Kyrene Aprende Middle School eighth-grade students used their passion, creativity and persuasion skills to bring their community together to collect over 1,200 donations benefitting A New Leaf this holiday season.

Every year at Aprende, eighth grade students participate in an English Language Arts unit called “What Matters.” Over the years, the unit has evolved based on student feedback. First, when students shared that they felt powerless to effect real change, a small research project was introduced, which sparked conversations about the great things that young people can do to support the issues they care about. Studying the ways others have made a difference was a good start, but students still didn’t feel like they could make a difference in their own community.

“This year, we decided to add a Service-Learning Project component that would make our unit even more relevant to our students’ lives,” said language arts teacher Sarah Coombs. “Instead of just discussing ways to change the world around our students, we wanted them to feel empowered to enact the change themselves.”

The project was pitched to students using examples of other service-learning projects and students voted on what issues mattered to them most. Students were equally passionate about several different causes, but they unanimously voted to do a donation drive. Without a clear winner when votes were cast for the type of drive (toy, food, pet supplies, etc.), teachers Coombs and Rachel Polay connected with A New Leaf, finding that their supportive services are wide-ranging, much like students’ passions.

“Our students have worked diligently over the last month to hype up the donation drive,” Polay said. “Using their persuasion skills, students created a variety of promotional materials so that parents, students and community members were informed about the drive.”

Students created fliers, posters, and video and intercom commercials to be played at school, as well as drafted letters to local businesses like Scheels, which donated items to the drive. To round out the lesson, students learned about some of the potential causes of financial insecurity, having to plan a week’s worth of healthy meals, virtually shop for groceries and create a balanced budget based on Arizona’s median family household income.

“Overall, we have seen an incredible increase in excitement and care for the community,” Coombs and Polay shared. “Students get excited when their work is chosen to be on the announcements, and they are putting their all into their assignments.”

Students shared their excitement in knowing their work made a difference in addressing issues that mattered to them when they packed the A New Leaf vehicle with community donations on Monday, December 9.