Venture Camp- Summer 2022

How might we teach 7th and 8th grade students about business and entrepreneurship?

Venture Camp was a three day camp for 7th and 8th graders focused on learning what entrepreneurship is and teaching new skills to grow as an entrepreneur. This year, thirty campers and eighteen guides worked together and learned about entrepreneurship. 

Over the course of the camp, participants were able to learn more about what it means to start a business by learning about the five P’s of marketing, values and segments, and problem statements. They were also able to apply this to the real world by splitting up into teams on their first day to create their own lemonade company. At the end of the day, teams competed in a Lemonade Derby to see who could sell the most lemonade to family and friends.

For the final two days, students formed new groups and created their own venture that they would pitch to their families on the last day of camp. Through using their knowledge gained about how to create a successful pitch, nine teams pitched their ideas to a group of “sharks”. Ideas ranged from a camping pillow that doubled as a water bottle filter, to bookmarks that turned off the lights after you had been reading for a certain amount of time.

Data: 

-90% of parents said Venture Camp engaged their child’s curiosity.

-90 of parents said Venture camp supported their child’s development. 

-100% of parents said they would recommend Venture Camp to a friend.

-89% of high school guides said they grew in grit from their time at Venture Camp.

-One high school guide shared the following, “I had a lot of incredible moments with my camper. He wants to return next year, and he feels more confident and assured of himself.”

-A young buddy said at Venture Camp that they were able to “really connect with all the people they worked with.”

Fast Fact Sheet

Year(s): Summer 2022

Focus: Entrepreneurship

Recipients: 7th and 8th graders

Number of recipients: 30

Number of One Stone members involved in planning/implementation: 4 staff , 18 guides

Number of weeks of planning: 4

How many hours it took to prepare for implementation: 10+

How many hours it took to implement: 18

Outside the Lines- Summer 2022

How might we build creative confidence in fifth and sixth graders through a fun summer experience?

Outside The Lines is a three day summer camp for fifth and sixth graders planned by a team of One Stone students who utilized the design thinking process to create and implement the camp. This process provided a real-world learning opportunity for the older student planners, while ensuring that the camp met the needs of younger student campers. 

For three days in July, 40 fifth and sixth grade students and 33 high school students met at One Stone Headquarters where the young buddies learned new art skills and developed a love for creativity. This included both group activities and individual free time exploring their passions. Individual time included the opportunity to choose an art form to explore such as claymation, watercolors, and crocheting. One of the group activities was going over to the Morrison Center to learn more about theater and participate in some improv games. 

For the last day of camp, the students created a gallery to go through with their families. Students made their own exhibition spaces for people to see, including a puppet show. Students were also able to take all of their work home with them.

Data: 

-A young buddy said OTL helped them learn, “That I can be creative in any way”

-100% of parents said they would be recommend OTL to a friend

-100% of parents said OTL engaged their child’s curiosity 

-100% of parents said OTL supported their child’s development 

-A parent said this about their child’s camp experience, “She has been thrilled and wants to keep going. She also said she's inspired to do more art.”

-Another parent reflected about their child’s OTL experience and “how happy he was. He doesn’t always enjoy activities out of the house but he absolutely loved it and came home telling me about his day and saying what he wanted to tell his buddy the next day.

Fast Fact Sheet

Year(s): Summer 2022

Focus: Art

Recipients: 5th and 6th graders

Community partner: Morrison Center

Number of recipients: 40

Number of One Stone members involved in planning/implementation: 42 High school volunteers/guides, 4 staff

Number of weeks of planning: 5

How many hours it took to prepare for implementation: 15+

How many hours it took to implement: 18

Tinker Camp- Summer 2022

How might we magnify third and fourth graders' passion for STEM through an interactive camp created by high school mentors?

