In 2010, the
Chelsea Detrick Learning Center was born at
Webster Groves High School. The “
Chelsea Center” is named in the honor and memory of Chelsea Detrick, a beautiful and
brilliant young lady and former district student who lost her life to cancer on
April 9, 2009. To learn more about the
Chelsea Center including the opportunities offered to WGHS students, its
mission and philosophy regarding learning through experience, and the young
lady whose name it bears, please
click here.
What follows is just one of the many rich learning
experiences supported through the
Chelsea Center which has “spilled over” and
influenced many:
A few years back, Katie Loher and Natalia Torres took the
very first “service learning sampler” class through the
Chelsea Center. Being so moved by the experience and feeling
called to bring this opportunity to others, they, along with the encouragement
and support of Ms. Burchett (coordinator of the
Chelsea Center) and Dr. Clark (WGHS
principal), created “Sophomore Service Learning Day.”
On April 9, the entire sophomore class and over 50 WGHS
staff members spread out across the greater St. Louis community as part of the
3rd Annual Sophomore Service Learning Day. The students started the day discussing their
thoughts on what they expected from the experience and then ended the day by
sharing their reflections from the experiences.
In between, students could be found helping others at locations such as
the Red Cross, various food pantries, neighborhood city gardens, and numerous
parks inside our school district boundaries.
Learning and caring for others had “left the building.”
One of my favorite stories from the day involves a
student who wasn’t overly happy to be building a garden. However, once he arrived at the garden and
learned about the preschool children whose garden this would become and the learning
that he was going to influence through his service, no student worked
harder. One of the adults on hand shared,
“He didn’t even stop to break as he was determined for the project to be
completed by the time we stepped back on the bus!”
Please read the following quote from co-creator Katie
Loher, as she describes how the experience and day has evolved over the past 3
years:
“It has grown immensely.
Our first year we did everything by paper, and it was only the three of
us making the phone calls, gathering organizations, stuffing goody bags,
talking to classes, etc. Since then, we
have gotten lots of help from other teachers and we have worked with the tech
people at school and developed a website so the students can fill where they want
to work online. This makes everything go
SO much faster. It took us so many less
hours this year than the last two years just because of technology and all the
extra help. Natalia and I have worked to
train some underclassmen so that when we graduate, they can take over for
us. It was so much fun teaching
everything we had learned, and watching our idea grow into an annual school
event. Watching the younger students
take over and really be passionate about something that Natalia and I created
is so humbling to me, and I can’t wait to come back from college and see how
the event has developed.”
Just another reason why it’s good to be a learner in the
WGSD!
Each child, each day…John
