By Macy Meinhardt, Voice & Viewpoint Staff Writer
The finale of a nine-week initiative to challenge San Diego Unified students to think and engage critically on social issues wrapped up last Tuesday.
“Nine weeks later, students had great vision. They held great values. They collaborated, they used data, and they designed a plan for how they believe we can solve some of these crises that we’re seeing,” said San Diego Unified Superintendent Dr. Lamont Jackson, in an interview with Voice & Viewpoint.
In February, teams of eight from 19 high schools in the San Diego Unified District gathered at the Aspen Challenge Kickoff where they were presented with a challenge to create a solution inspired campaign for their peers and surrounding communities. The students were then given two months to strategically select and plan a “solution” for one of five societal issues promoted: school attendance and equity, climate change, immigration, mental health, and housing.
More than half of the groups chose to create a solution for mental health—reflecting a cohesive understanding students of the urgency behind the youth mental health crisis. Team Lincoln from Lincoln High School made a worthy contribution to the challenge and also picked mental health as a focus of their solutions-oriented project.
Three SDUSD schools chosen to attend Aspen Ideas Festival
The three winning teams selected to receive an all-expense paid trip to Colorado to present their projects at the Aspen Ideas Festival this summer were Madison High School, Mira Mesa High School, and the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts. The festival serves as the Aspen Institute’s annual flagship gathering of global leaders, influencers, and entrepreneurs.
Each student presentation was judged by a panel of nine local thought leaders and directors of civic programming. After their presentation students stayed on stage to engage in a Q&A with judges over their projects.
The Winning Teams
Mira Mesa High School, one of the top three teams, created a “Student Guide to Well-Being” (SGWB) web platform that featured resources and connections to community support, and also hosted in-person events and workshops to drive people to use and engage with their site.
In regards to climate change and reducing the use of single-use plastics in the community, Madison High School presented a project titled “SPORK” that sought to improve the recycling habits of their peers via a public awareness campaign. Their project collaborated with local restaurants to use a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic utensils and partnered with high schools in Tijuana, Mexico to internationally replicate their work.
Meanwhile, the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts created a project focused on chronic school absenteeism in school systems by tracking down the key causes of absenteeism amongst their peers. The group found that lack of transportation access and unaddressed mental health concerns contributed most to chronic absenteeism at their school, leading them to craft a solution known as “LEO” (Learning Excellence Outreach). Students worked with their district to add buses to their school’s fleet and forged district-sanctioned partnerships with local universities that would bring graduate students within psychology and social work to their schools to begin working with their student body.
Three other schools received recognition for originality, collaboration, and resilience—Mt. Everest Academy, Crawford High School, and Hoover High School. Meanwhile, Mission Bay High School received the People’s Choice Award, voted on by their peers from the other schools.
The room was packed with over a hundred students, and educators also known as Aspen “coaches” from across the districts as students got on stage to present.
Were you nervous to go on?
“It’s a large crowd. Yeah I mean, I was definitely apprehensive and a little bit nervous but as you go along, it gets a lot easier. And the judges made me very comfortable there when they were asking questions and (were) very supportive. So it wasn’t too difficult to deal with,” said Lincoln High School Senior.
What was your favorite part of this experience?
“For me, it’s the challenges that reflect real life problems that we’re facing now that really need to be solved, and bettering the future. Children are going to be the future. So for them to already start to think about things, it’s going to sow the seeds for change,” said Lincoln High School science and physics teacher, Mr. Navarro.
Team Lincoln’s project also focused on mental health in conjunction with sports, which the students say is very integral in the school’s culture. Their concept centered on a sportbench that doubled as a bookshelf with books and resources for how to deal with mental health and personal wellbeing.
Voice & Viewpoint enjoyed following the journey of the Aspen Challenge in San Diego Unified School District the past three months. For more information on the initiative visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/news/aspen-challenge-san-diego-winners-announced/
