As an XLabber at One Stone, my Be The Good digital artifact that I am sharing with you is an article about XLab’s “Halloween Xtravaganza” that I wrote and designed in Two Birds. XLab used design thinking to redesign Halloween during COVID-19 for elementary school students. Developing and running a booth for the event was one of the most meaningful and insightful experiences I have ever had. What also made this enjoyable for me was the amount of ways that it aligned with, and added new things, to my T-Popper, a mindmap we use to identify our passions. One passion that I now have, due to the Halloween Xtravaganza, is doing good. I have always wanted to help others, and make a difference in my community, but never before have I thought of it as a passion. It is very satisfying to spend time creating something for someone else, and then actually implementing it, and making it real. A major part of designing this event was “construction,” which is prominent on my TPopper. I’ve always loved creating and making, so learning to use various tools in the Foundry helped my passion for building things grow even more. I really enjoyed collaborating with my team to create something that the world needs right now. Halloween Xtravaganza was also my first time conducting an empathy interview. Empathy is very important to learn the opinions of others, whether it’s how they feel about climate change or what type of candy they like. Thanks to the Halloween Xtravaganza, I learned how to take someone’s opinions and to create a solution to their problem. This is what I find so incredible about One Stone. It helps us develop important life skills, all while doing good in the world.
Kellan Coffey
What does it mean to do good? Well, that is a simple yet complicated question. To me, doing good doesn’t mean that you have to save a life or help solve world hunger. Doing good is in the little things. Like holding the door for some, saying please and thank you, saying hello to a person as you walk by each other, and even just complimenting someone. I believe those little things could make someone’s day so much better. They could make someone who feels invisible, feel like they are seen. This relates to my artifact because in the fall session of Love of Learning, after just a few sessions, my buddy and I already had a great connection. I wasn’t doing anything special to help her. I wasn’t teaching her how to read a Percy Jackson book and I wasn’t helping her learn how to write a whole essay, but I was helping her sound out words and letting her type on my computer. I believe that those little things made the experience more enjoyable. Over the past ten weeks, I learned that I am capable of helping a child get through problems, stay on task, and make sure that they follow our Covid-19 policies. I knew that I could make sure a child wouldn’t hurt themselves, but I didn’t think that I could do it with a child I just met. The only experience I had with children was with my young cousins, my neighbors, and the fact that I used to be a young child myself. I was nervous that I would mess up and my buddy would get mad or upset or even worse, hurt. The last thing I wanted was to hurt the child I just met! In the beginning, I had a bit of a rough start, my buddy forgot some hair spray that would make her hair black so that she could be Cleopatra for Halloween. She had a meltdown and kept running away. I was determined to get her to calm down so that we could rejoin the group. I eventually chased her into a stairwell where she hid behind a pole. I sat down and tried to talk to her so that she would stop crying. I eventually had to get some help from a coach, and even then we couldn’t get her to calm down. After about 15 minutes we eventually got her to come join the group (thanks to a ladybug). After that, I had confidence that I could help a child, that I had no previous connection with, to calm down and relax. (Even if I need a little help).
Kelsey Joramo
Hello! My name is Kelsey Joramo, and I am a student at One Stone Lab51. During my time here at Lab51, I’ve gotten the opportunity to create several visual representations of what I find most important to me. One of these representations is the creation of a Vision Statement. It is what drives me as a person, and what defines my vision for the future. It’s short and simple, “Love God. Love People.” This fall, I was a part of a wonderful opportunity to serve alongside several other students at the Boys And Girls Club, and was able to live out this statement. Honestly, I was a little nervous at first. I wanted to be able to help my little buddy as much as possible, and was concerned that I wouldn’t be adequately prepared to meet their needs. As it turned out, my fears were unfounded in reality. I was paired with an energetic and spirited little girl, who was excited and ready to learn. She showed me the school work she had left on her chromebook, and we worked through them together. We finished up the assignments with time to spare, and spent the rest of our time together coloring pictures and getting to know each other. She told me about how her favorite animal was a cheetah, that she loved the color purple, what she’s been struggling with during the pandemic, and engaged in a lively discussion about how the best flavor of ice cream was strawberry. During wiggle time, a small break from sitting down to help kiddos get all their energy out, we did cartwheels all over the lunchroom. Before I knew it, our time together was up and it was time to clean. Before she left, she thanked me for talking with her, and handed me a picture that she had drawn for me. She told me that she hoped she would have me as her buddy the next week, and then skipped off to join the line of children as they left. This experience impacted me deeply as I realized that I didn't need anything fancy to connect with my kiddo. I just had to be willing to listen, and support them during the small time I was privileged to share with them. That is the highest form of respect I can show to these kids, and a real, authentic way to truly do good. I was able to apply this concept throughout the rest of my time there and connect with many more amazing kiddos. After engaging with this community all semester, I have since come to the conclusion that it's not about the programs itself that make it powerful, it's the people. And this experience got me thinking, where else can I put this concept into practice? In what ways could I shift my focus to the people behind the program, and truly do good?
