A One Stone learner’s perspective on taking the mic and finding a passion at the podium.
March 15, 2019. Anxiously pacing back and forth, I checked the time. 10:30 am. Time to start. Finally, the moment I had spent every waking minute of the past month planning was here. I nervously walked to the podium, took a deep breath, and began. “Hello, my name is Liam Neupert, I’m 16 years old, and I am the Idaho State lead for the U.S. Youth Climate Strike.”
One Stone learner Carissa V. on taking the leap into real-world problems to create real change.
When I first visited One Stone’s website, it seemed too good to be true.
I saw students working in professional environments, I read stories from students about the opportunities they had to guide their learning, and I saw pictures of the board of directors that was comprised of students like me. At One Stone, students were actually making an impact. They were designing their futures and following their passions. I was so excited, I applied immediately.
One Stone believes in the power of students to make the world a better place. Here, Daniel K. shares how he monetized his experience with a 3D modeling and rendering program to create a business that helps others.
On November 9th, at 5:15 PM, Lee Timo placed an order for me on Fiverr, one of the world’s most popular freelance platforms. Just a few weeks earlier, I'd posted an offer on the site to get on a Skype call and share my knowledge about Blender, a free 3D modeling and rendering program that I'd spent the past year learning about. Ten bucks, for a one hour call on the ins and outs of Blender. Since no one else was offering this service, I was lucky enough to score a client. Lee was my first.
This design lab team focused on reducing food waste in Boise. Through their research, they discovered that over 133 billion pounds of food are wasted each year in the US alone. They completed several empathy experiences to hone in on a specific problem. Some of the empathy experiences included interviewing the head chefs of Thomas Cuisine and A’Tavola, visiting the Ada County Landfill, and interviewing the founder of the Roots Zero Waste Market.
The Ladder Up DLab team has been working closely with the staff and volunteer coordinators of Treefort Music Fest to address challenges faced by their Under-21 volunteer program. According to Gus Marsden, one of the leads for the U21 volunteer program, the program as a whole has been very successful, but Treefort has had some struggles with organization, transparency, and lack of engagement in their volunteer system.
The Parallelenting team has been working with Jody Malterre from Parent Teacher Coach. Parent Teach Coach is an organization that works to create positive dynamics at home and at school through classes for parents.
In their first discussion with Jody, the team learned that parents often felt guilty for leaving their kids with a babysitter during the class, and there was no structure to the childcare program during previous classes.
People experiencing homelessness face many challenges, but One Stone learners found that man’s best friend can play a key role in helping lift spirits and bring hope.
The Pet Therapy Design Lab team partnered with New Path Community Housing. New Path is a local organization that utilizes a housing first model to provide 40 of Boise’s most vulnerable citizens who have experienced chronic homelessness with a stable living environment. Through interviewing residents, the team learned that many residents wish they were able to interact with animals more often, but are unable to have pets of their own due to the expense of pet ownership and rules in place at New Path.
The BUGS Design Lab team worked with with the Boise Urban Garden School (BUGS). BUGS is a non-profit that teaches youth and adults about the fundamentals of gardening through science, nutrition, and environmental-based lesson plans and activities. They also hold culinary classes for the Boise community and donate the harvest of the BUGS garden to charities. The problem the team solved for was a lack of winter-specific programming for gardening and culinary opportunities.
The Food Coalition Design Lab team designed scalable solutions to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic dishware at the Boise Farmers Market.
Single-use plastics represent an unsustainable packaging model and generate large amounts of plastic waste that are detrimental to the environment, which makes this topic an issue of critical importance both globally and locally.
Former One Stone learner Elise Malterre on art school, activism and street food.
About four months ago, I moved to the biggest city in the country to study Integrated Design and Environmental Studies at Parsons School of Design at The New School. As excited as I was for college, I didn’t want to put my life on hold for four or five years to be in a complete bubble of school…
On Friday September 20, 2019 history was made. Four million young people across the world gathered to demand climate justice from their leaders. Strikes were made everywhere you could think of, from Antarctica (seriously) to Idaho to Latvia.
The strike was born from #FridaysForFuture, a school strike demanding climate action started by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg.
One Stone learner Fawn H. was deeply impacted by a fall immersion experience called What’s Mine Is Ours, during which students visited a mining site to explore Idaho’s complex history with the industry. Here, Fawn shares her insights on the two-day deep dive into mining and its many impacts on the state, and how immersions such as this one support and empower student voice at One Stone.
Creative minds are trampled by what’s considered to be “tradition." Their voices and opinions go unheard by those who decide what their education must and will include…
Today, he’s a passionate advocate for learner-centered education and a freshman at Antioch University in Ohio. But just a few years ago, Marcus Wade-Prince completely gave up on his own education.
All because of a broken bone.
“I broke my wrist my junior year, and I realized my teachers didn’t really care about me. I was done with school,” he says.
Marcus Alston is pretty comfortable with a megaphone in hand.
For him, student voice is second nature. As part of the public action team for Teens Take Charge, a group that empowers students to become civic leaders, he organizes rallies and protests as part of the group’s push for integrated schools across New York City’s five boroughs.
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Boise, ID 83702
United States
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info@onestone.org
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