Last Friday night, the air was filled with the captivating sound of voices echoing from Acera. Serena’s IMP/Passion Project – a captivating storytelling event reminiscent of The Moth – unfolded beautifully. Over 30 attendees gathered, sharing their stories under the twinkling evening lights, creating a truly magical community experience. Serena’s vision for this event, from conception to execution, was nothing short of inspiring.
This event, along with our IMP/Passion Projects, Creativity Stations, and countless other student-led initiatives, exemplifies our “School of YES” philosophy. At Acera, we believe in fostering a culture where student ideas are celebrated and nurtured. Unless it poses a safety risk, we enthusiastically support our students in bringing their dreams to reality.
- Sam initiated and led a ModelUN Conference last spring; most attendees who joined did not realize this was truly a student-led event!
- A middle school student who envisioned and initiated a theatre creativity station for elementary students; she led it with coaching support from a theatre teacher.
- In Adrienne and Camilla’s “Upcycled Crafts” creativity station last spring, initiating an event for the community to create and sell crafts at Museum Walk, tuning to interests of others. They calculated gross income from the sale, offering up profits as donations ot the school. Kids were very entrepreneurial to maximze profits.
- An offhand comment … “I have lights, can I install them?” Jonah spontaneously found the right tools and installed them in his classroom, underneath the reading loft. A tray broke a labyrinth in the classroom; he volunteered to create a new one; there was a democratic process for students to give input, and he then designed and did 3D input; he sought Alison’s help to complete this project.
- Ellie and Emma advocated to be able to become “Teaching Assistants” as an add-on to a cooking class for elementary kids. They sit with Kevin during some of their recess times, helping to plan the curriculum, materials, shopping list helping to lead the class. Many of the same students continue to pitch the re-constitution of a during-lunchtime cooking experience, from last year; they are creating a plan to try to address issues of fair participation across the students as they seek to bring this back, with the guidance and approval of adults.
- In a conversation with Heather, kids gave input around classroom across grade-level traditions for our school trips (Farm School, AMC/ Mountain hikes, etc). They are taking on reflection and systems-thinking project to come up with our whole-school rhythms on these trips.
- MIka, who is passionate about climate change and recycling, continues to reach out to adults across the school to advocate for new norms, comoposting, and more for Acera. She surveyed students in the school to look at efforts each student takes to support these goals. Her IMP/Passion project? “I am interviewing people who work on climate solutions, and writing a research paper on effective climate solutions for youth.”
Leadership pathways, and responding to students’ unique interests and capacity is core to our culture and the DNA of our school!
Whether you have a middle school student or not, please bring your child and grandparents and come to the winter IMP-Posium Event on Thursday night, January 30, 2025.
Best,
Courtney
Courtney Dickinson is Acera’s Founder & Head of School.
