Providence Day School tries to be active in its community and global in its actions. One way that PDS is doing this is through a partnership set up by a PDS junior, Grant Abrams.
Abrams took the global outlook of PDS to heart and spearheaded a partnership with a local school, Winterfield Elementary. When asked about his motivation for this idea, Abrams said: “I was driving through Charlotte one day when I realized how segregated the city is based on socio-economic status. My next thought was if we could bring together two areas of Charlotte who come from very different backgrounds we could accomplish a lot.” With this in mind, he started to look for a school that could partner with PDS. After some searching, Winterfield Elementary arose as the best choice.
With a school population consisting of students from twenty-four countries and speaking twenty-one different languages, Winterfield is definitely global. Additionally, about ten percent of the students are refugees, and half speak English as a second language. Because it is situated in Greater Charlotte and consists of primarily low-income families, Winterfield is on the other side of the “divide” Abrams wanted to bridge. All of this made Winterfield the ideal choice for Abrams’ purposes.
In order to help this partnership reach its fullest potential, Abrams had to come up with activities. There are some plans under way already: Happy Walls, soccer clinics, tutoring sessions, and community garden work. Other plans for ways to work and learn with these students are under way, but they have yet to be finalized.
"If we could bring together two areas of Charlotte who come from very different backgrounds we could accomplish a lot."
Abrams had help in identifying Winterfield Elementary as the best match for his purposes. One of the people who helped him was Sarah Shifflet, director of resources and development for Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Shifflet suggested to Abrams that a partnership between PDS and Winterfield could address some of the desires of each respective student body. Shifflet, in her professional opinion, felt that students like those at Winterfield would benefit from the academic skills of Providence Day high school students during tutoring sessions. Additionally, she felt that the kind of cultural knowledge that Winterfield students have would be invaluable to Providence Day students. Shifflet also felt that the planned activities between these schools would benefit both parties by transferring such knowledge.
One such activity is a soccer clinic that will be planned and staffed by Providence Day soccer players. This is supposed to be an ongoing program in which Providence Day soccer players and administration head out to Winterfield and play with the kids over there. Over the course of these soccer-filled afternoons, the participants will inevitably get to know one another and have fun. This bonding experience will allow a relationship to form between PDS and Winterfield students. Additionally -- since a person’s culture is a part of who he or she is -- the PDS students and staff who participate will be exposed to everyone else’s global culture. Even as the Providence Day community members gain cultural knowledge, the Winterfield students will be learning basic soccer skills.
In January, PDS and Winterfield students enjoyed getting together to watch “Alice in Wonderland.” During this activity, fifth graders from PDS, Winterfield, and JH Gunn came together to experience the arts. For many of these students, it would likely have been their first play. According to Michael Magno, head of PDS Middle School, “This was a great day for our own fifth grade students to share an experience with other fifth grade students from the Charlotte community.”
"The kind of cultural knowledge that Winterfield students have would be invaluable to Providence Day students."
One activity that Shifflet seemed particularly excited about was the Happy Walls project. This is a project that was started by Providence Day seniors Victoria Xu and Reilly Alrige. While it isn’t the only project being taken on by the Happy Walls group at PDS, one of their main projects is working with students and staff at Winterfield to create a mural for their school. In this way, they will be able to merge two communities and come up with a piece of art that will last for a long time. The piece will make the dreams of students a reality within the realm of art.
The final planned activity of this partnership is the development of a community garden. Winterfield started its community garden several years ago. It has since flourished and fed many members of the community with healthy organic vegetables. Additionally, it has brought together lots of members of the community. Because of this success, the plan is to have members of the Winterfield staff and student body help advise in the creation of the PDS community garden. This will not only allow for a strengthening of the partnership with Winterfield; it will also help grow the PDS community.
While there are many good service and education opportunities within the Providence Day community, this partnership allows for even more. Because PD students are so accustomed to being in a sheltered and well-equipped school, they are often shocked to learn about what Winterfield students have endured in their lives. For all of these reasons, this partnership allows for growth by both student bodies in very different ways.
This is a photo of the Happy Walls Mural. Photo Courtesy of Reilly Alrige.
By Connor Haaf
Winterfield&
PDS
This is a piece of the Winterield community garden. Photo Courtesy of PDS twitter.
By: Connor Haaf
This is a piece of the Winterield community garden. Photo Courtesy of Winterfield Elementary Twitter.
This is the group of students who participated in PDS's soccer clinic. Photo Courtesy of Providence Day School.
The Charger, March 2017
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