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Vernon students pay it forward

Vernon Community School students bring Australian adventure home to ‘pop up’
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Students at Vernon Community School were greeted back from winter break with a challenge to create a “Play in a Day” about Canadian Norman Bethune, who is a hero in China. This was a new and unfamiliar task — even in the innovative ecology of VCS.

Four VCS student leaders — who had been given the opportunity to attend an International Youth Conference in Sydney, Australia, all expenses paid — took up different aspects of the challenge: directing, set design, stage managing, production design and crafts. While in Sydney, Australia, Eva Wong, the director of Heart Chorus International, challenged them to come home and “pay it forward.” HCAI is a Canadian not-for-profit organization whose goal is to nurture youth leaders and provide them with a sense of social responsibility. HCAI is volunteer-based, promoting personal growth and happiness in society by organizing a variety of community-service activities, and enhancing self-awareness, communication and leadership skills.

One of the creative ways these VCS student leaders decided to “pay it forward” was with “pop-up” Heart Chorus days in Vernon. Like all learning at Heart Chorus, the “Play in a Day” was an experiential learning day.

“In its simplest form, experiential learning means learning from experience or learning by doing. Experiential education first immerses learners in an experience and then encourages reflection about the experience to develop new skills, new attitudes, or new ways of thinking.” (Lewis & Williams, 1994)

The students were given a rough script, as well as a student volunteer leader (trained at Heart Chorus Sydney) to support their ideas, and a teacher to help bring those ideas to life. They were challenged to think about which group they were most passionate about contributing to, and had two half days to complete the task. It was an engaging, frustrating, challenging and rewarding experience. They presented to an audience of parents and peers full of praise and helpful feedback for future productions. An off shoot of the “Play in a Day” challenge is the beginning of an after-school acting club led by a Vernon Community School student.

The next Heart Chorus “Pop Up” is a collaboration with Knox Presbyterian Church, bringing to life the stories of many of the amazing elders in Vernon who are often forgotten. If you see other opportunities to make a difference in our community, the students at Vernon Community School are open to suggestions. Contact teacher Kim Ondrik at VCS with your ideas: kondrik@sd22.bc.ca.

For more information on Heart Chorus or VCS: http://hcai.org & www.vernoncommunityschool.wordpress.com