Harrington’s 2B “Saves the Shed”

Salem students have been completing Compassion Projects for over a decade now and the projects have evolved over time. On Thursday, April 10th, Jennifer Harrington’s 2B class dedicated the entirety of their second block to cleaning around the school.

This year, the sophomore class was again tasked with completing Compassion Projects. A precursor to the senior Passion Project, the sophomore classes are required to give back to the community in some way. Through essays on Operation Smile and environmental issues, cleaning up the school, building a website, and creating various posters, sophomores are spreading awareness on these topics and expanding their overall knowledge of the world.

“[The Compassion Project] is important because it’s educating students who were otherwise unaware before [the project],” said sophomore Zoe Valverde.

Students were given five days to write an essay about either Operation Smile or an environmental issue of their choice. This helped students with their understanding of the project and worldwide issues.

“[The project] is a graduation requirement. In the tenth grade, we [begin to ask ourselves,] ‘Who am I?’, ‘Who are we?’, and “How can I help?”,” said Harrington. “We’re learning how to help our community. To be future forward, we have to look at the world and become global citizens, but it’s a process.”

Additionally, students were given a Fieldbook to assist with their research on the project. The fieldbook provides an outline of the project and helps students keep track of their volunteer hours. The Fieldbook outlines which causes students chose, “Connecting MY World to THE World,” their action plan using SMART (Specific, Manageable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) goals, evidence of their community involvement, outcome of the project, and their total hours spent working.

“[I felt that the Fieldbook] helped a bit. It was confusing at first, though,” said sophomore Kemrie Wilson.

Overall, Mrs. Harrington and her students consider the project to have been quite successful. Through a combined effort, each of Harrington’s classes created websites that effectively spread awareness about environmental and health issues. Go Salem Saviors!