Animas High School
animasquill.org
April, 2022
AHS Sophomores Get Inspired Through Week of Connection and Service
Sophomores Caitlin McCullough, Haley Hurst, Porter Bleu, Nora Olivier, Niko Peterson, Gisella Hughes, Brayden Harms, Mia Macon, and Zoell Lhomi are all smiles after their service week at the Juniper School. Photo courtesy of Lori Fisher
By Maddie Tharp, Illyria Brunner, Bella Rodriguez, and Mia Macon Another amazing Sophomore Inspire Week is in the books! During the week of March 7-11, instead of going through their usual class schedule, the sophomore class delved into an exploration of future college and career options. They did this by participating in a variety of meaningful community service projects with local organizations. The week was focused on introducing students to prospective careers, their own aptitudes, and how these align with their interests. The first two days were spent educating the students about options after graduation as well as looking at possible career choices. Over the following three days, the students broke up into several groups and headed off for their community service immersion. The purpose of these experiences was to give students a chance to test the waters of careers and internships, to find out what they like and don’t like, and to give back to the community. The week was planned and executed by the sophomore teaching team and College Counselor Erin CumminsRoper, who focused on the outreach for the community service projects. Erin explained, “Sophomore Inspire Week was super successful. We were able to complete five projects and touch on a variety of different ways to engage with the community. Students seemed to have a really good
time and they learned a lot. I was really stressed leading up to it that it wouldn’t fall into place and work out, [but] the magic of Animas came to life, and it turned out to be this really amazing thing.” Erin took her group of sophomores to the Durango Early Learning Center (DELC) to design and build a mud kitchen and fairy houses for their playground. The first morning they got to know the little ones, playing and collecting feedback about design ideas and how the preschoolers wanted everything to look. After spending time at DELC, sophomores consolidated all of the ideas and made a list full of supplies they would need to make the children’s ideas come to life. With help from a volunteer parent, some of the students were able to build a professional mud kitchen, while also learning how to properly use power tools. While some worked on the mud kitchen, others worked on building and beautifying tiny fairy houses, full of magical touches for the little ones. They took a trip to the Humane Society thrift store and got little pots and pans along with cooking utensils and measuring cups for the children to play with. They then loaded up the houses and mud kitchen and delivered it all to the DELC, much to the amazement of their new little friends. DELC Director Becca Trefry remarked, “The best part of the experience was seeing the connections made between the AHS high schoolers and the DELC students. The children’s faces seeing the final products of the mud kitchen and fairy houses was pure delight! I love that our children were able to have role models in ‘the big kids’ that came to visit!” Bennett, age 5, offered, “I liked playing the zombie game with the teenagers. We were trying to eat one of them!” Story continued on page 4
Zander Albers, Caleb Bates, Pierce Beyer, and Adrian Tyler gather with their new DELC friends for the inaugural play session of the mud kitchen. Photo courtesy of Erin Cummins-Roper
