It takes a city for youth to thrive
Imagine a city where the education of youth happens within the dynamism and support of the local community, not just within the walls of a classroom.
A high school student who loves cycling builds a bicycle with a local bike manufacturer. Another student learns to build computers for a local charity. Children of immigrants work with leading lawyers to understand the rights and challenges of newly arrived immigrants. One high-schooler works with the city finance director to determine the appropriate way to spend money on youth programs, while another shadows Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber, learning about running a city. A student learns the Compassionate Listening skills used to bridge the Palestinian-Israeli divide, while an aspiring entrepreneur learns how to start a food business under the guidance of the Santa Fe School of Cooking. A young photographer begins working with the lead photographer of The New Mexican; and many more such examples.
Imagine adults across the city of Santa Fe using their workplaces as ad-hoc learning environments that provide enriching, real-world experiences and inspiration to youth. We “flip” the classroom dynamic 180 degrees so that students determine what they want to learn, and the incredible talent that lives here in Santa Fe provides the guidance; all this while complementing classroom skills.
This “dream” already is happening in our city, introduced to Santa Fe 18 years ago by educator Paquita Hernandez as the core of Monte del Sol Charter School. This learning model is now being integrated into Mandela International Magnet School, The MASTERS Program, Santa Fe High School and Capital High School through a 4-yearold program called Inspire Santa Fe.
These programs begin by asking youth, “What do you want to learn?” before matching them with an expert in the community for a six-month collaboration in their field of interest. Inspire Santa Fe and Monte del Sol annually connect 200-plus students with one-on-one mentorships throughout the city, culminating in a public Festival of Learning in the spring. There are now young professionals all over Santa Fe (and the country) who are working in fields of interest that were awakened by these high school mentorships.
And our adult mentors gain as much as the youth during the program. Their experience reaffirms their own joy and mastery of their fields as they teach and collaborate with the youth.
Mentorship offers a complimentary, credit-bearing, educational model that traditional schooling cannot: driven by student interest, matched oneon-one with a professional. There are also other forms of transformative mentoring and tutoring provided by many organizations in our community, complementing traditional schooling: Communities in Schools, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Santa Fe Alliance for Science, Girls Inc., Reading Quest and others. All of these programs provide a connective tissue in our city, bringing adults into meaningful and needed relationships with youth in ways that provide support and inspiration.
However, these incredible programs and learning models are only reaching a fraction of the youth who want to participate. Imagine if these opportunities were made more widely available. Recently, Mayor Webber made such a challenge to us. He asked, “What if every high school and community college student who wanted a mentor got one?” It is an aspirational vision. One, that if realized, could have an incredible impact on our community. It would harness the skills and talent of our city’s adults with the dreams of our youth, stitching together a fabric of lifelong learning, deeply embedded in community.
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, provides a framework to promote “Learning Cities,” those cities that foster lifelong learning and lay the foundation for sustainable social, economic and environmental development. Even though our current president intends to pull out of UNESCO, Santa Fe could become a model “Learning City.”
Imagine. Santa Fe, the City Different, the City of Mentors, a Learning City.
For more information, go to www.inspiresantafe.org
Tony Gerlicz is the founder of the Monte del Sol Charter School and Mandela International Magnet School (IB) and a co-director of Inspire Santa Fe. Todd Lopez is the executive director of SEED, providing vision, direction and oversight of Inspire Santa Fe. Christian E. Casillas, who lives in Santa Fe and is co-founder of Inspire Santa Fe, was a contributor.