Madison-Grant United School Corporation

FAIRMOUNT — Three Madison-Grant High School students showed school board members how to plan a trip to Brazil and make the most of their money and time while traveling.

Freshmen Liam Weaver, Jaeden Parrish and Mason Ronk gave a presentation highlighting what Rio de Janeiro has to offer at the Tuesday, Sept. 23 regular board meeting as part of a class project. All three students are part of Madison-Grant High School’s Pathways to Careers and Postsecondary (P-CAP) program.

“It’s really an honor being here and being able to go to a school board meeting,” Liam said before he and his friends gave their speeches.

Prior to the students’ slideshow, Principal David Retherford shared some highlights from the high school’s first year implementing the program.

P-CAP was designed to aid disengaged students by offering them an alternative form of learning through hands-on and real-world applications. Schools can offer P-CAP to students through a federal grant initiative.

“As part of the P-CAP program, essentially, we were looking at a freshman cohort group of kids, and this cohort group of kids was selected strategically,” said Principal Retherford. “Then we sent out reminders. We had a co-op meeting for them to come and learn more about the program. We had an application process. The kids had to fill out an application to be a part of the program. They had to go through an interview with the lead learners, who are our teachers in the P-CAP world, the teachers are known as the lead learners.”

‘Blazing the trail’

Fifteen freshmen students are enrolled in the program, according to Retherford. Course subjects included English 9, Algebra 1, Geography and World History, he added.

However, P-CAP students engage in these subjects and earn high school course credits through non-traditional methods of learning. Retherford said Madison-Grant launching this program is “blazing the trail” for other students who might be interested in participating in the future.

“Instead of doing that through the traditional lens of sitting in a classroom, taking a bunch of notes, taking tests and quizzes and doing worksheets – the standard thing that you typically do in school – our teachers are infusing the standards from those three classes into project-based learning,” Retherford explained to the school board. “And so that is the premise behind the P-CAP program is to take kids and give them a different opportunity, in a little different way.”

Learning from experts

This school year, the group has worked on two projects, including a vacation travel presentation and designing a tiny house for prospective clients.

The vacation and travel project allowed students to work as a travel agent. They planned an itinerary, flight schedule and arranged accommodations for a client. Students were assigned a location and put together a slideshow of their final travel plans to present to their clients.

Part of the class also involved learning from experts in the field.

“We actually had a travel agent come in, and they were our industry partners for the project where they kind of talked to them a little bit about what a travel agent does,” Retherford explained. “Then they (the students) got to act like a travel agent and had to present for the travel agent.”

Working as a team

Retherford said getting started with the new curriculum the first week was “a bit overwhelming” for the students. However, the course began with creative ways for kids to get to know each other better.

“They did a lot of team building exercises,” he added. “They did a lot of ice breaker–type things, how to work together as a team, because their projects are all group based, and they have to work in a group. I think I can speak for them when I say that got them way, way out of their comfort zone.”

As part of their assignment and presentation for the school board, Liam, Mason and Jaeden explained how they put together their travel schedule, flight itinerary and sightseeing opportunities.

Liam, Mason and Jaeden took turns presenting their travel project and brought index cards with them as reference notes for their speeches.

They also made a small, plastic souvenir of the city’s “Christ the Redeemer” statue, which they passed around for board members to examine.

Meylissa Stanley, who is the school counselor for seventh through ninth grade, said she was proud of all three students.

“These are great kids. These are awesome kids,” she said. “I’m excited about this program because it gives people a chance to see awesome talents in kids that don’t always come out in a traditional classroom. Working with these guys since they were seventh graders, you see things in your kids, and you just wait for the opportunity for it to come out for other people to see it.”

Stanley also recognized how the program has helped these students do things they might not have wanted to do in other classroom settings.

“If I had told them (Liam, Mason and Jaeden) in a traditional classroom they had to stand up and give a speech, they would be trying to come up with 10 different ways to get out of it,” she said. “But here they are, coming to present to all of you, and they are excited about it. They’re smiling about it and looking forward to it.”

The school board thanked the students for sharing their slideshow after the presentation was finished.

“It was great having you,” board member Wendy Longacre told Liam, Jaeden and Mason. “Fantastic job. We’re really proud of you.”

Upcoming meeting information

The next public school board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7 in the conference room at the high school, 11700 E. 00 W., Fairmount.

The board will conduct its executive session following the public meeting.

The school board now livestreams its public board meetings. These can be viewed on the corporation’s YouTube channel by visiting https://www.youtube.com/@MadGrantUSC Board.