Career transition coaching, business productivity, innovation consulting, experiential learning consulting

 

What if…

… a student was passionate about a subject and could share his knowledge with others who were interested in learning more about it? And what if the learning could be implemented in a "just in time" project that was related to a community concern? What if there were teams of people from various disciplines and various ages, all committed to working together to find a solution to the problem?

It’s possible! There are many opportunities through grants to create public-private partnerships to solve community problems through learning projects.

The challenge is that many times these ideas are not shared across community stakeholder groups in a spirit of cooperation, so there is competition for resources, especially in the nonprofit sector.

The situation

What does business have to teach educators? And what do educators have to teach business? Living the Potential’s client, a County in Southern California, took on this challenge with a grant called "Business Solutions in the Classroom."

Thirty 10th- through 12th-grade teachers and 25 business owners gathered together for a three-day retreat to see how they might align together to make learning more meaningful for the students in their communities. They represented the various interests of all the school districts in the county.

At first, there were strong divisions between the participants. Business leaders argued that the educators were turning out a poor product, that kids were not well-trained for the marketplace. This attitude put teachers on the defensive, leading them to protest that it was impossible to accomplish what needed to be done in the schools with limited resources, especially considering the direct linkage to other problems such as the drugs, the breakdown of the family unit, and many more societal issues.

Solution emerges

After several days of listening and collaborating for solutions, LTP helped the group create a new vision of what it means to be a learner in the 21st Century. They discovered together that if they, as community leaders, didn’t work together to prepare youth for the world, then the sustainability of their community would be in great jeopardy.

There were many outcomes to this event, but one of the most important was for the adults to begin to see learning beyond the walls of schools. They acknowledged that if learning wasn’t meaningful to learners of all ages, then the commitment to excellence was not truly authentic. And that for learning to be organized effectively, it would need to align leaders from both education and business to really begin to work together rather than point fingers of blame.

Based on this new insight, business leaders and teachers began to see each other as a resource. As a result, students began to experience how to connect learning with projects that caused them to apply themselves to solutions needed today. Many projects emerged for businesses that engaged students in ways that connected their writing, design, mathematical and communication skills. Students developed newsletters, websites, and research for businesses that didn’t have the time or resources to do it for themselves.

Mentoring relationships developed that took these connections far beyond the one day set aside for job shadowing. The learning increased significantly for all involved.