Service Learning Superstars!

Bands of roving nine- and ten-year-olds campaigning for “Bees for Trees”? Running a Kindness Carnival, speaking out about bullying, picking up trash, raising funds for the humane society and women’s shelters, creating homeless hygiene kits, and painting public picnic tables? A mirage? Or the real deal? It’s true! SCORES poet-athletes are out there bettering and brightening our communities.

Poet-Athletes from Bayiew Elementary in West Contra Costa County

Poets. Athletes. Leaders .

Poets. Athletes. Leaders .

You’ve seen SCORES poet-athletes vibrantly showcase their engagement in both poetry and soccer. That distinctive mix of physical and creative expression, tied together by the empowering glue of teamwork, is what many people first think of with America SCORES. But there’s a third leg to that SCORES three-legged stool, tied indelibly to leadership, community impact, and personal growth – service learning. 

SCORES is a robust community - an ecosystem - of vibrant, optimistic young students and engaged, caring adults. Poet-athletes receive transformative opportunities and support on the field and in the classroom. But it doesn’t stop there. In return, these engaged students energetically give back to their communities through a semester-long service learning program. 

 
 

Each team of poet athletes identifies a community challenge to address through their spring service projects or other creative outlets. The students identify, design, and develop their projects as a team. SCORES coaches guide their students through a specifically tailored curriculum moving from observation, discussion, and research to strategic planning, taking action, sharing with their SCORES peers, and final reflection and celebration.

“The service-learning process is designed to empower students to give back to their communities in meaningful ways and to help them develop crucial skills – communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, persistence, civic engagement, empathy, and public speaking. 

 
 

Spring of 2024 Highlights - SCORES poet-athletes stretching from the North Bay to the far reaches of Santa Cruz County created a wide array of service projects. Here are some highlights. 

San Francisco

  • The Bessie Carmichael girls team launched a “More Trees, More Bees” campaign in their neighborhood, encouraging classmates and adults to create a friendly environment for bees and other ecologically critical insects. The campaign featured team-designed flyers teaching people to plant flowers and trees near their homes.

  • A first- and second-grade Junior SCORES team at Cobb Elementary collected necessary items for a nearby women’s center and distributed flyers to encourage school families to bring in donations. The team gave the center four large boxes of toys, clothing, and hygiene products for mothers and children. 

  • A 3rd-5th grade Cobb team led an anti-smoking campaign. For the final couple weeks of SCORES programming, they researched the negative effects of tobacco to create a poster and drawings to encourage their friends, family, and teammates not to take up the habit.

  • At Up on Top, an afterschool program site for children living in the Tenderloin, SCORES students focused on supporting food-insecure families who depend upon the center. Under the guidance and leadership of Up on Top staff, SCORES students helped prepare, plate, and distribute a delicious (and nutritious!) meal. 

Oakland

  • Several teams including the boys and girls teams at Brookfield Elementary, a co-ed team at Madison Park Academy in East Oakland, and the La Escuelita girls and boys teams in Lake Merritt created care packages and hygiene packages for the homeless, raising funds through multiple channels, including lemonade stands.

  • A co-ed team from Sankofa United Elementary School ran a food drive on campus to provide for the unhoused. 

  • A boys team at Hoover Elementary collected baby food, baby clothes, sanitary supplies and toiletries, and canned goods for foster youth at Alternative Family Services. 

 
 

West Contra Costa County

  • This spring, Grant Elementary School’s poet-athletes collaborated to write and illustrate their own children’s book. Collectively choosing “Language Barriers” as a topic, poet-athletes shared ideas and created characters, ultimately writing a novel story about cultural diversity, bullying, and friendship. 

  • Working with the same SCORES coach, Verde Elementary also wrote a children’s story. Their story covered friendship, jealousy, bullying, and sportsmanship. 

  • Meanwhile, poet-athletes at Ford Elementary School made an anti-bullying video: “Speak up and Speak out: Stand up Against Bullying”

  • Teams from Cesar Chavez Elementary, Bayview Elementary, and Coronado Elementary brightened their communities by picking up trash. 

Watsonville/ Pajaro Valley

  • Kindness was the theme for a girls SCORES team from Watsonville. The young poet-athletes worked together to create a Kindness Carnival making pamphlets and colorful pins honoring kindness in English and Spanish. Kindness is cool! 

  • Another team chose to repaint public picnic tables, enlivening them with a brilliant blue. 

North Bay

  • The SCORES North Bay teams focused on running fundraisers and raising funds for local non-profit organizations. 

  • The San Pedro Girls team ran a fundraiser - “Raspados and Popcorn” - raising $552 for the Marin Humane Society. 

  • Girls teams from Coleman Elementary and Laurel Dell Elementary ran lemonade stands, raising $326 for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

 
 
Jenny Griffin