Students Jump into High Point’s Own Eagle’s Lair

The Eagles have landed in High Point Academy’s new service learning class, The Eagle’s Lair. Students formed teams to research needs in environmental or humanitarian causes in the local community. After settling on their own student-driven community engagement projects, they were required to develop business plans and demographic studies and to use 21st century skills to create media-based presentations to “judges”, who then determined which plans had the best feasibility and most thoughtful presentation.

Eighth grade student teams used demographics research to formulate creative solutions to real problems and then, after developing action plans, ran small-scale pilot projects that they hope to eventually “scale up”. Their presentations to the judges included animated videos, digital documentaries, and financial strategies.

Ali Guerrini and Tracey Gibbs developed a “Home Alone” class after determining that a good number of elementary students are left home alone at some point. They piloted their project with fifth grade students who learned how to use emergency numbers, answer phone calls, and safely exit a home in the event of fire.

Team Evan Steinhoff and Jake Hansen interviewed residents of a local nursing home with the goal of creating keepsake videos for these residents and their families. They also helped facilitate interactive live-streaming of the team presentations to sixth grade students… a first!

High Point Academy, 1720 Kinneloa Canyon Rd, Pasadena, (626) 798-8989 or visit www.highpointacademy.org.