During summer 2022, One Stone students led the fifth annual three-day TINKER Camp, a One Stone STEM camp for third and fourth graders. During this free mentoring program, 34 eager learners were paired with high school students for three full days of exploration, science activities and experiments, field trips, technology and engineering challenges, and mathematical application. 

This camp was packed with activities and field trips. Students traveled to Zoo Boise, The Reuseum, and One Stone’s Community Garden. They made brush bots at The Reuseum and learned about soil testing, stomp rockets, and chlorophyll extraction at the garden. There were a wide variety of activities facilitated at One Stone Headquarters including building marble runs, assembling edible aquifers, and designing a device to protect an egg from being dropped off of a ladder. Many additional activities were provided by the Think Make Create Lab (TMC Lab), a portable activity trailer funded by the Idaho Out of School Network. Students used TMC Lab materials in structured activities and free tinker time. This was the first camp hosted using the TMC Lab.

Data: 

-90% of young campers said they would do Tinker Camp again because it was fun.

-One high school guide shared, “I did not have the best experience with STEM when I was younger but seeing the kids learn and grow and helping my buddy really helped me have a shift towards a more positive STEM attitude”

-Another guide said, “I think the most impactful thing about this experience of Tinker camp 2022 was me getting to see how important STEM is to be taught, and how fun it can be to learn it for everyone.”

-A parent said, “The buddy system is intrinsic to the success of the One Stone camps. my child connected well and was excited to be paired with someone older that could model for him.”

-Another parent said, “There is so much packed into 3 days. This is the only camp my son is so excited to attend.”

Fast Fact Sheet

Focus: STEM

Recipients: 3rd and 4th graders

Number of recipients: 32

Number of One Stone members involved in planning/implementation: 31 guides, 5 staff

Number of weeks of planning: 5

How many hours it took to prepare for implementation: 20

How many hours it took to implement: 18

Open Book Adventures- Summer 2022

How might we improve literacy skills in first and second graders?

Open Book Adventures (OBA) is One Stone’s longest-running Project Good program. First and second grade “buddies” around the Treasure Valley come to One Stone to partner one-on-one with high school students “Adventure Guides” for three days of building connections and diving into activities that encourage a love of learning. Young buddies gain a fun and caring near-peer mentor while high school students expand their skills in leadership, problem-solving, communication, and empathy.

For three days in June, 31 first and second grade students and 32 high school students joined each other at One Stone Headquarters where the young buddies practiced reading and writing, worked on their handwriting and storytelling skills, and engaged in activities promoting social-emotional growth. 

This year's theme was based on the book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”. Each day an adventure guide would read one of the books from author Laura Numeroff’s series (If You Give a Moose a Muffin etc.). Then, buddies and guides would complete an activity or craft based on the book.

There were rotations each day that included reading with your buddy, vocabulary games, and adding words to the new word wall. Each afternoon of the week was spent working on a Reader’s Theater. Campers and guides practiced their script, built their set, and designed all of their own costumes. On the last day, campers performed their Reader's Theater, which was a retelling of a classic fairytale story, for other campers and their families. Campers got to finish the week in our very own “One Stone Book Fair” and take home a book of their choosing that was theirs to keep.

Data:

-95% of the young campers said they felt like a good reader after camp

-One camper said, “Thank you for making OBA camp possible! I loved working with my buddy.”

-A high school “guide” shared what his young buddy said to him as camp was wrapping up, “I asked my buddy what his favorite part of camp was and he said “you” and gave me a hug.”

-90% of parents said Open Book Adventures Camp engaged their child's curiosity.

-86% of parents said Open Book Adventures Camp supported their child's development.

-One parent said OBA is a “fun, safe interactive camp with high school students to help encourage curiosity, love of learning, and confidence.”

Fast Fact Sheet

Focus: Literacy and writing

Recipients: 1st and 2nd graders

Number of recipients: 31

Number of One Stone members involved in planning/implementation: 31 guides, 5 staff

Number of weeks of planning: 5

How many hours it took to prepare for implementation: 20+

How many hours it took to implement: 18

Outdoor Accessibility Fall 2021- Spring 2022

During the fall of 2021, Project Good students identified a lot of problems in our community. The Outdoor Accessibility group chose to work on the problem of what accessibility to the outdoors means for our community.

