Triton service learning class teaches students importance of giving back
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Triton service learning students Ayden Berndt, Alana Lasker and Sawyer Deml are showcasing the first bag that they created as a team for the class’s sewing bag mission project. Service learning is a new class offered at Triton High School.
A new class has been created at Triton High School, focused on teaching students about the importance of helping the community.
Called service learning, the class is taught by Alli Horejsi.
A science teacher, Horejsi said she also teaches other types of courses such as early childhood development, something common in small school districts.
No matter the course topic, she believes in hands-on learning.
“My goal is to always incorporate experimental learning,” Horejsi said.
Last year she went to her principal with the idea of creating a course that would have students take on different missions throughout the community.
The first project they worked on was to help with the Cobra Closet; a school-based resource within the school that provides things like clothing and hygiene products for those in need.
Horejsi said they worked on revamping it and promoting it so it is utilized more within the community.
The project required different tasks by different groups, including writing an article for the Triton Times, creating a large sign for the door and creating fliers to provide awareness of the changes.
The class is in the process of learning to sew, with the goal of creating puberty bags for the elementary classes; Horejsi noted the students will not be putting the items in the bags.
She was able to have retired Family and Consumer Science teacher Sandy Huber come in to help her teach the students how to sew.
During I Love To Read month, elementary school classrooms were invited to participate in the class; Horejsi’s students created lessons to teach them about reading.
“We’re kind of just doing a little bit of everything,” Horejsi said.
One of their regular activities is going to Fairview Nursing Home once a week to play games and activities with the residents in Dodge Center.
“Trying to do more right here in Dodge Center,” Horejsi said.
Lessons Along the Way
A recent field trip the class took was to the local United Way, where the class got to learn about the organization’s mission — then talked about the needs in Dodge County.
The students looked at the Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) data recently collected for the area as part of a statewide and nationwide United Way effort.
What they learned was that three of the top five areas of people who are considered ALICE in Dodge County lie within the Triton School District.
Number one was Claremont, number three was West Concord, and number five was Ellington Township.
“That was really…surprising,” Horejsi said about the data, which provides hard numbers about people who are working — but are still struggling.
Not only was this beneficial for the students interested in going to service-based careers, Horejsi said, it also is helpful in students being able to pick future projects to work on.
Horejsi said one of the potential projects generated from the trip was to hold a food drive in the school district.
The class was capped this year at a manageable 16 students, with Horejsi noting they wanted to see how it would go in the first year with a limited class size.
She hopes the class will continue, however, once a semester, and plans to write a grant application this summer for financial help with upcoming projects.
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The Triton High School service learning class is pictured outside the United Way of Southeastern Minnesota, located in Rochester. The class spent time learning the mission of the United Way, as well as working with them to address the needs present in their local community.
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Students in the Triton service learning class are, from left, Jenesis Schrom, Oscar Orozco, Yeray Valez Miranda and Mya Matejcek, who are putting a puzzle together with some Fairview nursing home residents.