Hello, my name is Sawyer Ellsworth. Volunteering has always been important to me and in previous years I have found many ways to help my community. This year with Covid-19 it has been harder to find safe volunteer opportunities, so I am so grateful for the Love of Learning opportunities to not only volunteer, but to build connections within my community. When I think of what it means to do something good, I think about someone doing a nice or helpful thing for another person or group of people and making a difference in their lives. This photo is of one of the many times Rio (my buddy from Love of Learning) and I hung out at Love of Learning on Thursdays. Rio and I did some pretty awesome things. We played games together, we did fun arts and crafts projects, and we learned a lot about important people in history as our final project. Working with Rio gave me experience using empathy. As an example, I had to quarantine for the first week of Love of Learning. I was so worried about Rio being disappointed on the first day, so I emailed him and his parents to let him know that he would be matched with another guide for the first week and I would see him soon. The biggest thing that breaks my heart is bullying. I got to show Rio an inclusive environment in the hopes that he would feel good and show his classmates the same thing. I hope Love of Learning will inspire the buddies to help younger people when they get older because they will remember this program and the importance of mentorship, empathy, and kindness and how to do it themselves. I have found in the past 10 weeks that I really enjoy helping younger people. I enjoy helping kids because I can relate to them and I sometimes know what they are going through.
Silas Aldridge
These past few months have been some of the most confusing, strange, and awesome times of my life. I’ve tried so many new things at One Stone and found a deep passion for the outdoors. It’s interesting to think back on how this year has affected me, everything from good to bad, to weird and cool, it’s all happened. Throughout it all, I’ve been focusing hard on personal growth, and finding ways of spending time that I enjoy and are fulfilling. One of those is painting. I made this painting with lots on my mind, which I tried to illustrate through art style and color combinations. Through the medium of art a lot can be said with very little words, and that’s what I wanted to accomplish with this painting. This being my first year at One Stone, my personal goals this year have been to find what I truly enjoy doing, and to keep up on what I already know I enjoy doing. I had the first couple layers of paint on the canvas for a long time before I started any actual work on the thing, a product of lack of motivation to finish what had been started a long time ago. A feeling I think many can relate to during this time. As soon as I started it back up I remembered how much I like painting, which reminded me of my goal to keep pursuing what I am interested in and passionate about. After a couple days I finished the painting exactly how I wanted it. I wanted to capture the feeling of uncertainty through the spiral. This project along with both of my immersions have inspired me to Be the Good by investing in climate actions, and taking more advantage of the resources available to reach my goals. Overall this was a great quarantine project that brought me closer to my goals, and One Stone.
Simone Wylie
My name is Simone Wylie, I am in my second year of DLab, and I am curious about the world. I am passionate about design, the climate crisis, and human rights. My artifact is a representation of my past and current experiences. The past 10 weeks have been challenging. With remote learning and quarantine, everything feels out of place. For me, this time of solitude allowed my mental health to worsen. This fall has been incredibly taxing, and even the most mundane and simple tasks have felt overwhelming. How can I expect to help others if I can't even take care of myself? Though I have felt stuck and lost, my friends and family have been there to support me. I have learned that by taking care of myself, I am taking care of my community. By setting time aside to focus on me, I am allowing a future where I will be healthy enough to support the people around me. My artifact speaks to my experiences of loneliness in the past. And my current experiences of loneliness in quarantine. Loneliness is not equivalent to being alone. In a time of so much uncertainty and fear, I have found it’s easy to feel disconnected from the world around me. I feel broken when I think about how much I am struggling, and how badly I want to feel better. My heart breaks when I think about all the people struggling with mental health, and how many of them are without the resources I take for granted. I hope others will think about what they can do to take care of themselves, without feeling guilty or ashamed. I have grown a lot the past 10 weeks, and still have a lot more healing and growing ahead of me. During these weeks of self-discovery and reflection, I have begun to understand how important self-care and love is. I now know that regardless of what I pursue in life, my mental health will remain the priority.
