Leadership Students Reconnecting with Native Community (A Learn and Serve America Subgrantee)

Does service learning support and boost academic achievement? This is a question that educators and administrators seek to answer—intrinsically, those teachers who participate in service learning know that it does, but finding solid, black and white evidence to document that fact is sometimes difficult. But for Navajo students of the STAR School, service learning also reconnects them to their community, their elders, their culture and their language. Their efforts over the past few years prove that service learning and academic achievement go hand in hand. Where many schools undertake one project, STAR students took on five very demanding projects. And their efforts have paid off for them.

On March 2, ten STAR students entered seven divisions of the Navajo Nation Science Fair in Window Rock. STAR students placed in six of the seven. Kee Wilson took first place in the Botany division, Afton Solomon placed first in Computer Science, Kyle Begay took first place in Earth Science, Crystal Drake took third in Social and Behavioral Sciences, Brandon Montour took second in Physics, and Kennedy Slowtalker took second in Engineering. The following Monday, Mar. 5, the Learn and Serve project directors at the school received a phone call from Governor Janet Napolitano’s office, learning that their leadership students had won the Governor’s Award for Volunteerism in the youth division. Of the eight leaders, four placed in the science fair. Another science fair winner serves as a leadership co-pilot. The students who will be accepting the Governor’s Award are: Paris Dixon, Hunter Bruner, Crystal Drake, Burrell Jones, Brandon Montour, Afton Solomon, Kee Wilson and Keshia Yazzie.

Wilson said that he didn’t expect to place in the science fair, so taking first place was a real surprise. Wilson’s project measured the drought resistancy of traditional indigenous seeds as compared to commercial seeds found in popular seed catalogues, proving that the heirloom seeds were superior not only for their ability to sprout in the dry climate of the Navajo reservation. They are also healthier. “Sweet corn has a lot of sugar in it as compared to heirloom blue flour corn. Eating our traditional corn helps prevent diabetes,” Wilson explained. “Gardening also gives you the opportunity to exercise, which also prevents diabetes.” “I am excited that we won the Governor’s Award,” Wilson admitted. “That was another surprise. I like service learning because we get to go out and help our community. I feel that this improves my attitude towards school.”

Afton Solomon’s project involves assisting elders at a local nursing home and in far-flung sheep camps across the Leupp, Grand Falls and Canyon Diablo area. She took first place in the science fair for her project on earthquakes. “I was surprised that I took first place in the Computer Science division of the Navajo Nation Science Fair because there were at least six other people in my category that I thought were better than mine,” Solomon said. Solomon was also surprised to learn that the Elder Care Project had been recognized with the Governor’s Award for Volunteerism. “I thought we weren’t being recognized for our work, but now I know we are,” Solomon said. “I think that doing service learning helps me a lot because I know that I’m doing something at my school instead of just sitting in class at time, and thinking of other people instead of myself.”

Brandon Montour and Burrell Jones co-lead a project designed to repair homes for the elderly. They led an effort on March 28, joined by students of Prescott Valley Charter School – winners of last year’s Governor’s Award for Youth Volunteerism—to build a handicapped ramp for a community elder. This was what is hoped to be the beginning of an Arizona Learn and Serve Visitation Project.

Crystal Drake, who has led the firewood hauling project—an effort that kept at least two Navajo elders from having to go to a nursing home over the winter—said that she didn’t want to go to the science fair. “I don’t really like science,” Drake admitted. “I don’t think my project helps me with math or stuff like that, but going out to help elders makes me want to come to school,” Drake said. “I like that we get to help the elders and get out in the community. I feel like our work is really appreciated.”

Dr. Mark Sorensen and his wife Kate founded the STAR School—a small charter school located about 35 miles northeast of Flagstaff—on the principle of service learning. Tom Tomas, who teaches the seventh and eighth grade, is excited about science and service learning. Tomas believes that service learning is valuable to academic achievement. “I have observed that our students are very strong in scientific investigation, and applying science to the real world,” Tomas said.