Laura Hunter
This has been a weird year for every member of our community. Something I have been continuously grateful for is One Stone's handle on the Covid situation. We have remained a strong and tightly knit community even while working miles apart. I have created connections with people that I have never met, and I feel comfortable and close with all of them. This is not something a lot of people can say during this pandemic, and it has really given me perspective on my life. I have learned not to take connections for granted and to not be afraid to be vulnerable with people that I'm not as close to. The last Lab51 immersion I experienced took place in the foothills, and even though we were socially distanced the entire time, I was so grateful for the chance to create in-person bonds again. I forced myself to get over my fear of being outgoing with my peers. This was a huge fear of mine for no logical reason because all of the students and coaches at my school are the most supportive and nice people. This had a major impact on my experience with this immersion and I feel less afraid to put myself out there. I don't feel constantly judged and hated by everyone anymore, and I realized that the fear had only been in my head this entire time. One Stone has permanently changed my life for the better- benefitting me and all of the people I hope to create connections with soon in the future. To me being the good in my community means giving everyone a chance and not being afraid of vulnerability because it can lead to the best opportunities in life.
Lila Cooper
Hello, my name is Lila Cooper and I believe that the One Stone community is an incubator for creativity. Coming from an education that only cares about test scores, my creativity was suffocated. I was told that my passions were useless and would never be applicable in the real world. After joining the One Stone community and being surrounded by so many innovative people, I realized that my creativity and passions are valued and are important skills, no matter what job I might have in the future. I have always had an interest in photography. When my dad and I went on walks, I would steal his phone and take pictures of everything I could see. As we get older, I believe most people lose that excitement for the world around us. Someone pulls the drain plug and our creativity drips away. One Stone has reintroduced me into that creativity and imagination that you have as a child and has allowed me to see the world in a more creative and innovative way, and I could not be more grateful.
Below are a few photos that I took for my Land + Scape + Water + Color Immersion, which was a four week deep dive into the water and life around us. Students in this immersion worked on a range of things including identifying organisms in the Boise River to watercolor painting a landscape. I chose to explore my interest in photography, as it was one of my larger bubbles on my T-Popper, as well as learning about edible plants, which relates to my passion for nature. These photos below inspire me to Be the Good for others because it reminds me of the good that One Stone has been for me. They raised to the surface my drowned creativity. To me, Being Good means being good to other people, and with this innovative mindset that One Stone has enabled me to harness, I am ready to go out into the world and Be the Good.
Lilly Furlow
Doing good to me means doing something to help others or yourself for no real reason other than simply doing it to be good. Doing good is being nice, it is giving back. There is not necessarily a reward you get from doing good, you do good for other people because it is the right thing to do. The benefit is feeling happy, and proud that you did something good, though the main goal shouldnt be your own benefit. My artifact represents a halloween event that I was a part of and contributed to. I feel very proud of my work in this event because I know we did a lot of good. We invited people to play games that we designed for free. The goal was to create a fun family experience during a time where it is hard to connect with other people and still feel safe. We got a lot of good feedback, and seeing people having fun playing the game I helped design, and hearing parents tell me how happy they were that we did this makes me feel like I did a lot of good. This experience represents the kind of good I want to do in the world, and put out in the world, because it is something people remember. It was not necessarily a big problem, but we wanted to help the best we can and support our community in a time of need, and when we looked into it we realized how important Halloween is for young children developing skills. I hope that this inspires other people to look into their community and think of the things they can do to help. In my first 10 weeks at One Stone, I've learned that I am capable of a lot more than I think I am, my passions have grown, and I feel like in a very small way I might have helped people.
