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Mentoring programs reconnect public school students to their education

June 01 2009

A Bennington College student's education has curiosity at its core. What are you passionate about? What do you want to know? How will you act on your ideas?

Ten years ago, two College faculty members—both professional mediators—began to think about the high school dropout rate in Vermont (at the time, twenty percent). They began to think about a different approach to truancy and dropout prevention. And they wondered what might happen if public school students were given the chance to connect with their education in the same way that Bennington College students do.

So began the experiment of Quantum Leap. Faculty members Daniel Michaelson and Susan Sgorbati imagined a cord of three strands: mentoring, mediation, and a "personal learning plan."

 

The Sababa Project, a collaboration between the
Quantum Leap Classroom and Bennington College
students. 

The learning plan invites students to hone in on their interests in an academic way, making them active partners in their own education. Mentoring gives them one-on-one attention from someone who is passionate about education. Mediation bridges the gaps between students, schools, and families, while also giving them conflict resolution skills.

And they saw it work. Over the past ten years, Quantum Leap has helped more than a thousand students to reconnect to their education. What started as a single mentoring program with seven students is now a cluster of thriving programs: tutoring and mentoring, project development and presentation, researching and writing, experiential learning trips, partnerships with local entrepreneurs, and many more.

One of the program's mainstays is the Quantum Leap Classroom at Mount Anthony Union High School. Select students enter the Quantum Leap Classroom as part of their ninth-grade curriculum. There they discover a new environment: smaller, individualized classes and a rigorous curriculum that engages their interests.

See the Quantum Leap Classroom Exhibit. Thursday, June 4, 3-7 pm Mount Anthony Union High School, Bennington, VT   The Quantum Leap Classroom students eagerly invite you to see their work at a free event open to the public. *      *      * "I promise that if you can come, you'll get a better idea of what we do and the amount of effort we put in." —freshman Chris Davis, creator of the "Geological Timeline" exhibit "You wouldn't believe what's going on in my head!" —freshman Tafana Sousis, contributor to the "The Teenage Brain" exhibit

As part of the curriculum, teacher and creator Danielle Crosier guides the students in choosing, creating, and carrying out their own multi-disciplinary projects. For the past five years, the students have presented those projects in an interactive exhibit open to the public. "As the students point out," says Danielle Crosier, "it's an opportunity for them to teach you." 

Among other things, the projects explore social geography, examine why amphibian populations are in sharp decline, and present theories behind the K-T extinction event. One student is preparing authentic Aztec chocolate for tasting. Many have contributed to an exhibit on the teenage brain.

 "I've never wanted to work so hard in school as I have this year," says Brei Tole, a freshman in the Quantum Leap Classroom. "Each day, we work on challenging things that push our minds and help us to develop ourselves as people—to excel, discover who we are, and work to our potential."

For years, students from the College have been connecting with students in other Quantum Leap programs as mentors and tutors. For the past two years, they are also learning alongside them in the Quantum Leap Classroom. A collaborative course called The Sababa Project—co-taught by Michaelson, Sgorbati, Crosier, and Ric Crosier of the Bridges Program—brings both sets of students together in the Quantum Leap Classroom to examine global issues related to youth. In the words of the course description:

"Sababa" is a word that means "cool," created by both Israeli and Palestinian adolescent youth. As far as we know, it is the only shared word of its kind that was created by youth from two warring peoples. "Sababa" is an example of the spontaneous, hopeful response that is possible when youth are given the opportunity to respond to their conflicts.

Together, the students are now proposing projects to work with youth in countries as far off as India and Afghanistan; Rwanda and Uganda; Haiti and Jamaica; Israel and Palestine.

"It's cool to work with college students, because once you get to know them, they're really not that different from us," says Quantum Leap freshman Danielle Greene."I could definitely see myself in college, and I never would have thought of going before we started this."

At its heart, says Sgorbati, Quantum Leap is "a laboratory, a philosophy."  Each Quantum Leap program is self-sustaining, with its own director and funding. At this point, after ten years of work and development, Sgorbati says that "Danny and I are just called in to consult."

 

Back row from left: Danielle Crosier, Susan Sgorbati,
Daniel Michaelson, Ric Crosier, with students.

How is this possible? "We built Quantum Leap with the structuring principles of mediation and the Plan Process. From there, it's just grown organically. Everybody who comes in [as staff] understands those principles and how they're implemented practically." Given the chance to launch new programs, and take responsibility for them, "people get very excited."

It's the same kind of energy that emerges in students as they take a hand in their own education. Which might explain the words of Brei Tole: "It's hard to explain, but this class is unlike any other thing I have ever been a part of."

Many thanks to Danielle Crosier and the students in the Quantum Leap Classroom, who contributed reporting to this article.

Read more stories about Bennington College.