Presentations to the community and "Service Learning".
One of the things our executive Director, Douglas Rhodenbaugh, does on an ongoing basis is something we don’t talk enough about.
Douglas does presentations to groups of young people in central Texas, he calls it “Service Learning”. “Service Learning” is an in- class program focused on the Character Building aspects that foster courage, charity, and social justice.
He focuses on Middle Schools but earlier this month the Pencil Project got an invitation from Helen Gurka, the director of religious education at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Chappell Hill, TX, outside of Austin.
She had found about The Pencil Project from our web site and asked if we could come out and talk to the children in the Sunday classes.
Douglas said, absolutely, we would be there. Here are several images from the trip. We have already received a follow up E-Mail from Ms. Gurka saying the kids have begun collecting supplies on their own and want to know what to do next. 
More thoughts on “Service Learning” from Douglas. As the students adopt a Pencil Project goal what had been a conversation “magically” takes on a life, of its own. The excitement of the donations coming in creates a real sense of accomplishment, and young workers begin to see an abstract idea, a goal, actually take shape as each donation box is emptied, and bags of useful goodies begin to appear and accumulate in the classroom. As the student volunteers sort and bag donations, we are touched by the truly enlightened comments about “what I want for Christmas, and what I really need.” We also find tiny notes from students tucked inside some of the bags, some offering the Guatemalan students friendship, others urging them to stay in school, and some simply say hello across the miles. In addition, they come to understand that there are grownups out there in the world who believe enough in this project to actually pay for it. This is an awe-inspiring sign of approval from the community. While The Pencil Project [http://www.thepencilproject.org] helps thousands of Guatemalan children each school year, the real magic of the experience is in the giving. Middle school students are filled with questions and pride when they see what they have accomplished. The values-embedded curriculum, combined with the photo-documentary work creates this "vicarious field trip" ....and has completely turned what we have always been told about Selfish Middle School students on its head. Most of the comments we get from the middle school administrators and other adults are not about the excitement of exotic Guatemala, but how these community-building conversations, eye-opening visuals, and discussions about wants versus needs are training and transforming Young Urban 13 year-olds into caring Citizens of the Planet. What's more, they are acting on their empathy.