Lucas Pellow
The Good
My name is Lucas Pellow, I want to talk about the early days of the Coronavirus. How in the beginning I saw it only as a negative, but now I could look at at least one of the positives of this global pandemic. At least for me. During the beginning months of the lockdowns and pandemic, I was really down and not looking forward to much. I was out of school and the routine schedule that dictated my life was shattered. I felt like I was going through the motions and had nothing to do. As lockdowns continued, my feeling of glee was also locked down. I was alone with my mom and my dad who would commute from across the state. But I received news that not only school was out for Covid, but colleges and universities alike. My brothers would be coming home until Summer and then some, along with my dad. As bad as it was to have online classes and not being able to connect with friends the same, I haven’t been closer to my entire family in years until that point.
When I came to One Stone, I was in a completely new environment and I was concerned about what I would be doing. When I got to my first immersion, it really helped me get immersed into the Lab51 environment. Not really knowing a whole lot of people in One Stone, Reboot Week and Week of Welcome really helped but also my first immersion experience. Playing around with Unity and making a game of my own was something that was really enjoyable to me. Seeing other people’s games and getting to know and getting help from them really made me immersed into the One Stone environment. Though it was hard getting back into a routine after Covid and summer, the coaches and my advisors really helped me go through with what to do. I couldn’t be more thankful for them and my family. This goes back to what I want to be Good for, I want to be there for people when they’re not in their brightest hour. I want to support others to the best of my abilities, while still keeping myself well.
Being good is something that can be hard to pinpoint. Many people have different opinions on what it means to be good and do good. I believe that one of the most important goods you could do is always being there for someone. The human psyche is a complicated thing and supporting people through their ups and downs is something that can go a long way. I wrote my first digital artifact as a story of what I was dealing with and how it was resolved; I think everyone should have someone to rely on.
I’ve thought about how One Stone also helped get me out of the funk I was experiencing during Covid and the end of summer. I work really well with an organized schedule. One Stone helped provide a weekly structure to keep me moving forward. Getting an advisory system to help me with this scheduling and work is also something I really admire about One Stone. The advisor system really helped me get into the groove of this school and I couldn’t be more grateful for them. My first immersion experience took some getting used to, but I got the hang of it with the help of my advisors and immersion coach. Whenever I do have trouble with this environment, I can always rely on my coaches or advisors to get me back on track. This also goes back to my thought that the best good you could do is to be there for someone, you never know when they’re going to need you but when they do you will know. The person who needs help will be able to recognize this and carry this idea onto themselves, and they will take this idea and become a new person all for the better.
Lucy Rodes
My name is Lucy Rodes. I am in XLab in One Stone’s Lab51, I live on a ranch, I love animals and nature, and I really enjoy doing hands-on activities. All my life I grew up going backpacking and in one of my houses when I was little, there was a bunch of room to explore in the backyard. So being in nature feels like I’m home- it’s my happy place. Doing good to me means that you strive to be the person who you always see helping people, the person who you always think is the kindest person. It means to be the change that you want to see in the world. I decided to showcase a picture of me doing water quality testing with different reflections I completed during the Land+Scape+Water+Color immersion in Lab51 as my artifact because I think it really describes who I am. My reflection excerpts showed how much I learned and how much I grew individually throughout that immersion. What breaks my heart is when people treat wildlife and plants differently based on where they are located or just treat them badly all around. I love hands-on activities, nature, wildlife biology, and so many other things. Doing water quality testing for my immersion was a risk. I knew nothing about it and had to do so much work and ask so many questions to even be able to take a single sample. But throughout that experience, I realized that I really did enjoy learning something new and that I wasn’t just passionate about life on land. I believe that this artifact will inspire others to try something new, to do Good because it almost always has a positive outcome and can help you realize so much about yourself and the world around you.
Lukas McTeague
I am Lukas McTeague, my artifact represents my passion for art, a connection to nature and a love for creativity. These relate to my t-popper in that I have had an extremely important and strong connection to nature; these photos were taken in nature and were inspired by it. To be good to me is to make sure that I leave the world a better place than I found it and always strive for perfection even if I can never reach that, appreciating nature and leaving it better than I found it is extremely important to me. This artifact represents the good I want to do because I want to live with nature the best I can and it breaks my heart that we are hurting its ability to better this world every day. I hope this artifact can inspire others by looking at nature from a new perspective and I hope it will inspire them to give it a second glance. I've learned a lot about who I am over these weeks and I will be learning a lot more, One Stone has given me a sense of community I haven't felt in a very long time and that has helped my confidence and wellbeing grow. As to what my purpose is, I haven't figured that out yet and I probably won't for a while. My passions are what drive me and hopefully I can leave this world using those passions to better where I came from.
