Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic
Returning as principal at Mountain View Middle School after several years at Joan Austin Elemenatary, Terry McElligott couldn't help but notice how many after-school activities have been stripped away from the school itself.
Many have been taken up over the years by other community organizations, like athletics through the park district, but she felt a large number of students still couldn't afford to participate or simply weren't, for whatever reason.
So when Kristen Stoller and Claudia Stewart of the Newberg Education Foundation approached her about looking for a way to lend a hand in the district in a way that fit the organization's collective impact model, McElligott quickly pointed them toward after-school activities.
The result was a six-week pilot program featuring six after-school classes where volunteers from the community taught small groups of middle school students once a week on subjects ranging from cooking, woodworking and photography to art journaling, crafting friendship bracelets and even juggling.
"We just kind of brainstormed and in about 45 minutes we realized she wanted some sort of mentoring, some sort of after-school and some sort of activity, hands-on activity," Stoller said. "So we (sought out members of) the community for activity leaders, then we threw this pilot program together for six weeks."
McElligott said she had to sell the idea to some students and targeted some others she knew were in need of an activity, but in the end 65 students signed up. Students listed their preference for their top three classes and McElligott placed students accordingly so that the focus would remain on the activity and not be a vehicle for existing groups of friends to hang out.
The cooking class, which was taught by Ruddick/Wood chef Paul Losch and community member Sarah King, was by far the most popular choice, but McElligott said nearly every student was assigned to one of their top three picks.
She added that the students were both a little skeptical about the idea, mostly because they didn't know who the instructors were, but that went away after the first week. McElligott made sure that the community leaders put the emphasis on the activities and not lecturing, especially for that first session.
"I think that's what made the big difference, they weren't listening to somebody after being in however many classes during the day," McElligott said. "They came, they had a little instruction and boom, they got to work, which was really good."
Chehalem Cultural Center Executive Director Sean Andries, who taught the juggling class, said his group of students were pretty hesitant the first class, but after that things flowed pretty smoothly.
"They've come a long way from that and I think they really enjoy the class," Andries said. "They get excited about certain things. There was a particular thing, a group juggling activity that I could not get them to do the first week. I knew they could do it, but they didn't have the focus, didn't have the care. We finally got it after a few weeks and then again."
McElligott said that simply learning to interact with new adults who didn't otherwise have a connection to the school is a major benefit of the program.
"The bigger thing for me was they were really making a relationship with another caring adult and that's really big," McElligott said. "Just knowing they don't have any kids in our building yet they decided to do this and volunteer and they came every time, just having that commitment and that care, the kids could see it."
That was evident in the cooking class, where eighth grade students Elliannah Brown and Jason Basurto were both appreciative that King and Losch both taught them something useful and let them just be kids.
"They're helpful and fun to hang around with," Basurto said. "They were patient with our goofiness."
Losch and King structured the class so that students learned basic cooking skills in the first few classes, building up to a final project where they butchered a chicken in Week 5, then used the meat the next week to make chicken noodle soup. By the end, the students had enough skills to follow a basic recipe and left having already made no-bake cookies, hummus, breakfast burritos, homemade macaroni and cheese, and the soup. By the final class, all they had to do was get the students started chopping their vegetables and cutting up their chicken, with the students handling the rest of the soup preparation pretty much on their own.
"I think that felt like my most rewarding part because they did learn something," King said. "We had no need for a Band-Aid the entire six weeks. We should get extra bonus points for that."
The program also represented a community partnership in that various organizations and individuals donated money or materials to supply each class. For the cooking class, one local couple donated all the cooking equipment, all of which had to be brought into the classroom, with Ray's Produce and Grocery Outlet donating the produce used each week.
"It was great to have the support so that we can actually do this" King said.
Stoller said the pilot will be thoroughly evaluated after it wrapped up two weeks ago, but that several community members are already on board to teach classes either in the fall/winter or the spring.
"I think it's a great idea," Andries added. "I think it would be lovely if somebody wanted to step in and make a large donation to this cause, but I think as a proof of concept, this has worked great and the kids have gotten a lot out of it."
