The Sophomore Class Cares

A group of sophomores is testing out a new program that will add charity work to the Northwest Academy program.

CommuniCARE, created by the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, helps teens learn the importance of community service and allows them to help those in need. It will also become a part of the junior English/Humanities (E/H 3) curriculum.

“The students form a mini-foundation, they get together and talk about what kinds of issues they see and are concerned with and solicit grant requests from nonprofits in the area,” Doug Cornett, the E/H 3 teacher, said. “After they’ve raised a certain amount of money, the CARE Foundation supplements that with money of their own.”

Once they raise $500 on their own, the CARE Foundation will then give the students a donation of $10,000.

“They could find one organization to give all of the money to or they can give smaller donations to many organizations,” Cornett said. “It’s really up to the students.”

The sophomores will be working with Barbara Hall, the director of the organization, once every two weeks during lunch to do a smaller scale trial of the program.

After raising that money, the students will decide how to donate it.

“From there, we will be touring specific charities to find an organization, or organizations, we want to give the grant to,” Xavier Stickler, a sophomore, said.

The participating students are going to play a different part next year when the program is implemented into the E/H3 curriculum.

“Next year it will be all 32 of us making the decisions,” Stickler said. “So, that will be a big change from the dynamic of just the six of us making all the choices. More people means more opinions.”