Mac Stockdale
Hello, my name is Mac Stockdale, a DLab student in Lab51, intending to graduate in 2023. Although I didn't know it a few months ago, I recently discovered that my personal mission is to be able to use music as a way to spread good to the world. For the past few years I felt hopeless trying to find passion within my everyday hobbies. I did not know if I even enjoyed music or if music was just something that was encouraged when I was younger. But when I arrived at One Stone, I was given the opportunity to explore new passions and throw myself into the deep end of curiosity. I never really got the chance to do this at public school. One Stone gave me that opportunity to be vulnerable with myself in music, teaching me that I might fail but if I do I will embrace those mistakes and grow because of them. I used music as a way to express myself, I often struggled to understand or voice what I was feeling, but when it came to writing music, I felt like my emotions just poured out of me like a waterfall. I want others to be given that same opportunity as I was when I came to One Stone. I got to perform at a nursing home in my first immersion, Play On, and saw how much I impacted the residents in the nursing home, which changed my outlook on music. I realized that music could be a vessel through which I can create a lot of good in the world. This made me much more passionate about music and made me realize how, if you’re creative enough, your passion can become a tool to make positive change in the community. I want to be able to keep doing that. I want to help other people fall back in love with music, may that be listening to it on their ride to work or even writing their own music. I want them to long for it on hard days, seeing it as a way to embrace vulnerability. One Stone has opened my eyes to new creative opportunities and perspectives of my passions, and I am so grateful I can disrupt for good by doing something I love!
Mackenzie Davidson
Over the course of these last few months, I have done many things. I have studied plastic pollution in the Boise river. I have worked on letters to politicians voicing concerns and solutions regarding pollution, poaching, and aiding other countries' efforts in battling these situations. I have participated in a Model UN conference, and have won best delegate. I have done empathy interviews for, and researched, how children are affected by trauma and trafficking. I have joined EmpowHER, and am working on production for a podcast to help give all women a place to find inspiration and role models. I have done all of this while the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic. To me, being the good means to fight for your beliefs and morals to better the community and yourself. You don’t sit back, even when there are countless hurdles in front of you. That is what I came to understand while I was reflecting on all of the projects I have worked on so far. My artifact I chose to share is a collage of pictures I took while working on my numerous projects, and posters of causes I used as inspiration for my work. It has been my dream since I was about 11 to photograph an elephant, a chimpanzee, a mountain gorilla, a polar bear, and a great white shark. A few of those dreams may have to stay dreams, due to their rapidly declining populations. This is a man made issue, and that is what breaks my heart the most. The plastic, and other non-biodegradable disposable products, we have created, kill just like we as people kill when someone goes to Africa to hunt a lion or an elephant. All of these projects are my way of fighting to create a world I would be proud to live in. Where Animals are treated fairly, and not murdered for our own selfish reasons. Where women, people of color, and the lgbtq+ community are treated with the same respect as a straight white man, and where climate change is taken seriously. One Stone has helped me to find the resources and voice to take a stand, to learn, and to grow. None of these projects would have been possible without my coaches inspiring me to be the good.
Mackenzie Link
I am Mackenzie Link. I am incredibly resistant to change. Coming back to One Stone this fall was hard. I struggled pivoting to remote, working in small pods, socially distancing from staff/students, and with all of the other COVID protocols. It was hard to not be able to see everyone, meet new students, have group hugs at the end of our campfires, and be in a big circle at the end of every day with a “three two One Stone!”. This term has been the most difficult time of my life because of all the changes in the world and all of the massive changes in my life. I have climbed a mountain, and I am just barely seeing the top. This year is coming to a close, and I am coming to terms with the changes it has brought. I have struggled, had my breakdowns, and had my breakthroughs. This is my celebration for how high I have climbed. This video is in honor of myself, and a tribute to someone who has created the biggest challenge, but who has also brought me the most opportunity for doing good. To do good is to change someone's world, in any way, big or small. My vision statement is “shake the foundation” which directly translates to change the world. Right now, this video is a huge way I am affecting my world and the world of my family. After helping my grandmother the last few months, I have started to become less resistant to change. I am learning to accept that I can’t change people, only my view of them.
