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 By Elaina Loveland This academic year, 100,000 students' voices from urban, suburban and rural high schools in 15 states will be heard as they join in a new youth civic engagement program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. "Project 540: Students Turn for a Change" is a one-year student-led and student-centered program that aims to expand civic engagement opportunities for young people across the United States, and establish a national network for youth civic engagement. The initiative is housed and supported by Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. The name Project 540 stands for a turn of 540 degrees -- a revolution and a half. During the course of a year, students will identify the issues they care about and examine the current landscape for student civic engagement in their high school. This first phase represents one revolution. Then, students will take an additional half-turn to create recommendations that will enhance their opportunities for community involvement -- a 540 degree turn for civic change. "Young people own more of the future than we do, and we need to grant them a greater voice and investment in it," said Dr. Richard M. Battistoni, professor of political science at Providence College and director of Project 540. "This project is by and for young people. We want them to see that they have a stake in the life of their communities and that they have a responsibility to participate in them." "We're asking to hear from students," said Eric Goldman national field director of Project 540. "We want to hear students' voices and what they have to say." The Rural School and Community Trust is the only Project 540 "site" that is actually a collection of schools: 23 rural high schools in Alabama, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Vermont. According to Rural Trust site coordinator Julie Bartsch, the "Rural Radicals" have already made their mark on Project 540, urging that community members be included on the leadership teams and that students be involved in active projects as well as dialogue. Prior to launching Project 540 in schools, staff at Providence College and Youth on Board, a Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping youth become leaders in their communities, have been conducting leadership and student-facilitator trainings. Each school has a leadership team consisting of students and a lead teacher, who will guide the project through the four phases or dialogues, Goldman said. Students will: (1) identify issues that are important to them; (2) choose those issues they would like the schools to help them address; (3) examine opportunities that already exist for them to participate in civic life and (4) develop a civic action plan or proposal for the school's students to get involved with the community. Matilda Hamilton, a parent and member of the leadership team at Edward Bell High School in Millerville, Alabama said: "Millerville is in the middle of nowhere and no one wants to hear usūthis process is teaching our young people how to get their voices heard." "If they're going to be our citizens we need to work with them," said Robi Kroger, Rural Trust site coordinator for the Nebraska and South Dakota schools participating in Project 540. "We want them to be valuable assets to their communities." In addition to the rural schools participating in Project 540, many other schools and districts across the U.S. are part of the project. For information on the other participants, and more details on the initiative, visit the Project 540 Web site at http://www.project540.org. Alabama Bibb Graves High School, Millerville, AL. Enrollment: 145 Edward Bell High School, Camp Hill, AL. Enrollment: 270 John Essex High School, Demopolis, AL. Enrollment: 100 Loachapoka High School, Loachapoka, AL. Enrollment: 200 These four small schools represent the racial diversity of rural Alabama: Bibb Graves school is a racially integrated school and Edward Bell High School, John Essex High School and Loachapoka High School are traditionally African American schools. Students in several of these schools have sponsored and run community newspapers, have done community history and photography projects, and have participated in community music and theater programs. Students are actively involved in strengthening and preserving their small schools in an environment where many small schools have been closed or consolidated in the name of cutting costs (without evidence that it is truly cost-effective) and despite the community value of the school. With the support of community members and teachers, students at Bibb Graves High School recently helped to reverse a court decision to consolidate their school. North Carolina Fairmont High School, Fairmont, NC. Enrollment: 784 South Robeson High School, Robeson, NC. Enrollment: 587 Red Springs High School, Red Springs, NC. Enrollment: 692 St. Pauls High School, St. Pauls, NC. Enrollment: 845 Purnell Swett High School, Pembroke, NC. Enrollment: 1486 The five high schools in this cluster are located in Robeson County, the most ethnically diverse rural county in the U.S., according to the 1990 census. The County's population is approximately one-third Native American (Lumbee), one-third European American, and one-third African American and Hispanic. These high schools have classes and clubs that are involved in short-term community-service projects, including tutoring assistance, working with food pantries and clothing drives, Special Olympics and "Big Sweep" -- the annual river cleanup day. The schools hope to