A Mad Tea Party Part II

Our year of Public Achievement came to a close officially two Fridays ago when the students put on their project during lunch at Manual High School. Only Fransheska and I were able to go in early to help the students set up, but a team lead from another school, Laura, was able to join us and provide valuable help as well. Anita, Sarah, and our boss Cara came later. At first, we had a hard time finding students and were unsure where we should begin setting up, but then Fransheska was able to find some of our students and then jumped in as we set up two tables to hand out cake and pop and hold the raffle. We set up the Drug Free banner and several of the students immediately volunteered to videotape, while more and more students kept showing up to help. I felt like I had nothing to do at times, because everything was being taken care off.

In short, the project was a great success, a success driven by student efforts and coach determination, even though this whole year we were uncertain if it could happen, because we were constantly facing difficulties in organizing and motivating our students. But when it came down to the end, they were there for us, and I felt so proud of them! After chaos, came peace. So the mad tea party turned out not to be so mad after all, though we did serve 120 plus students three giant cakes, while they signed the banner to commit at least in theory to being drug free. They also made 55 short video clips which will be combined and edited into a single video that can be given to Manual administrators to use in the future. While I am doubtful that our project will cause a paradigm shift in how drugs affect Manual high school, at least our project put the issue back on the radar for students. And I am confident that what the students have gained from the year is far greater than what they might have gained in this final project. The capabilities, skills, knowledge, and awareness to come together through all the steps leading up to the project will serve them well in the future.

Sorry to any readers that come across this post for it being so short and dull, but I have decided to fit my closing thoughts in one more post that should come out this Thursday! さようなら-Sayoonara!