Middle and high schoolers are hard at work and play deep inside the College of Education at TCU.
They were bopping and weaving through hula hoops, which was step one in a leadership workshop that helped middle school students learn how to be active in making their community better.
"First thing is trust each other. If you don't trust each other, all this speed and the timing that you do is not going to work anyway, but that's the ultimate. is to build that trust," said Victor Garcia, a master teacher in the program.
More schools have students working together in group work, but how effective is it? Educators here say you can’t just make a group it has to buy in and then they can tackle anything and that’s just what they did.
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"The stuff that we are doing right now is food shortages, and we are going to be helping conserve water," said Miles Morris, a middle schooler.
It’s called iEngage, and the goal is to get Fort Worth’s future leaders thinking about how to make their neighborhood and city better. They tackled big issues now that the community will likely continue to face into their adult years.
"As young people, they have a voice. They can make a difference in their schools, in the various communities that they belong to. I also help the hope. I also hope that they're walking away with a sense of community with each other and knowing that they can collaborate and have big ideas and go back and just be better citizens themselves," said Michele Bauml, Professor, TCU.
Carter In The Classroom
Focusing on unique things school districts are doing to help children succeed.
Everything from homelessness in Tarrant County to improving the literacy rate in the area, these kids mixed in tough discussions with fun and games and hoped to get somewhere while not getting too fired up at each other.
" We did, like, a bunch of talking, and we did a bunch of giggling, but we got it all we got it all sorted out. We did a vote, and then we, like, compromised about what we're gonna do," said Atali Traina, a middle schooler.
TCU provided the leadership session as a way to help students not just think critically and use their passion but also learn how to disagree but still respect one another and take those differences and create plans, outcomes, and concrete solutions to help better the community.