The group ideated about different problems in outdoor accessibility, and a few groups formed as a result of the ideation sessions. One of the smaller groups decided to focus on outdoor accessibility for horseback riders. As they looked around the community for a problem relating to this, they changed directions slightly after discovering that there were other problems that needed help.

The issue they found was about an area of untouched open space facing the possibility of becoming an industrial park. This was a problem because it would affect a lot of peoples houses, hobbies, passions, and interests. The industrial park would make it unsafe for the Western Riding Club, the native wildlife, and the air quality. They went on many site visits and reached out to the Boise Open Space Alliance (BOSA) where they had an interview with the leader, Gregg Russell. 

They came away from the interview with the idea of speaking at a public hearing concerning the proposal of CAR-00037. The group then spent multiple weeks creating the testimonies they would share. As the date approached, some of the team sent in testimonies, some of them spoke online, and some went in person. The hearing was very informative and they learned a lot about the issue while getting to share their own opinions and seeing the local community's reaction. 

Their next step was testifying at the final hearing and spreading the word to other people about how they can write their own testimonies. Although the other hearing got postponed, they still shared the poster they made about the topic with the rest of Project Good.

Suicide Prevention Fall 2021- Spring 2022

The Suicide Prevention team formed with a small group consisting of Meghan, Tyler and Mattie. They began by researching existing organizations and resources aimed at supporting people with suicidal thoughts, as well as conducting understanding exercises. The team found it hard, especially at first, to speak about suicide – it’s a challenging topic and their comfort level with it was low. However, this was a topic that the team felt extremely passionate about, and so they persevered. 

The team then reached out to the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline and got connected with who would eventually become their community partner: Becca Waste, an ISPH volunteer and Boise State graduate student interested in working with youth. The team found her interview very insightful, and several other connections resulted from this interview. Becca provided valuable insight and empathy surrounding suicide, and gave the team access to resources that currently exist for people experiencing this issue. 

The team also reached out to the Boise Hive, a local non-profit music studio whose mission is to reduce suicide among musicians in the Boise community. The team took a tour of the Boise Hive, which provides safe, substance-free environments to practice and perform music, as well as mental health services for local musicians.

Thanks to the team’s connection with the ISPH, they learned about an opportunity with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival’s public performances of Romeo and Juliet. Because youth suicide is prominent in the story, it felt important to include the ISPH as a professional resource to facilitate discussion and support after the show. 

The Suicide Prevention team was offered the chance to contribute to the program for the show. The opportunity arose to include teen voices in the conversation, and the team decided to use that voice to collaborate with the ISPH on a comic that illustrated the role of the Hotline, and de-stigmatizing the use of it. 

This comic was distributed at local showings of the play, and impacted the audience by the intentional inclusion of this prevalent issue in our community. The team is grateful for the time they spent on this project, and the knowledge, empathy, and insight that will now be applied to their lives because of it.

A Shatter that Matters Fall 2021- Spring 2022

How Might We create a supportive environment for people to feel safe and welcome so people know they aren’t alone while understanding that topics surrounding mental health can be stressful.

The mental health team began our empathy in Fall of 2021. We met with multiple therapists and psychiatrists in order to totally grasp the effect of mental health on our community. Our interests naturally flowed toward teens, as that is the group we can empathize with and understand the most. Internally, we had many vulnerable conversations on how mental health has affected our lives whether it was diagnosed illnesses or everyday stressors. We came to the conclusion that we may not be able to entirely change the mental health of teens in Boise from the root, but we could certainly address it in smaller ways. During ideation, we gathered data on what people do to cope with their mental health. The answers ranged from going on walks in nature, to spending time with their loved ones, to pursuing their passions like sports, writing, or art. A lot of us agreed that we just needed some kind of outlet, and A Shatter That Matters was born. Based on the idea of a break room, we researched how breaking and destroying everyday objects could be a huge release for teens. They could spend time with friends, laugh, and be more wild than in any other place. 

