Sustainable Options for Youth: March 2016

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Rebels for Peace at Travis HS

We had an excellent visit today to Travis HS. Thanks to all the Rebels for making us welcome! We Rebels for Peace fit right in. We were asked to set up in the cafeteria today because there was testing being done in other parts of the school. That was a good place to be, and we appreciated all the students who came by to do the t-shirt challenge and see what the table was about.

It was good to meet several students from other parts of the world, including Tanzania and Puerto Rico.

The Penny Poll results showed the greatest priority for the Environment (25.61% of the vote), 22.8% for Health Care, 21.1% for Education, 17% for the Military and 13.49% for Humanitarian Aid. As one student said, as she put all her pennies into the Environment jar, "If we don't have a planet, we're all dead." I wish that our legislators would say it so clearly.

Rebels for Peace!

Peace Wheel of Fortune

reflection poster for Women's History Month, to name a woman you admire and why

reflection poster detail

t-shirt challenge for today

We were happy to see this banner in the school foyer

This looks like a great project!

poster on front door

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

International Women's Day at McCallum HS

Thanks to McCallum HS students and staff for our good visit today. Because today is International Women's Day, we made that a part of our t-shirt challenge, and it was great to see a large banner that was displayed in the hallway on that theme also. We're sorry that we initially were set up in front of it, inadvertently blocking access to it. After moving to the other side of the hallway, we realized the banner was a place for students to hang out, add more women's names to the display and read what others had written there.

One of the questions on our t-shirt challenge was "Who is Jane McCallum?" The school is named for her husband, but she was a notable suffragette in Austin, was an education advocate, mother of 5 and then appointed Secretary of State. She was quite an influential woman in Austin's history!

We appreciated what students wrote on our "Who is one of your sheroes and why?" poster. Following are some of their responses. Also -- Penny Poll results showed more than the usual number of votes in the "Humanitarian Aid" category. Overall, 37% of the vote went for Education, 19% for Humanitarian Aid, 18% for Health Care, 16% for the Environment and 10% for the Military. I heard two students say that if people are educated fully, that helps solve other problems. We agree!