Sophia Willmorth
Over this past term, I had the awesome opportunity to lead a Mission Lab called the Knitting Circle. I initially came up with the idea for this Mission Lab as a way to share my passion for fiber art and, after a few rounds of ideation, came up with a loose idea of how I might be able to directly connect this experience to One Stone’s mission statement. I intentionally left the plan very rough because I wanted to make sure that our end goal was something that all of us were excited to work towards. Once we began meeting, we decided that we wanted to donate our handmade items to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital based off of their wish list. My artifact for this experience is the crochet stuffed hippo that I plan to donate in conclusion of this project.
Sydian Mikesell
My name is Sydian Mikesell. I’m currently a YLabber at One Stone’s design school exploring the many things that excite me through their program. Through my experiences at One Stone, I have been able to fulfil my Why Statement which is: “To understand the causality of all situations in order to identify problems and subsequently create solutions for the greater good.” Sometimes I get lost in trying to understand the causality of things that I forget the reason I’m doing it in the first place. My artifact helps me reflect on the good I’ve done and see the impact that I’ve had on my community. “Good” is a very abstract concept, primarily based on your values and moral code. It means something different to everyone, and can sometimes be hard to articulate and explore the complexities that arise when examining it in depth. I, however, have had the opportunity to think of this on a philosophical level and define, on a surface level, what good means to me. Because of my experience with exploring my values in depth, it’s easy for me to say that “doing good” means helping or contributing in some way to the growth, development, or improvement of my community and society as a whole or the environment. Of course there are many other underlying values such as justice and rationality that support my ultimate values (community and sustainability) which I have defined as “good.” This is why my Why Statement is centered around identifying the problems in the world so that I might help fix them. Over the last ten weeks I have changed a lot. Working to create and do good in my community has shown me that you can still have a major impact by doing small, ordinary, simple things. One example of the impact I had on a small thing I did that I later realized had a big impact was volunteering for Love of Learning. Although I originally didn’t want to participate in a Project Good experience in large part due to some of the depression I was experiencing, Allison pushed me to engage with Love of Learning. At first I was not sold on the idea that what I was doing was beneficial for the kids. I wondered why I was wasting my time, but I showed up, gave it 100%, and built a connection with my buddy. After a few weeks, I casually asked my buddy what the best part of his week was. He easily said that the best part of his week was seeing me of course. This is when I realized the impact that I had. My artifact is a poem that reflects this experience.
Tanner Hairston
Thatcher Churchwell
Hi, my name is Thatcher Churchwell. I am a member of One Stone’s Lab 51 experience, I am in Xlab and my pronouns are He/Him/His. Some of the most important parts of my T-poper are photography, music, working with metal, friends, cars, cooking, and nature. In my last immersion, we focused on Land+Scape+Water+Color, and in that immersion I had the opportunity to take photos of the nature/landscape around me. I chose to share this piece because I felt like I was representing the good that my community does, and the good that I bring to it. Doing good is doing things that benefit others, which in turn can help yourself. My artifact does good because it shows my love of nature and the love that Boise has for nature by trying to preserve it and coexist. But it breaks my heart when people destroy or mistreat nature, when it has been nothing but good to us. I believe photography is a great way to see the world around me through many different lenses, and by taking pictures it can show others new possibilities, and inspire them to try to see the world with a different point of view. Over these past 10 weeks I have learned more about the importance of nature and photography, and how photography can really open eyes, and show how beautiful nature can be. As well, I learned that I still love photography because of how fun, relaxing, and meaningful it is. It is a great way to capture memories for myself and others.
Theodore Rychetnik
My name is Theodore Rychetnik, and I am a first year DLab student at One Stone. I feel that one of the most important parts of my TPopper is people I meet and who affect my life. I feel that this part of my TPopper connects with my artifact because, in my artifact, I discussed my experience at the Boys and Girls Club’s Moseley Center in Garden City. At the Boys and Girls Club, I was able to spend time connecting with the next generation of students.