However, a few members of the team hadn’t quite settled on the break room. They wanted to impact the general downtown Boise population and were inspired by gift giving. One member of the team received flowers and both the recipient and the person who gave them felt more happy afterwards. Flowers are obviously a small gesture, but they represent a lot and can brighten almost anybody's day. Two team members decided to incorporate this act of kindness into the project and prototyped on their own and the results were beautiful. One woman on the street even cried and admitted that she had just ended a relationship. Back at HQ, we ideated on flowers and decided to combine them with short inspirational notes. These messages had to be applicable to everyone and we spent time creating these one sentence phrases so that they could be the most effective. After finding a source for flowers, the Flower Power team was born. 

For the implementation process, our team, Mental Health, hosted a Shatter That Matters and another event called Flower Power.

A Shatter That Matters was a breakroom that was hosted at One Stone, and the project Flower Power was when many people wrote kind notes on flowers and headed downtown to give them out to many different people. Our team did not partner with anyone for either of these events.

Throughout our interviews we learned that many teens struggle with mental health along with other people in the Downtown Boise area. For experimentation, our team went to a breakroom in Nampa called Hammertime.  While there we were able to discover which items were the best to break along with learning if it did actually work towards our goal of allowing people to express their anger freely and think about other better coping mechanisms they may have or could create.

When we hosted the Flower Power event there were around 245 different recipients of the project and it seemed to have a larger impact. When we hosted the breakroom around only 15 people attended. However, they all said that they were greatly impacted by the event.

For the breakroom to happen, many of our team members went out to ask various companies for anything breakable that was not of any use to them. We ended up getting very lucky with knowing some very generous people. We mainly got our breakables from Second Chance, the Record Exchange, and Boise Art Glass. This was where the majority of our inventory came from aside from One Stone itself. We are all very appreciative of all the glass we were able to obtain.

Fast Facts Sheet

Year(s): Fall 2021- spring 22

Focus: Mental health 

Recipients: Teenagers, downtown boise population 

Number of recipients: 250

Number of One Stone members involved in planning: 13

Number of additional One Stone members that helped with implementation: 150

Number of weeks of planning: ~5

How many hours it took to implement: ~14 total

Fruit Basket Fall 2021- Spring 2022

How might we find and create safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ under 21 in Boise.

Fruit Basket is a group of teenagers associated with the LGBTQIA+ community whose goal is to find and create safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ under 21 throughout Boise. 

This Project Good team came together because we shared a concern for the safety of people in the LGBTQIA+ community. We started by having conversations about the topic together and then moved into the empathy stage of the design thinking process. The team reached out to many people that work to create safe spaces in the community like the owner of the Balcony and a stylist at Mullet Proof. After this, the team narrowed their focus to creating a safe space for younger people in the community. We wanted to create a longer lasting impact so we decided to plan multiple events. 

From many brainstorming sessions came the outcome of our project, hosting a LGBTQIA+ based movie night at One Stone Headquarters. The event included snacks, games, fun conversations, as well as a showing  of the movie called “The Half of It”.

Fruit Basket also hosted a clothing drive at One Stone HQ in partnership with Brick House Recovery. We collected an estimated $500 worth of clothes for the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Fast Fact Sheet

Year(s): Fall 2021 - Spring 2022

Focus: LGBTQIA+ Community

Recipients: Members of the LGBTQIA+ community 

Community partner: Brick House Recovery

Number of recipients: 25

Number of One Stone members involved in planning: 15

Number of weeks of planning: 30

How many hours it took to prepare for implementation: 20

How many hours it took to implement: 6