This is a story of insight. Sammi E., a student at Riverstone School, joined One Stone’s Project Good, hoping to make a difference in a little known public health problem: social isolation. At the One Event 2020, Sammi shared her moment of insight, explaining how understanding the residents of a housing development for seniors, veterans and adults with disabilities revealed a meaningful way to brighten their lives.
A Moment of Elevation: Liam's Story
The One Event is about student voice. This year’s theme, The Power of Moments, was a chance for students to share personal stories about the One Stone moments that have changed their lives. Liam N.’s story is about a moment of elevation – a moment that might have otherwise fallen victim to the frailties of memory and simply drifted away with time, but instead became fixed in his mind as something special. Something ELEVATED.
A Moment of Pride: Christian's Story
At the One Event 2020, several One Stone students shared deeply personal stories about moments that have changed their lives. Christian R., a learner in our lab school, took the stage to tell about how One Stone helped him regain a sense of pride – something he once risked to try to fit in with a group of so-called “friends.”
One Event 2020: The Power of Moments
Treefort Trailblazers: Accessibility DLab
Treefort is a welcoming music festival that takes place in beautiful downtown Boise every spring. However, according to Treefort’s leadership team, there’s a problem with accessibility.
The Treefort Trailblazers Design Lab Team began by interviewing the festival organizers and also conducted empathy work with students, Treefort attendees, and students who face challenges going to Treefort.
Playing the game of life
Adulting is hard.
Writing a check, tying a tie – even executing a confident, professional handshake – are all learned skills. And those are just the relatively little things in life. The big things – like changing a career mid-stream, a serious, sudden illness or a car breakdown and repair – can be downright paralyzing, even for experienced adults.
CANNONBALLLL!!!!
Harnessing the power of protest
A One Stone learner’s perspective on taking the mic and finding a passion at the podium.
March 15, 2019. Anxiously pacing back and forth, I checked the time. 10:30 am. Time to start. Finally, the moment I had spent every waking minute of the past month planning was here. I nervously walked to the podium, took a deep breath, and began. “Hello, my name is Liam Neupert, I’m 16 years old, and I am the Idaho State lead for the U.S. Youth Climate Strike.”
Seizing Every Opportunity
One Stone learner Carissa V. on taking the leap into real-world problems to create real change.
When I first visited One Stone’s website, it seemed too good to be true.
I saw students working in professional environments, I read stories from students about the opportunities they had to guide their learning, and I saw pictures of the board of directors that was comprised of students like me. At One Stone, students were actually making an impact. They were designing their futures and following their passions. I was so excited, I applied immediately.
Insights from a One Stone Entrepreneur
One Stone believes in the power of students to make the world a better place. Here, Daniel K. shares how he monetized his experience with a 3D modeling and rendering program to create a business that helps others.
On November 9th, at 5:15 PM, Lee Timo placed an order for me on Fiverr, one of the world’s most popular freelance platforms. Just a few weeks earlier, I'd posted an offer on the site to get on a Skype call and share my knowledge about Blender, a free 3D modeling and rendering program that I'd spent the past year learning about. Ten bucks, for a one hour call on the ins and outs of Blender. Since no one else was offering this service, I was lucky enough to score a client. Lee was my first.
Waste to Taste
This design lab team focused on reducing food waste in Boise. Through their research, they discovered that over 133 billion pounds of food are wasted each year in the US alone. They completed several empathy experiences to hone in on a specific problem. Some of the empathy experiences included interviewing the head chefs of Thomas Cuisine and A’Tavola, visiting the Ada County Landfill, and interviewing the founder of the Roots Zero Waste Market.
Ladder Up: Treefort Volunteer Training Program
The Ladder Up DLab team has been working closely with the staff and volunteer coordinators of Treefort Music Fest to address challenges faced by their Under-21 volunteer program. According to Gus Marsden, one of the leads for the U21 volunteer program, the program as a whole has been very successful, but Treefort has had some struggles with organization, transparency, and lack of engagement in their volunteer system.
Yogafort Inclusivity
Paralellenting: Kid and parent learning
The Parallelenting team has been working with Jody Malterre from Parent Teacher Coach. Parent Teach Coach is an organization that works to create positive dynamics at home and at school through classes for parents.
In their first discussion with Jody, the team learned that parents often felt guilty for leaving their kids with a babysitter during the class, and there was no structure to the childcare program during previous classes.
Pet Therapy
People experiencing homelessness face many challenges, but One Stone learners found that man’s best friend can play a key role in helping lift spirits and bring hope.
The Pet Therapy Design Lab team partnered with New Path Community Housing. New Path is a local organization that utilizes a housing first model to provide 40 of Boise’s most vulnerable citizens who have experienced chronic homelessness with a stable living environment. Through interviewing residents, the team learned that many residents wish they were able to interact with animals more often, but are unable to have pets of their own due to the expense of pet ownership and rules in place at New Path.
Boise Urban Garden School
The BUGS Design Lab team worked with with the Boise Urban Garden School (BUGS). BUGS is a non-profit that teaches youth and adults about the fundamentals of gardening through science, nutrition, and environmental-based lesson plans and activities. They also hold culinary classes for the Boise community and donate the harvest of the BUGS garden to charities. The problem the team solved for was a lack of winter-specific programming for gardening and culinary opportunities.
Creating Art Against Vandalism
Reducing Single-Use Plastics at the Boise Farmers Market
The Food Coalition Design Lab team designed scalable solutions to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic dishware at the Boise Farmers Market.
Single-use plastics represent an unsustainable packaging model and generate large amounts of plastic waste that are detrimental to the environment, which makes this topic an issue of critical importance both globally and locally.
Knifemaking
Two learners advocated for a new-to-One Stone project, designed and led a new learning experience for their peers, and found their passion in the process. It all began with Jadon Chen and Dylan Baker, two students who decided to pursue their passion and prepared a pitch to explain their interest in knife making to leaders around One Stone.
They delivered their pitch to Jeff Roelke, the Lab51 Coach and Foundry Manager. “When I first heard about knife making at One Stone, I wasn’t sure what to think. Was it legal? Was it safe?” He said. “Ultimately, it became clear to me that this was not only something they were passionate about, it was exactly what we’d been asking them to do at One Stone. This was the definition of student leadership.”
With approval to design and create knives in the foundry, they forged ahead. “The experience of advocating for myself was incredibly impactful for me,” says Jadon, “because it was the first time in my school career where I was actually listened to by educators.
I felt in control of my life for the first time.”
Life in the Big Apple
Former One Stone learner Elise Malterre on art school, activism and street food.
About four months ago, I moved to the biggest city in the country to study Integrated Design and Environmental Studies at Parsons School of Design at The New School. As excited as I was for college, I didn’t want to put my life on hold for four or five years to be in a complete bubble of school…
