Harrington’s 2B “Saves the Shed”

Service learning

Rylee Partridge and Adrian Lumba

May 8, 2025

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.

**Sophomore Elyse Heijermans** (Left) and **sophomore Ashlyn Scott** (Right) Cleaning up under the bleachers of Salem’s Football Field. Much of Harrington’s 2B class found leftover remnants of concessions from previous games held at the school. (Rylee Partridge)

**Sophomore Ariyana Roberts** picking up underneath the guest-side bleachers of the football field. There was more trash and clutter around the bleachers than meets the eye. Many of the students in Harrington’s 2B class were surprised at the amount of garbage found. (Rylee Partridge)

**Sophomore Colby Wehr** found an old fire extinguisher beyond the track, near the softball field. (Rylee Partridge)

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.

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“[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.”

**Harrington’s** 2B class, after spending their block picking up trash around the football field, track, and bleachers, paused to take a group photo. This photo can be found on the class website, Salem Saviors. (J. Harrington)

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!

About the Contributors

Rylee Partridge, Assistant Editor in Chief

Rylee Partridge is a sophomore, the Assistant Editor in Chief for the SunDevil Times and this is her second year in journalism. In her free time Rylee plays volleyball and the bass guitar. She is very passionate about various genres of music.

Adrian Lumba, Staff Writer

Adrian is a sophomore, and this is his first year in journalism. He enjoys writing, playing piano, playing saxophone, and reading. He is also a second year at the Governor’s School for the Arts, and is studying in the jazz program there. He isn’t very social, but his writing conveys deep and rich stories.