There is a false belief that in comparison to adults, young people are less capable of making a difference. Our society readily accepts this idea, perceiving those older than you as having more powerful voices. Why try when you have no influence? No experience? This faulty logic is stripped away by our GHHS students as they take on a project to create change bigger than them in our community and in the wider world. Mrs. Kennedy Floyd introduced “Passion Projects” to her UW 131 class at the beginning of the semester. An English teacher who takes her job seriously, Mrs. K. Floyd felt her purpose was to encourage students to use their writing and ideas to create things they care about. A passion project is a project independently taken on by a student to form a plan of action that works towards a goal they are passionate about seeing achieved—often a problem being acknowledged or mitigated. The 131 students work to promote their idea from creating elevator pitches to recording a podcast. “Last year one group collected stuffed animals to deliver to St. Joe’s, and they had hundreds of stuffed animals,” said Mrs. K. Floyd of the previous year’s successes.

Student Libby Shea is an advocate for the voices of those undergoing domestic abuse. The intention of her project is to prepare students to recognize abuse, giving them skills to protect themselves, loved ones, and others in their communities. “I want to incorporate lessons about boundaries, respect, and how you should treat other people, starting in elementary school. Then once you go into middle and high school, they’re going to incorporate workshops into health or just classes that fully target domestic violence,” said Shea. Her idea is to provide specialist-led supplemental workshops in classrooms that teach kids how to avoid and address unhealthy relationships, similar to how first responders visit health classes for several weeks to educate students on emergency medical procedures. Shea’s plan starts with our school and expands throughout the district, and the reach only grows from there.

You’ve heard of local blood drives, but have you heard of hair drives? A product of much research, student Ryan Dietrich (11) is putting to action his plan of organizing hair donations in the community. Dietrich’s project is built to address the issue of oil pollution in the ocean, which it will do by collecting hair to construct hair mats; mats that are placed around storm drains to catch the oil before it reaches the sea. A specific machine, founded by the San Francisco-based organization “Matter of Trust,” is made to manufacture hair into storm-drain mats. “We are currently in contact with the nonprofit with the machines, and we’re in the process of hopefully getting one of the machines at the school here,” said Dietrich. As a first step in his action plan, Dietrich has begun communication with Harbor Watch for their assistance in setting up a mat machine once they have access. Dietrich states that the ultimate goal is to post a machine at the school and get the donation under way. “It was something that I thought was kind of out there, but also obtainable and had semi-realistic expectations for,” said Dietrich. “Anybody who wants to donate, we like longer hair, four inches or longer; we can really take anything.”

Oil pollution is an issue that can be found in every ocean on Earth, a problem that no marine-dwelling animal escapes the effects of, not even those that fly. Student Dakota Wyant (12) has always felt strongly about pollution and climate change, especially when birds are in the line of effect. Bird lover and proud owner of two cockatoos, Wyant’s passion project is focused on how pollution such as plastics and oil is affecting seabirds. Wyant’s goal is to spread awareness of the issue throughout her community and beyond. “I found an organization that’s housed at the University of Washington. They collect data on what types of birds are living where, which can help pinpoint where pollution is and where more birds need help,” explained Wyant. The organization, called COASST—Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team—is a project that studies Northeast Pacific coastal habitats. “Ideally, I would reach out to COASST and see what their training program is like, to become one of the data collectors and then maybe organize some sort of beach cleanup,” said Wyant. Studying the quality of beach environments and their avian inhabitants would aid in the scientists’ effort to identify where issues of pollution are most likely to occur, further protecting the wildlife.

Our students are proving that you don’t need years under your belt to do what you believe in and promote goals that are important to you. Mrs. K. Floyd described the projects as demonstrating the student’s initiative, creativity, determination, and personal values and interests. “They have developed valuable skills—from writing blogs, presenting elevator pitches, to designing multimodal posters, and filming PSAs—in the process of problem-solving and creatively pursuing an action plan to implement their passion,” K. Floyd said. The projects are an opportunity for students to think creatively and apply communication skills in active ways. From our students’ accomplishments, we can easily see the value of a person’s efforts.