I feel that doing good is helping out your community in any way possible. For example, in my artifact, I showed evidence that I was doing good by working with younger kids through One Stone’s Love of Learning program with the Boys and Girls Club. Without this program, many of the kids might have started to feel lonely, especially during this pandemic when they haven’t been able to see any of their friends. I also feel that it is nice that they have someone to talk to. Even though we had to stop doing the in-person activities, I'm happy we can continue talking to the grade school kids through the pen pal system. I feel that this artifact encourages others to Be The Good by showing that just a small act of helpfulness can do great things for the people around them. Over these last 10 weeks, I feel I have learned a lot about myself. But most importantly, I learned how the One Stone community has helped the Boise community in so many ways. I now feel that one of my passions may be to help the people around me in any way that I can. And that, I feel, is truly special.
Tovi Belfer Sanford
This is the mask I made for my Halloween costume this year. It had been so long since I had sat down and finished an art project like this, that it made me quite sad to reflect on. I remember looking at my T-Popper and thinking about how much I miss small things like this, finding it funny how easily I forgot the things that I liked doing the most. I had stopped doing these kinds of things primarily due to perceived lack of time, and severe lack of motivation. I had begun to think that I didn’t enjoy doing anything, but I was just shirking doing the things I really loved. I spend time sketching and singing and playing guitar alone in my room, and wonder why I don’t feel fulfilled. But now I know it’s because I’m not making things for people to see, I’m not performing for anyone; and that’s all I’ve ever really wanted to do.Doing the XLab Halloween experience gave me a small taste of that again, I was performing in a way. I got to build and create and people got to see it and have fun. I got to bring people joy through something I had made. It re-inspired the part of me that longs to have a spotlight to share joy with others. I had been struggling for a while about feeling that I had nothing to offer people, no way to use my passion and talents to do good where I saw it was needed, but now I understand; even if it’s just a little something, any bit of joy given is doing good. I had taken this for granted, forgotten that as I have been inspired and comforted by creators I love, that I also have the capacity for bringing that kind of comfort.
Ty Naymik
The good I did for myself was enlightening. I have been at One Stone for a year and a half, and I just learned what real leadership takes, specifically the ups and downs of it. I’ve always pictured myself as being a leader when I get older, but I have never fully appreciated the work that it takes to be an effective leader. It’s going to take a lot of effort, time, and endurance, and I now realize that thanks to the DLab experience I had. My Vision statement is, “Prioritize my people, monetize my passions.” I am very passionate about clean energy. In the future, I plan to have a clean energy business or at least a side hustle. If I want to make this happen, I am going to have to become more knowledgeable about clean energy and excel in my leadership ability. Like I mentioned previously, leadership was a really big part of this DLab, and I wasn't sure if I was ready for that, but I stepped up anyways. I learned that leadership is a balance between guidance and demonstration. You need to show your team what you want from them and then help them achieve it. I couldn't find the balance at the start. I gave my team my info and told them what steps we needed to take next, but that was not enough. I needed to help them translate the information into something we could work with. This finally started to come to fruition over the break when I demonstrated the effort and work I was expecting from my teammates by finding, contacting, and scheduling an interview with Russ from Idaho Power. This gave me and my team enough guidance and motivation to synthesize the information, step up, and organize a presentation. Throughout this process, I was also able to gain empathy for the coaches. I never realized how difficult it is to get people to do things they don't want to do. Students sometimes struggle with the online school system, and a result of this is lack of motivation. This makes things difficult for the coaches, because they’re the ones who have to try to teach us grumpy kids. This experience has inspired me to persevere and complete troublesome tasks, even when I might be tired or unmotivated. Trying to lead a group of unmotivated people is difficult, and although I wouldn’t call what I did in this DLab an excellent example of leadership, it was a step in the right direction. This was definitely a fail forward moment for me and my team, and I hope they were able to learn something from it. So what does it mean to me to do good? Well my answer is to fill in the blanks. Do whatever needs to be done to complete your goal. This goes for any goal anywhere. If I notice that there is somewhere I can help, I will try my best. Just like this DLab, when we didn't have a leader, I noticed and decided to do some good.
