How two students used our schools Purpose Program, a three-week experiential

sequence that empowers students to take meaningful and active roles in their learning
and for their communities, over four years: 9th-Design Thinking, 10th-Serving Locally,
11th-Classroom and Community, 12th -Capstone.

Byron Armstrong

9th Our team created an app to solve the problem of students keeping track of
their schedules. This personalized schedule app synced class, extracurricular, and
personal schedules with our internal school calendar. The design process taught me
to work collaboratively while making the lives of our fellow students easier.
10th - On a team of sophomores, I worked with a local nonprofit organization using
the BUILD (Believe-Understand-Invent-Listen-Deliver) model to engage their
clients of elderly citizens.
11th - During my junior year, I experienced day-long visits to district and state
officials. Developed with my advisor, each visit demanded rigorous research and
preparation which fostered a connection between my classroom experiences and
the world beyond.
12th Combining my previous Purpose Program projects, I created an app (9th)
that easily linked citizens with civic needs (10th) with the appropriate local political
official or organization (11th) that could fulfill that need. The app streamlines the
process of citizens needs/requests reaching the individuals or groups who can best
meet their civic needs/requests.

Lillie Burke

9th: I worked with a group to develop a Valentines gift exchange that connected all
members of our school (staff, administration, teachers, and students). To alleviate
feelings of exclusion, pressures around dating, and isolation of some staff members,
this gift exchange brought our community together.
10th: I developed a tutoring program for students to gain conversational fluency in
languages not offered by our school from staff. Staff became teachers, and
students could now learn languages rarely taught like Tagalog (Philippines) and
Fulfulde (Cameroon).
11th: I interviewed first generation immigrants as a supplement to my studies of
American History. Working with my history teacher, I used an interdisciplinary
approach to research recent immigrant experiences within the context of Americas
immigration history.
12th: I decided to support underclassmen in their 9th grade design thinking
challenges which provided me an opportunity to mentor younger students and
provided practice of hands-on leadership.