Chris Douthit, Teacher
Schroeder Middle School
Pablo Muirhead, Teacher
Shorewood Middle School
Ron Adams, Grade 7 Language Arts Teacher
Broad Meadows Middle School
Jackie Muirhead, ODW Advisor
Pius XI High School
Ken Simon, Teacher
Olson Middle School

Operation Day's Work (ODW) is a non-political program which engages American students to be directly involved in the lives of students in developing nations throughout the world. In the year-and-a-half that Schroeder Middle School has been involved with the program, ODW has been an absolute success.

Schroeder has been fortunate to be one of the pilot schools in which we (both the students and myself) have experienced the reality of starting a program from ground zero and nurturing it slowly into its future.

My involvement in the program has allowed me to observe students take a personal interest in a program and develop into young leaders among themselves, other students and at a national level. And this is occurring as 8th grade students. There is no other activity in our school which opens so many doors for the students.

The Schroeder ODW students have also been able to make contact and relationships with students across the country. Again, this kind of opportunity is unavailable in any other setting in our school.

Operation Day's Work is geared towards student leadership, involvement and control. As an advisor, there will be many unseen hours which you will need to give to make the program a success. It is important that the advisor be willing to remain in "the shadows" to ensure the participants in the program receive the recognition they deserve. At the middle school level, the 7th grade student isn't quite ready to take on some of the tasks which are required. It is these things that the advisor needs to do quietly.

In the year-and-a-half I have been associated with the program, and through discussions with other teachers, there are common themes which need to be accomplished to make ODW work. They are:

• A committed advisor to the program
• Strong student committee members who are committed to the program
• Communication between the ODW committee and the school staff
• An understanding of what the program is truly about

When all is said and done, the true beauty of Operation Day's Work is that students who have extremely limited resources for educational growth are given opportunity from those who have the best resources in the world. Although students who help students may never meet, there is a bond and better understanding of what volunteering and giving of one's self is truly about. The learning and growth experiences come second.

Operation Day's Work is one of the finest programs any school could become involved in. The benefits to the students, both those on the ODW committee and those who do the work, the school, the community and the receiving nation are immeasurable, but immense.

I highly recommend ODW to any school considering applying to this program.

Chris Douthit, Teacher
Schroeder Middle School
Grand Forks, ND

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Pablo Muirhead, Teacher
Shorewood Middle School
Shorewood, Wisconsin

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Dear Colleague:

In my 22 years as a classroom teacher, my grade 7 team teachers and I have done our best to teach about the ideals of human behavior as expressed in the U.S. Constitution, especially in the Bill of Rights. Then, we hoped our students would apply those ideals in their day to day lives. I often wondered aloud, when do we provide our students with opportunities to practice the democracy they learned? When do we "do democracy" in our school? Sure, the student government exists, but that involves one student per division. Where were the other opportunities for many, many students to propose ideas for change, to debate options available, to learn compromise if necessary, or how to cast an informed vote on an issue that really mattered?

Guess what? There is a new program which provides unlimited numbers of your students to practice actively democracy in a very meaningful way, a way which truly matters at home and abroad. Sound too good to be true? It's very good; it's really true. The program that does all this is called Operation Day's Work-USA, and it is totally student run. That means empowered students must learn to work together to help children in developing countries through education projects our students choose!

Fold in a local community service component (students involved design their own "sponsored" community service projects) and you have:

1. democracy in action (the democratic process: students run and decide everything)
2. sponsored community service (the fundraising component and a great benefit to our neighborhood and students)
3. global service (poor children in the chosen developing country benefit from the educational project our students voted on and funded)
4. technology used to connect participating schools (votes, debate, compromise, choose, all done online)

Over the past decade, many students and adults have done a great job on local service projects. Students routinely do good deeds across their communities. Now, the world wide web and the global economy connect students as never before to international communities as well. As many in the U.S. benefit from the global economy, I have noticed that many of my students show a stunning global awareness and concern for those whose lives remain desperately poor despite recent global changes. Operation Day's Work-USA provides an opportunity for concerned students in your school to not only care but to take actions to help children in a poor, developing country, ultimately helping those children to help themselves through education provided by our students. It's very cyclical.

