March 2, 2017
John, one of our beloved custodians, received some extra love last week.
In English with Ms. Atchison and Ms. Meras, seventh graders are each given four quarters. Their assignment is to trade their change (the transaction phase) to make something (the transformation phase) to create a positive change that reflects their values (the take-action phase) and write about it along the way.
Maren G. chose to paint this card and write a haiku for John, someone who gives so much to our community on a daily basis. He was overjoyed.
A former student, who wishes to remain anonymous, recently let Ms. Atchison know how this project inspired him to continue to make change in our world. Read his letter to her …
Hi Ms. Atchison!
I was in your seventh grade English class at MPA seven years ago! You might not remember me—no worries, I was pretty quiet back then.
So my dad is a teacher, and he just loves it when his former students reach out to him after they move out of his classroom. Just recently, I have taken it upon myself to try and reach out to as many of my former teachers as possible and just take a minute to recognize the impact that they had on my life!
I was trying to remember some of my MPA classes and teachers from Middle School, and this one assignment that you gave us really stuck out so I thought I’d give you an update. I think it was called the dollar project or something similar. You handed everyone a crisp one dollar bill fresh from the bank, and told us to do something good with it. I ended up campaigning my neighbors and family friends to match my dollar until I got $25, and then I put the funds to use on the micro-lending site called Kiva. I just made my 10th loan with those same $25 dollars!
I’d just like to thank you for assigning this project (hope you’re still doing it—but it’s okay if you are not!!), and say that after spending so much time on Kiva, I really started to realize the power that micro-lending can have on the lives of people trying to lift themselves out of poverty. I’m currently at UW-Madison studying economics with a focus in developing countries, and I can safely say that being a part of micro-lending from such a young age was instrumental to developing my interest in the field. If I didn’t fully understand how cool the project was at the time, I definitely appreciate it looking back.
Best wishes.
Your former student