Clara Smith
I’m in my third-year at One Stone, and I’m passionate about digital art and baking. My Why statement is “to grow and change, and to live my most fulfilled life.” In these times, I often feel like there’s a lot of pressure to hold it together, to keep on smiling. I’ve been told to “stop crying, someone has it way worse than you.” This message is pushed on us by society as a whole, and it’s a very harmful mindset. We have generations of people who think talking about mental health, or even expressing any dissatisfaction with their lives, is bad, and that they don’t deserve to feel that way. We’re all just broken pieces of people, trying to hold it together and “put on a brave face.” This piece is meant to reflect that sentiment, showing a figure that’s literally falling apart being forced to “keep on smiling” as everything, and everyone crumbles around them. For me, “being the good,” is looking past that, and really seeing someone. It’s seeing them and all their pieces, and saying, “I see you.” It’s being there to help someone pick up the pieces, even when everyone else refuses to look. That’s what it means to me. Through One Stone, I’ve been lucky enough to find those people, and hopefully, I’ve been that person for someone else. There have been so many people here who have supported me during difficult times, in big and small ways. Sometimes we’re all a little like that broken person. We feel alone, like no one really sees us. But just out of sight, there’s always someone there who wants to support you, who wants to help you, who sees you, all of you. You just need to let them in. You aren’t alone, and I see you.
Vicki-Lynn Holman
To do good means to project positivity and helpfulness into your community. In small ways like smiling at people as they pass by on the street, and in larger ways like raking people’s lawns or participating in Design Lab. My artifact focuses on the latter. Not only do we solve community problems in Design Lab, DLab also inspires other people who are not directly involved to have a positive impact on the community as well. The DLab pitches that affected me the most, Toxic Traditions and Childhood trauma, dealt with two subjects that have always been very important to me. The good I want to do in the world is to create a world where everyone can achieve their goals in a space that is safe and without judgement. That is what I wish for, and these two DLab pitches not only showed me that others’ hearts are also broken by these issues, they also inspired me to take action to start fixing these problems in my own community. The whole point of the pitches was to inspire others to join you on your mission for good. Experiencing all the incredible pitches greatly inspired me to join one of the groups so that I could help spread good in my community, and I’m sure it inspired many others as well. Over the past 10 weeks, these small moments of good and inspiration have taught me a bit more about myself. One thing that I already knew, but which was reinforced, was that the power of inspiration and inspiring others is an extremely important factor in my motivation and enjoyment of what I am doing. Secondly, I learned that I want to strive to be a radically positive person, improving my quality of life, as well as others’, by constantly growing, being kind, and spreading good wherever I can.
William Olson
My name is William Olson. I enjoy learning about math, physics, and areas in science like biology. I also enjoy helping those around me in fun ways. By Being the Good, I am finding a connection between the two through goal setting and acting on my commitments to learn and create. In my first immersion this fall, Play-On, I learned coding basics for creating 3D games on Unity software. My goal in that experience was to create a simulation/game which teaches electricity principles in a hands-on way. I was excited to move forward with that! I envisioned many possibilities of how I could work with other students to help people understand resistance, current, voltage, and how they relate to electricity. During that time, I was struggling with goal setting and time management. I lost my drive to do that idea, and at the end of the immersion, I was disappointed that I hadn’t done what I wanted to do. Last week I talked to my advisor about how I am Being the Good. Thanks to some awesome ideas on his part, I realized that it would be cool to pick up this dropped project again. It wouldn’t be doing good in the exact way I expected, but I hope to learn an awesome lesson from this: Reemphasizing commitment in goal setting with my education so that I can create awesome things.
