Making a Difference
at the
Intersection
of
Classroom & Community
Students are using their passions and imaginations to address issues such as
homelessness and food insecurity. The results?
The hungry have fuller stomachs, the students have larger hearts,
and we all share a more hopeful future.
The Table Leaf Foundation organized and is funding an initiative which connects classrooms in the Olathe, Kansas School District with their surrounding communities. Students from Santa Fe Trail, Summit Trail, and Indian Trail Middle Schools developed projects to address issues such as food insecurity and illiteracy, then presented those project plans to a Shark Tank. This year’s initiative is funding eight projects. Next year’s “OSC” will include five schools.
Fox 4 Kansas City News Segment
2023-24 Initiative Description (produced entirely by Olathe Northwest High School Students)
What They’re Saying
“Last night was AMAZING!!! The partnership from Table Table Leaf Foundation to Santa Fe Trail Middle School is outstanding and generates student leadership with service learning opportunities and provides MVA – market value assets for employability skills.”
— Heather Schoonover, Olathe School District’s McKinney-Vinto Community Liaison, following an OSC project.
“I have changed a lot because of the Care Project. It has impacted the development of my leadership abilities and helped me do things that are outside my comfort zone.”
_______
“This project has impacted my life because I’ve made it my goal to help more people in my community so I can change for the better.”
_______
“The best part of my experience with the SFT Cares Project was the amount of help I was able to give to any family in need. I got to use my skill of speaking another language to help another family. I got to fully understand a family in need and I enjoyed helping since there was no one ever there to help me and my family.”
— Student Participants’ comments taken from a retrospective survey
“Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
“Service-learning has the transformative potential to not only engage students in programs but to create generations of engaged an informed citizens.”
— from The National Youth Leadership Council
“Service-learning supports young people’s growth by allowing them to use their voice to take action on issues that they care about. It encourages them to apply their creativity and learning to real-world needs…sometimes they fail and that is okay. Through service-learning we reflect and learn from those failures so we can try again – building resiliency along the way.
— from The National Youth Leadership Council