As part of their Latin America unit in World Geography, students in grade 5 engaged in student-centered learning. Given the freedom to choose what interested them about their assigned countries, students completed projects demonstrating a variety of strategies from design thinking to service learning. Sydney Carroll and Brooke Giles chose the latter after discovering that thousands of unaccompanied children were forced to flee Guatemala and El Salvador due to extreme poverty and dangerous living conditions. They found the children needed some of the most basic items like toothpaste and shampoo, after enduring a perilous and grueling journey to get to America. As a result, the girls decided to conduct a toiletry and nickel drive. The money was raised to buy fabric to make blankets. Fifth and Sixth Grades contributed to the donations and many fifth graders worked hard to make a dozen blankets. Brooke and Sydney then assembled 18 bags with the blankets and donated toiletries.Monica Khant, an attorney who runs the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN), visited Mount Vernon to pick up the bags to share with recent immigrants. Speaking to the fifth grade about immigration and how immigration laws have changed since the founding of America, she highlighted the trials and tribulations most immigrants face, when seeking asylum.
Thank you Sydney and Brooke, for sharing the well and making an impact!
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