Maddie Ryan
My name is Maddie Ryan, and I am lucky enough to attend my second year of DLab in Lab51, intending to graduate in 2022. Throughout my experience at the school, I've learned many valuable things, had many valuable experiences, and have met so many amazing people. My biggest goal before graduating is to discover who I am and what I'm passionate about. I want to deeply connect with the exploration of life to find out who I really am and what really interests me while going into the real world. This relates to almost all of the work I’ve done because all along I've been discovering myself and my interests. I’ve been lucky enough to focus so much of my time finding my interests and discovering what I'm really passionate about with the help and support of others around me.
To me, doing good can mean so many things. It can be a random act of kindness that makes someone’s day, or spending weeks or months on a project for someone or something in the community. I feel it’s important to always treat others with the love and respect that they deserve and to empathize with them if you have disagreements or want to get their perspective.
For my DLab experience this fall, I focused on the UN’s Global Goal #5, which is gender equality, and was lucky enough to get a very valuable empathy experience with others in the community. I was able to go to the polling booths on Election Day and asked strangers questions related to women in politics. The experience was very valuable to me because we were able to get real, different perspectives on the world, and I feel that something like that can be the first step to doing good and to make the world a better place. Empathizing with others and listening to others can be very beneficial. As I worked with the topic for the four weeks we spent on it, it really made me think about all the different people in the world who probably wouldn’t agree with me on the subject I was focusing on, which can be very frustrating. It breaks my heart to see that there are people out there that aren’t willing to look at what’s going on around them and act on that. Something that I personally want to do, even if I can’t make a big impact, is to educate these people as well as myself on certain topics, such as gender equality, in order to make the world a more enjoyable place to live.
I think that projects like this help people understand the severity of certain situations and topics. That can definitely help spark interest and discussion which can lead to inspiring others. Not being educated on a topic is where ignorance is formed, so I think that more education on certain topics would be very beneficial to society and make serious topics more normalized and open to discussion. Over the past 10 weeks, I’ve been able to learn more and more about myself. Focusing on new and foreign topics has helped me discover who I am and my passions more and more, and I couldn’t thank Lab51 enough for making that a possibility for me.
Makiia Jones
Hi, my name is Makiia, and I think there are infinite ways to do good; big and small. Over the past year I’ve thought about changing my vision statement a lot, and while sometimes I think it should include more, I always love the simplicity of “attuning my heart to creation”. It’s always been important to me to feel connected to myself and to others and writing music is one of the most meaningful ways to do that in my life.
This pandemic has brought many troubles but one of the most significant for me (and I’m sure for others), has been feeling connected, feeling together and seen. It’s been so important to really make people know you love them and to make sure that you are staying in tune with yourself, because that can make all the difference. I know that if I am not doing what I need to be okay then there is no way that I am helping anyone else. Writing songs has proved to be one of the most steady and important things in my life because it’s my way of journaling, expressing myself and a way to show the people I love that I love them. There’s something so personal about a song. I have an instagram account that I post songs I write on, and right now about thirty people follow it. While I would like to think that my songs shine a little bit of light into people’s lives, I’m sure it gives me a lot more than it does to them. I like to write about a lot of things, but mostly things that I am experiencing or seeing in my life. This song specifically represents the pain of not knowing who you are and the struggle to live with that, to work through it, to be a part of your own team. I see so often people not loving themselves and not knowing who they are, and it breaks my heart. Empowering people to express and love themselves is something that I try to do everyday, because I hate that feeling, and I hate seeing the pain it causes.
I hope that my songs and stories help people feel not so alone and make them feel confident enough to express themselves in the ways they want to. I want my music to make people feel something, and whatever that something is I hope it’s nice.
Ever since I started writing and singing I’ve had big dreams, and I know it will always be a part of me. Whether that’s a career or just a passion throughout my life I will always appreciate the clarity and understanding it brings me.
Marco Ducharme
Misty Skies
The smog-filled heavens rest above the tight and crowded metropolis,
glistening city lights hypnotize you as you try and find your way home.
You lose sight of your family as you fly into what seems like an endless hell,
Hunger begins to consume you and your wings feel numb.
Hunger begins to control you as you dive into the city,
searching for something to call a meal you spot a rodent crawling.
As its life slowly drains you snatch it and end its suffering,
You feel a sudden pain in your stomach as you begin to fall.
“It is for a greater cause,” the people say,
seemingly ignorant of what they have caused.
Knowing what they did but refusing to acknowledge it,
we must do something soon.
