Project Bridging Cultures as salon

As students are looking ahead to the future (as Amanda wrote about in the last post), there is also plenty to occupy them in the here and now.

Our classroom serves a number of roles: homework center, resource center, and activity center, among others. It is in this last category that students have been really making this space their own.

Chess continues to be incredibly popular. We often see our "chess team" engaged in play, especially during fifth period lunch and after school. Our room has also become the meeting place for a student-run calligraphy club. On Tuesday afternoons, the members cover half the conference table in newspaper and practice writing beautiful Chinese characters. Once in a while, a student brings in a guitar and strums in the background.

Students also often debate in our room. One particularly hot topic has been the presidential election. Many students have a candidate that they support, and some of them even voted on Tuesday in the Pennsylvania primaries. When I ask them about the issue they care about most, their responses are various: the war in Iraq, the economy, health care, the environment.

Another popular recent debate had to do with the death penalty. Some of our students had been studying the death penalty in their classes, so I asked them if they were in favor of or against it. Interestingly, the students were almost evenly split, and each side had a very strong opinion of why the death penalty should or should not be allowed. Over the course of several days, they had intense discussions with each other, bringing up point after point even after our program had closed for the day.

For students who are often graded in school based on whether they have the right answer, these discussions can be an opportunity for them to express themselves and learn from each other without having to worry about being wrong. For students who sometimes feel bored by their classes, they may feel more engaged having discussions concerning the same issues that have confounded countless philosophers and intellectuals. And for students who often feel shy about speaking English, these conversations are a great way for them to talk about real, substantive issues and practice their language skills without it feeling like work.

I wonder, what will they talk about next week?

Looking ahead

Even though we still have two months left in the year, students are already looking ahead. Seniors are thinking about their post-high-school plans, and beginning to stretch their wings outside of the classroom.

This spring, two students chose to do the community-service/fieldwork component of their senior projects at the Welcoming Center. They spruced up their resumes and came down to the Center City office for an interview. Isabelle and I talked to them about their goals and interests. Their senior projects focused on topics related to immigration, including religious tolerance and racism in the United States.

We had to do some creative scheduling to find times that would work, since school ends at 3:04 p.m. and our office usually closes at 5, leaving a short window for volunteering.

Both students took their work seriously. They dressed in professional clothes and paid close attention to the tasks they were asked to perform. One of the projects they did was to help us create a list of other nonprofit organizations that serve immigrants. This will help us in the future when people from places as far away as Virginia call us asking for help.

Other students are also looking toward the future. Two students are especially focused on healthcare careers. One has already had a volunteer job at a hospital. Now she is working with an organization that serves survivors of domestic violence. Another student spoke to me today about finding an opportunity for himself in the fall. He is a junior now but has already decided he is interested in being a nurse.

It is an exciting time to be in the Bridging Cultures classroom. We are all looking toward the future and envisioning the next steps towards our dreams. I am already having "popcorn thoughts" (lots of quick ideas) about more things we can do this summer to get ready for a new year.

Of course, right now there is spring sunshine to enjoy and another two months to go before graduation.

Lost No More followup

Our "Lost No More" event in January continues to get attention.

For example, the spring issue of Motivos Magazine, a bilingual English- and Spanish-language magazine for youth, includes an article and photographs from the event. The stories from the event are also featured in the April newsletter of BRYCS (Bridging Refugee Youth & Children's Services), a national project that provides technical assistance to refugee-serving organizations.

At the school, students have been enthusiastically reading their classmates' writing in a keepsake booklet we made for the contributors. Several of the stories are available on our Web site.

April showers

The first days of April brought with them three days of PSSA testing and SAT signups for the juniors, college acceptance letters and field work projects for the seniors, and generally a different feeling in the air as the weather outside gets warmer and sunnier.

Our program days at the school continue to be interesting as we read surrealist plays in Reading Club, design comic book characters in Art Club, and participate in games of Mafia in the bilingual class. Ginny and Michelle also came down to the school to deliver an informative and light-hearted workshop on job-searching skills.

Of course, there is plenty of excitement to be had outside the school as well. Last weekend, Pete, Amy, Steve, Mary, Amanda and I had Thai food and watched two film festival documentaries at International House, including one co-directed by two Philadelphia teenagers. A few more outings are still to come.