There are many winners in this project. Last year for example, the local community here benefited from over 400 hours of Operation Day's Work-USA youth service, just from kids at my school. There were 7 other schools doing the same or more! All of that student action translated into a ton of positive local improvements and resulted in the establishment of an agricultural education project now in effect for 2,000 children in Haiti. That is what the 8 pilot schools in Operation Day's Work-USA accomplished in one year.

Those of us involved look to the future and imagine how much more global help could be generated if you and your students joined.

Sincerely,

Ron Adams, Grade 7 Language Arts Teacher
Broad Meadows Middle School
50 Calvin Road
Quincy, MA 02169
USA

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To be a more effective force, the core members tapped into groups that were already service and globally oriented at our school. Due to the size of Pius, roughly 1600 students, it was difficult to instill in the school the spirit of ODW to the level we had wanted. Although this was frustrating to some students, I have found Operation: Day's Work to be a rich learning experience for all the students who have been involved. I have witnessed students' desire turn them into leaders, activists and peer educators of global awareness.

Jackie Muirhead, ODW advisor
Pius XI High School
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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Olson Middle School is an urban school with 700 students. 80% of the students are on free or reduced lunch. One third of the students are recent immigrants (the largest group being Hmong), from Southeast Asia and East Africa. Needless to say, it is a school with a rich cultural mix which also includes African American and European American students.

For the students at Olson Middle School, Operation Day's Work was highly successful. Not only were the Olson students, most of which have experienced poverty in their own lives, able to point to how they helped children in a far-off world survive, they gained confidence in their own abilities and a unique understanding of the world around them which no class or text could offer.

Some of the more specific experiences for the students in this year-long project include:

• Providing service to others: Students participated in the project with the intent of helping others in a far-off distant land. As students learned more about Haiti and the work of several different development projects, the importance of what they were doing grew. After the day of work was completed, the Olson students felt a great deal of pride for what they had accomplished and an understanding that they have the power to be contributing members of a larger world.
• Developing a greater understanding of the world: The project helped students develop a broader understanding of the world around them. Middle school aged children are just beginning to develop a curiosity about the world beyond their own experiences. This project feeds that curiosity. Middle school children also have a strong sense of justice, and through Operation Day's Work, students are able to contribute positively to problems they understand.
• Understanding Haiti: The students conducted in-depth research on Haiti as well as general issues of development. The students then taught their peers what they had learned. They also used this knowledge to choose which development project would receive their money. After the project, the students wanted to be kept informed on how the project was developing and helping. These students gained a deep connection with Haiti and several commented that they would eventually like to visit the island.
• Connecting with local businesses and community organizations: Students contacted metro area businesses through phone and mail, as well as several site visits by the students. Over 100 businesses were contacted by Olson students. 28 businesses chose to participate in the actual day of work. These contacts gave students valuable experiences as well as helping to create positive relationships between local businesses and urban youth.
• Learning about the world of work: This one day work experience takes "job shadowing" a step further. Students were actually working at a job site and earning money with a very specific goal in mind.

These are but a few of the lessons learned by this group of students. As the program grows, I believe that it has the potential to change the often strained relationships between inner-city youth and the business community. After the day of work, we received nothing but positive feedback from our business partners on the project. One local northside businessman told me that the experience changed his attitude about hiring local kids. Our students were equally ecstatic. They enjoyed the day of work and walked away with a new appreciation for what happens in businesses and community service organizations.

In closing, I would like to offer a personal note on this project. In 12 years of teaching and another ten years of youth work, I have not found a program which has so much positive impact on inner-city youth. As one of the two teacher advisors for the program last year, I was continually amazed at how these students took to the program and rose to the challenges to make the project successful. In a video about the project, produced by Olson students, one child tells how, in the wake of the Columbine High tragedy, this project demonstrates that children, given the opportunity, can show their compassion and hope for a brighter future.

Ken Simon, Teacher
Olson Middle School
Minneapolis, MN

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