way to escape the mind-numbing feeling of a typical classroom, and it allows you to investigate and learn about what really interests you.”
“…in this class, don’t chase the grade, have fun, and learn something.”
“Even though I was unable to complete my project before the end of the semester, I learned a lot about setting reasonable time goals and overcoming obstacles.”
“Don’t be afraid to set high goals, even if they scare you.”
“I gave people comfort with food.”
Images of Chen at work:
Chen with Chef Ouita Michel
Chen’s food at Honeywood
Chen cooking with Honeywood staff
Chen with Tammy Clay at the Lexington Rescue Mission
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