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Published on: 10/7/2008
Last Visited: 3/28/2008
"We want to produce students that change the world," says Ronald Shelley, the school's director since 1999 and one of its original teachers, who now oversees 225 students in grades 4-8.
The school's founders wanted to "create a curriculum that both impacted the community and at the same time tied the students to their community," he says, "meaning that after college, they would come back to the community as advocates and organizers and teachers and artists."
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Since 2001, Shelley says, the Youth Dreamers have raised about $400,000 toward their efforts, through donations from organizations and individuals, as well as fund-raisers, including, bake sales, talent shows, benefit basketball games, galas, and auctions. (Grants, including $70,000 from the state Senate, have helped, too.)
On a typical class day once a week, students in the Youth Dreamers work on assorted tasks in the morning, such as writing thank-you notes to donors or sending them necessary tax information.
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With thirteen options, "they're going to find something their good at, whether it's art, whether it's landscaping, whether it's zoology, and they can build a career path with it and consequently become leaders," Director Ronald Shelley says.
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They also put together an exhibition of their best work from the year in the core subjects and the project class -- Ronald Shelley likens it to a dissertation -- and present it to a small panel of their parents, a teacher, a community member, and a few others.
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But in order to develop students who will go on to college, Shelley adds, the school has had to become more organized, adding teachers and administrators, expanding the project classes, and strengthening the core academics while trying to retain the intimate feel.
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