September 29 - October 3, 2014
Eight CONNECTIONS students designed and delivered a project focused on language issues through positive posters and presentations to the 45 Teacher Advisory (TA) periods about Cory Johnson’s up-coming presentation during the school`s anti-bullying week.Students did fundraising to bring Cory Johnson into their school and also decorated 1,200 cookies for every student; they gave them out during the TA visitswhile wearing t-shirts that said "words are powerful" to help get people thinking about the words they use in everyday life. As many as 1,200 students and 80 teachers attended Cory’s presentation (a voluntary activity); students had done all the organizing on their own time. They measured the impact of the project by simply asking students around the school about how they enjoyed our guest speaker, or how they liked the posters around the school. “Overall, I feel that our project was very successful and turned out a lot better than I expected it to. We received a lot of positive feedback regarding the positive posters that went around the school, the cookies in which we handed out to each class, and our guest speaker, Cory Johnson.” Another student said that “I found that people were happy with what he had to say and that it inspired them to look at people differently”. Another, “The one thing I have learned about myself throughout this entire project (as a leader) is the fact that I loved hearing other people’s ideas and how we can come to a consensus on the best idea, and to cooperate on that idea accordingly.”