My name is Marco Ducharme and I chose to write a poem reflecting on my experience with my DLab Life on Land and how we as humans affect the rest of life on earth. I have always been interested in wildlife and wrote in my T popper my passion for it and how I have always felt a connection to it. My DLab team went deep into the pollution aspects that are affecting wildlife. I found it very interesting but sad to unravel how many things we do on a day to day basis that negatively affects our world and felt a need to spread awareness about these problems. In my poem, I try to reflect on everything that is happening and to maybe shed light on some of these lesser-known problems.
For me what it means to be good is many things but I think one of the most important reasons is motivation. Many people may do good things but it’s their motives that matter the most. Did they do it for social acceptance because they had to, or did they truly do it to be a good person? That in my opinion is one of the most important aspects that may at times be overlooked.
I am also very passionate about travel, which I think will be extremely affected as pollution gets worse in many places. As horrible as many of the things that are happening right now are, I still do believe that there is hope and that humans can somehow find a way to fix what we have all caused. We need to find a way to tell all of the generations to come not just what the problem is but what they can do to slow it down or even stop it. I truly believe that we have a fighting chance to stop what has been started but we need to act instead of simply talking about how bad these problems are and do nothing about them.
Maxine Werre
I ended last school year and began the summer with little to no passions. I was in a major rut. I felt like I had used my previous year at One Stone’s Lab51 to try everything under the sun from wildlife conservation, to herbology, to design, to crime, and even law. You name it. I tried a little bit of everything, but I was still missing that spark that so many of my peers seemed to have. One thing I always found very fun but never really got the chance to explore was working with kids. Through a family friend, the opportunity to work with a City of Boise Parks and Recreation program fell into my lap. I was hesitant at first because it was a big time commitment. I started the application process unsure about my desire to commit to a full-time job over the summer, especially during the challenges of COVID. Fast forward a few months. I had my training and orientation then my first day of work. It took awhile to get into the swing of things but my coworkers really took me under their wing. With their help, I built a very good mentor relationship with the kids and with that was voted the nicest camp counselor by almost all of the kiddos. This was the best feeling ever. It became very apparent to me that this wasn't a one and done thing for me. I never complained at this job and looked forward to seeing everyone everyday. I am so lucky to be at One Stone where I am able to pursue this new found passion in so many different ways. Now, I am engaged with working as a mentor with youth through One Stone partnerships at the Boys and Girls Club, Game Changers, my virtual Love of Learning Mission Lab, and my YLab. Being so immersed in my passion for working with kids, I am still going strong. I feel so fulfilled knowing that I can potentially have an impact on kids' lives or just even give them a platform or vessel to speak. I want to help kids feel empowered and heard especially in a time like this where we are having to put safety above their other wants and needs. I want to allow kids to have the same fun experiences I got to have and to help foster some memories where kids can just be kids. So many kids were forced to grow up so fast this year and they need some time dedicated to just feeling joy and creating memories. This is how I want to do good for kids today and everyday moving forward.
Maxwell Lewis
I am Maxwell Lewis. The passions and driving force in my life have accumulated through my experience with Idaho’s rivers, fish, and lands. I have been working in the Frank Church Wilderness as river guide for the last couple years. This uncovered my love for people, and the effect that Idaho can have people and families. In One Stone’s YLab, I have been exploring Idaho’s salmon and steelhead, which are ocean-going fish that are going extinct rapidly due to human structures and habits. These fish are very important, culturally, ecologically, spiritually, and more. Salmon are species that start their life cycle high up in the Idaho alpines. At one point up until 100 years ago, they would be found in every river spanning all over Idaho, with an exception of the lost rivers that appear and disappear back into the ground. We no longer have salmon in the Weiser, Payette, Boise, Owyhee, Bruneau, and Upper Snake River systems. These runs have all gone extinct to human dams. The few rivers and ecosystems that still have some salmon are the Salmon, Selway, Lochsa, and Clearwater drainages. Even where salmon return to, they are facing a hard battle. As these salmon go extinct due to human dams and increasing water temperatures, our ecosystem is truly in danger. Within YLab, I have been given the opportunity to dive deeper into these species, and talk to experts who are pouring their soul into the survival of the salmon. For me personally, being the good is living like the salmon. I strive to live like a salmon — living solely for the purpose of helping the space around me thrive and heal. I see how powerful this species is — it’s written in their genes, their sole purpose of living is to bring materials of life with them and spread it. When I think about the human race as a whole, I don’t see this. I see mass destruction, a contagious decline in the species around us, and grand scale effects that are cousin issues we can’t even wrap our minds around. I think the salmon can be an example of what the human race could be. Practicing a new way of life that has purpose — a purpose of being a part of the larger species that is life itself, not just limited to the human race. I believe nature is intelligent; that all life, plants, animals, and fungi are aware. I think the species that have survived the longest on earth are the ones that learned to adapt, and have a balance between relying on and giving to the spaces around them. Through YLab, I have found myself trying to answer these questions, “How can humans learn from salmon and how can we learn from nature?” As I continue to explore these questions, I hope to be the good Idaho needs to address this serious ecological emergency.
