On Friday, I joined other local industry leaders as part of CAST Tech’s annual Legacy Day, providing early feedback on projects the high school seniors spend the entire year developing. The task they are given is to identify a project that will leave a legacy for the school or the community after they leave, and it is a task they take seriously.
One group I sat with was concerned about preparing young men for healthy, kind relationships – so topical and relevant at a school with more boys than girls. Another was working with the school’s limited grounds to build out gardens for outdoor learning, as well as the resources to ensure they would be maintained through the hot summer months. Another hoped to build out a structured model to support student participation in service projects. Yet another wanted to ensure that mental health resources were visible, accessible and known to students starting immediately their freshmen year.
Across every group of students, I was struck by: the quality of their ideas, their care for the school, and their desire to reflect upon their own experience to improve the experience of others, particularly the youngest students who come into the school freshman year.
We have a version of these Legacy projects, led by seniors, across all our CAST Schools.
After Legacy Day, I transitioned to the industry advisory board meeting for sister school CAST STEM. Partners discussed how we can better measure and communicate the types of skills our students are mastering through projects like these, that enable them to engage directly with adult professionals, in which they develop empathy, work collaboratively, and must think creatively.
These qualities set our students apart, and our partners are consistently struck by how CAST students look them in the eye, shake their hands, and engage in conversation. I promise they do not typically come to us in 9th grade doing all these things!
At CAST STEM we discussed how we can build a movement so that students and families can demand these types of experiences from schools, the ones that actually set them up for success post high school. More to come on how we ensure that schools focus on what matters most in an age increasingly influenced by machine learning!
Jeanne Russell
Executive Director, CAST Schools