expand their "Green Maps" project as part of their civic engagement work, in which middle and high school students from across the county locate historical, cultural, civic and recreational sites along with geographical and environmental features, and then publish community maps identifying these landmarks and resources. Green Maps have been used in various parts of the world to help groups educate the public about their communities' assets and increase local participation in protecting these precious local resources. The original Green Map model was expanded in these schools to include cultural, historical, and political resources, earning them recognition from Green Map International. The expansion of the mapping model has helped bring Robeson County's diverse communities together around a shared history. South Dakota and Nebraska Bell Fourche High School, Bell Fourche, SD. Enrollment: 67 Boone Central High School, Albion, NE. Enrollment: 287 Burwell High School, Burwell, NE. Enrollment: 135 Elgin High School, Elgin, NE. Enrollment: 108 Howard High School, Howard, SD. Enrollment: 280 Loup County High School, Taylor, NE. Enrollment: 68 Ord High School, Ord, NE. Enrollment: 287 Several of these schools have been working together over the past four years in their affiliation with the Rural Trust. The South Dakota schools were part of the Program for Rural School and Community Renewal, a statewide 15-school network coordinated by South Dakota State University; and the Nebraska schools partnered with School at the Center, a statewide 26-school network coordinated by the University of Nebraska. All these schools have strong commitments to their communities and actively involve students in the issues and challenges of community life. Students help communities celebrate cultural heritage and renew cultural traditions, practice environmental preservation, conduct research and launch entrepreneurial ventures that are expanding their communities' limited economic opportunities, and contribute valuable input to local government committees. For example, students at Ord High School in Nebraska have worked with the Valley Economic Development Group to recruit a business, which has created over 100 new jobs in their community of 2,500. Ohio Trimble High School, Glouster, OH. Enrollment: 307 Federal Hocking High School, Stewart, OH. Enrollment: 420 Miller High School, Hemlock, OH. Enrollment: 300 Warren High School, Vincent, OH. Enrollment: 941 All four of these rural high schools are in the Appalachian region of Ohio. Even with substantial environmental degradation, the area continues to possess incredible biodiversity. The region has a rich culture and history, with strong traditions in music, arts and crafts. With the support of Rural Action, a grassroots community organization that organizes citizens to strengthen local communities, students in several of these schools are involved in the long-running DeRolph school funding case. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of more than 500 school districts in Ohio, has lasted a decade. In order to effectively involve students in some of the important education policy issues in Ohio, Rural Action produced a curriculum guide on the DeRolph case to be used in civics, social studies and government classes. Last May, approximately 900 students from 13 different schools attended a rally at the Ohio Statehouse on the school funding issue. Students in these schools are also working a project to increase local involvement in school facilities design in several school districts in the area. Students are doing an action research project that involves photographing their existing buildings as a way of documenting design and structural strengths and weaknesses. The students will share these images with community and civic organizations to get them involved in the process of designing new facilities for the districts. Vermont Cabot K-12 School, Cabot, VT. High school enrollment: 90 People's Academy, Morrisville, VT. Enrollment: 364 Thetford Academy, Thetford, VT. Enrollment: 360 (grades 7-12) These three high schools are part of a coalition of 18 rural schools in northern Vermont called the Vermont Rural Partnership (VRP). Formed in 1996, the schools have these goals in common: building adult/youth partnerships; fostering school/community partnerships; developing place-based curriculum; and promoting citizenship skills in youth by service to the community. VRP schools are all small, ranging in size from 32 students to 400. The VRP is a nonprofit organization with proven experience in coordinating multi-school projects. The VRP developed a student leadership curriculum for middle and high school students -- Adventures in Leadership -- that fosters youth community engagement and leadership skills. As a result of this curriculum, students are now voting members on the Cabot School Board. All three schools offer a civics course as part of the high school curriculum, and two of the three have a capstone senior project course that involves community-based initiatives. People's Academy recently embarked on an innovative high school reform model and has added a collection of mini-courses that encourage student leadership: Social Activism, REAL (developing entrepreneurial expertise), STOMP (Students Together Organizing Mentoring Projects), and Service to the Community. All three schools are interested in making changes to the curriculum that will foster more youth civic engagement. Events | Services | Newsroom | Contact Us | Search © 2003 The Rural School and Community Trust 
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