Maya Weppner
Going into the school year I was excited to learn more about Idaho and the earth and how to live a more healthy life. Then I joined the Landscape Watercolor immersion and engaged in a lot of ideas on how to become more sustainable and how to better the industrial agriculture system. I ended up learning a lot about farming and the beneficial ways of doing so that help to trap carbon dioxide reducing climate change. I was amazed at how much I didn’t know and how passionate I felt about it. I wanted to help educate everyone on this topic. So I did, in my immersion, I told everyone to watch some of the documentaries I had watched that inspired me. Flash forward a bit and I am the manager of a community garden along with my two buddies Jack and Silas. We’re testing different practices to create healthy soil by not using conventional fertilizers as a way to kill weeds. I stumbled into this role with them just by showing an interest and excitement that I didn’t know I had for farming. It has been so powerful for me to work with the land and soil to create something living that can sustain me and educate others on what healthy living looks like. We have plans to give things that we grow in the garden to people in need. I feel just in our Project Good that we have inspired a lot of people to care about what they eat and where it comes from. Continuing to garden and live a more ecologically conscious lifestyle is definitely something that inspires me and something I feel is a purpose of mine.
Mayahuel Godinez-Gonzalez
Hello, I am a scientist. I am a curious person who tries to look at issues from multiple perspectives rather than just one, so that other voices can be heard and so that I can be open-minded about potential solutions to a problem. My open-mindedness, combined with my Why statement, has helped me go deeper into my education in areas such as computer science and math. Is it hard? Yes, but it’s worth the effort. If we don’t challenge ourselves, then what are we doing? Now this might be a weird way of introducing myself, but it’s better than saying “Hi, I am Mayahuel.” This way of introducing myself doesn’t give a context of who I am, so I chose this way instead to represent myself. One Stone has taught me to push myself, to accept myself, grow from my mistakes, and see things in a different lens. For my artifact, I wanted to represent a different way we can see things in our world by using one of my passions that I haven't engaged in much this school year until last month: photography. I wanted to show a way we can see everyday things differently. Something that inspired me to do this project was the impact I had from my interviews for my Design Lab about sexual education towards racial minorities in Idaho. Before this DLab, I didn’t think sexual education was a big concern in Idaho until I witnessed an interview with a woman who teaches sexual education to refugees. This helped me see Boise through a new lens. This is what I want to show in my artifact: different perspectives of the world. This is how I want to do good in my community.
Mazrik Della Badia
My name is Mazrik Della Badia, and one day I will do extraordinary things. I have been at One Stone for only a few months, and I have grown more, and faster, than I thought I could even in my wildest dreams. My artifact for this project is a monologue from the play "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams. This is a play that is incredibly meaningful to me. The character Tom and his circumstances are relatable to me in the sense that Tom is so miserable and in so much pain because he just wants to fly away. And leave the world behind, but he cannot do so. The way that Tom feels is very much the way that I felt before I came to One Stone. This monologue is a farewell letter of sorts. With this piece of art, I hope to leave the strife and pain of my former self behind me and allow myself to grow even more. I still feel trapped in Boise, but I do not feel trapped at One Stone. This monologue helps me be the good because it gives others the opportunity to be the good. Let me explain what I mean. To me, performing this monologue takes quite a lot of courage and vulnerability. By articulating that, it gives others the opportunity for empathy, and the opportunity to support me. Being the good means putting others before yourself, no matter what. Furthermore, being the good means putting the world before yourself. If we as a community, and as a species, put others before ourselves, the problems and hardships that we face daily will be mitigated. I am so grateful for One Stone because it has helped me to recognize and solidify this as a core belief.
