Based in Harvard Professor Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, 35 teens engage in an 80 hour interdisciplinary, multi-sensory, service learning experience across 5 weeks that provides the opportunity to improve work-readiness skills, learn about and employ collaboration and leadership skills, develop literacy and research skills, learn about ways to be civically responsible community members, develop pride in the community’s history and heritage, while learning the inspiring stories of Capital Region Underground Railroad heroes and the relationship of these stories with us today.
Through small and whole group work, participating teens achieve the specified goals through participation in Focus Groups consisting of 8-10 teens each. Working with adult Focus Group Facilitators, teens agree upon focus group goals that will achieve the selected project, identify and implement strategies to meet those goals, analyze the effectiveness of the strategies, and make revisions that will impact their continuing work. Daily whole group meetings address work readiness and literacy skills, and the relationship of the teens’ work to history, civic responsibility, and relevance or their work for today. Through an end-of-program Open House, every focus group publicly showcases its accomplishments and explains the relevance of the group’s work to Open House guests.