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MVA students are thoughtful, committed citizens who can change the world.
Story Behind the Evidence:
While participating in expeditions, MVA students strive to become Citizen Scholars who achieve, not only academic rigor, but also C.R.E.W. excellence. In doing so, students become agents of change in the world demonstrating the design principles Service and Compassion, Empathy and Caring, and The Natural World. MVA students make a difference in the lives of others when they participate in the Civil War, Civil Rights kickoff volunteering at local and regional service organizations. MVA students have an impact on Veterans when they collaborate with them during fieldwork at Highground Veterans' Memorial. Furthermore, MVA students change the world when they educate their neighbors and community through the sharing of projects and products like their climate change stories and energy audit infographics.
Citizen Scholar
MVA students work to achieve Citizen Scholar acknowledgement at the end of every trimester. This shows how students are working to become individuals that want to make an individual change. The raw data of this school-wide practice is shown in our character profile. To achieve the Citizen Scholar Rolls for each trimester students have to meet the following criteria:
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Have earned a 3.0 grade point average for the trimester.
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Have a Dojo score of 80% or higher for the trimester (This replaces the handbook requirement saying earn citizen scholar scores of 3 or higher in all classes...it is the same thing, we just record in Dojo now instead of skyward.)
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Have met the Star reading requirements for the trimester.
Then collectively over three years they are awarded gold, silver, bronze levels of achievement over three years. This is achieved by obtaining a certain number of trimesters in receiving the Citizen Scholar Roll.
Culture of Climate Change
In our Culture of Climate Change expedition, students were actively engage in creating documentaries that focus on how climate change may impact their family traditions. They create these after studying culture around the world and local Ojibwe traditions and how the cultural practices are linked to the environment. Students shared their message the local UW-Marathon County, taught other adults about what they learned at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and their work was showcased at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress conference in Hawaii, September 2016. Student reflections on how their ideas changed from before the expedition can be found in the video link.
A quote from expert Cathy Techtmann, “If I could sum up my reflections on Marathon Venture Academy in three words it would be RESPECT, LEARNING, and LEADERSHIP.” “Marathon Venture Academy epitomizes exactly what we hoped to achieve through our G-WOW model. But in my wildest dreams I never expected such a comprehensive response from a middle school, or any school! The Marathon Venture Academy teachers, principal, and students accomplished this through their commitment to engaging youth in a difficult issue that is challenging our world, but doing so with respect and inclusiveness. In their willingness to seek and share ideas for addressing climate change, these students demonstrate a heart of servant leadership. This is needed, if we are to solve wicked issues like climate change.”
A quote from Jennifer Swartz, Chicago Botanic Garden, “As a learning scientist by training and a veteran practitioner and designer of informal science education, the work being done at MVA exemplifies best educational practices in that it combines the content rigor generally associated with more traditional learning contexts with the excitement, creativity, collaboration, and interdisciplinary connectedness found in more experiential settings. Likewise, their approach is truly interdisciplinary – integrating all subjects into their expedition – unlike many that limit integrated approaches to math/science or language/social studies. The faculty and staff at MVA have created an exceptional learning environment in which students are excited to learn, respectful of themselves and others, and eager to share their accomplishments.”
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Student reflections on this process are:
McKinnley, “The most memorable moment for me would have to be just being part of the cause and actually getting to teach people about our school. I felt so proud to be an MVA student and I am glad that I, a seventh grader, could make a change.”
Julianna, “My biggest take-away from the Gardens is that we can’t just pretend climate change isn’t happening. We should all really try to prevent it by doing something, even if what we’re doing seems too small to affect anything, because if we all do our part, we could really make a difference.”
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Sustainability
In this expedition students studied energy sources and evaluated a room to complete an energy audit on. One of the tasks was for students to share their findings with whomever’s room they completed the audit on. We have an example of one of our students who completed his energy audit on the gymnasium at our school. He presented his findings and solutions to save energy for our school by showing this all to the school board.
Alex’s reflection of the process was, “It was something that will stick with me forever. I was nervous but confident and that paid off for me.”
Operation Pride
Operation Pride allows students to understand what it means to serve and the importance of caring for our veterans. Students interview a veteran they know or a local veteran and write that person’s pre-service, service, and post-service experiences in a biography. Throughout this time, as a service students invite their veteran to attend fieldwork with them at The Highground in Neilsville, WI. The Highground is a veteran’s memorial park in which it’s a place of healing and remembrance for those that have served. There are tributes created by local artists that provide so many details about that war-related memorial. A group of students submitted mini-tributes to The Highground’s board for their ideas to be considered for the upcoming tribute on Service Dogs. It’s a humbling experience for students, staff, and our veterans to attend. The culminating product to this expedition involves students presenting their veteran with their biography book, a metal made in art class, and music representing all branches of military and service at a Celebration of Learning honoring all who served.
Becoming American
A local retired principal has made his retirement work about helping Hmong living in Laos detonate unexploded ordinance from the Vietnam War. Mr. Jim Harris’s work sparked interest in our school, because our students were learning what it means to “become an American.” Students study why Hmong refugees moved to our area, their own family heritage and the background of how we became a country. In this expedition, Jim Harris provides our students with the background of the Vietnam war, living as refugees in a new country and the cultural implications that come with that. He talks about the effects that are still happening after the Vietnam war in the Hmong native country of Laos. Our students were moved by these stories and have made it their mission to raise funds for Jim Harris to help out children living with birth defects due to agent orange. Our students and staff have sold bags of coffee harvested in Hmong villages in Laos and sold bracelets at school to fund multiple surgeries. Their efforts were highlighted by our local newspaper.
Civil War/Civil Rights
Student dive into this expedition doing service at local organizations so they can experience first hand and develop an understanding of the meaning of civil rights. Students fold blankets, make cards, wrap books and stock shelves at the Women’s Community Shelter. Small groups of students take a shift of bell ringing at many local stores for the Salvation Army. Students put together meal packages, stock shelves, and organize household items at The Neighbors Place. Small groups of students prepare meals at local churches to serve a warm meal to displaced community members. Through these experiences students are engaged in wanting to learn more about the rights of humans and make connections back to these “kick-off” experiences.
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