Education at First Sight

This Friday I’m am embarking on a journey to further my insight into the topic of the gap between student achievement and educational funding and what I can do as a concern product of my society to help solve this problem. I am a soon to be High-School graduate from S.R. Butler High-School, and from the beginning of this program called S.O.L.E. (Self Organized Learning Environment), I had always knew that there was something that made my school different from the other surrounding schools in the city of Huntsville. My school has always had a point of being known as a low-achieving school and some other High-Schools as high-achieving, but I had not always known the reason why for this. Now that I know why things are the way they are for my school and not for other schools, I have been working on solutions and researching as much as I can concerning this particular topic and now plan on finishing my research in this upcoming trip to D.C. I am very excited to visit D.C.! This will be my first time up there and I hope to get a lot of research done as well as site seeing! Keep in Touch peeps~ 

-Sakai

Changing Our Future!

Honestly, I never thought I would be part of a program that has so much to contribute to our community. Being a Hispanic student and actually taking action on topics that many people ignore is a great privilege to take on. I am very anxious about the flight to Washington, D.C., but I am very excited to meet people that will help us solve the education gap problem that we have and make a better future for our next generation!

-Cecilia

Predeparture jitters

I am ecstatic about the upcoming DC Trip. By this time I feel the atmosphere of the trip already creating among my peers and the adrenaline rush for the flight as well as all of the wonderful people I will be getting to meet has simply pushed me to do further research in my field of expertise and become as familiar with my subject as possible. I hope to get further information on my subject that I probably would not have found otherwise without meeting someone who is more familiarized with the subject. I feel that I am prepared for all of the experiences I will be engaged in. I hope to learn as much as possible in the few days that I am fortunate to be there. I also refuse to return to Huntsville feeling like I have not become more educated in the affects the environment of a school has on a students learning capability.

-Elizabeth

The Thing I Want

This is day one of our DC trip. I have high expectations for this trip. The trip is going to be a luring experience and an eye opener for me and my group.  The S.O.L.E. group is the most outgoing group of people who can solve any question that we are given within hours, because we are a very smart, intelligent group of young adults.  On the DC trip, I want my brain to be overloaded with information, from the famous quote from Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”   That is the whole purpose of S.O.L.E.:  to bring a change to world of education.  

- Dwight

1st Time Travel

Hi, I’m Porsha and I’m covering the topic of emotional distress, and how student’s emotions, if not properly care for, can exacerbate educational inequity. I am very excited about my topic and how I can learn more about it. I have mixed emotions about the plane ride and the trip due to the fact that this is my first time flying and traveling. Though I have never done anything like this I am excited and thankful for this opportunity.

-Porsha

Time For A Change

We finally made it! It’s time to board the plane and head to Washington D.C! I know this will be one of the best experiences that I will go through. I am ready to learn about the different topics regarding education inequity, especially since I’m going to research a very controversial topic which is “Teen Pregnancy” and how it affects our young students.  I am very excited to board the plane and talk to various people and learn more about my topic. On the other hand I’m a little scared of the new environment that we are about to experience. But at the end I know everything will be worth it!

-Marisol

The Bridge to Equity

             I am so excited about our trip to DC! We have worked for four long, strenuous months and it is finally paying off. I wish that I could appropriately express my gratitude to those that contributed to our going to DC, but it is almost impossible. They have done so much.

 I am so extremely excited for the trip and am only anxious for the airplane ride. I am eager to meet and jump right into the Washington DC atmosphere. I want to get the insight of every person within my plane of interest, which is “Lack of Resources.” I jumped on this topic, because in my opinion, it is the reason for all of the other issues within inner-city schools. I feel that it affects us the most directly. If the issue of lack of resources was non-existent the cycle of poverty would be broken. The reason that children are not appropriately learning is because they are not offered the same resources that “successful” children are. This lack of resource topic leads to my further detailed research of “The Thirty Million Word Gap”- the gap of words that resides between low socioeconomic and high socioeconomic status children. My research in DC will focus on these two topics and early childhood education, because I believe that early childhood development and education is key to future success. I am so excited to see where DC, the research I do in DC, and the time that I spend with my SOLE group in DC affects me and my growth into the solving of this problem known as education inequity. 

-Lena

Dear America

Note to self, I’m going to D.C. this Friday to further my research on the effect of segregation on education, and how it enhances inequity. I’m not anxious about any part of the trip. I’m just very excited about going and making an effort to help solve education inequity. I’m ready to experience what a research trip really is. I want to know the difference between segregation in the south and the north.

-David

Students share some of their reseach

 Lena discussed the statistical relationship between economic resources (Title I funds, student expenditures, school funding from property taxes) and the disproportionately high dropout rate among minorities.

Dwight interviewed over 30 students and obtained copies of transcripts from students who either transferred from a high-performing school to a low-performing school or vice-versa. He is looking forward to collecting even more student data.

Dropout Nation

Today, students watched the 2012 Frontline documentary Dropout Nation. After dissecting the main themes, students created a web of problems all tying back to the high dropout rate in American high schools and how many if not all of the problems are interconnected. The picture illustrates their conclusions.

We did it!

HUGE THANKS to all of our wonderful donors! We have succeeded in meeting our benchmark. Now on to DC to solve education inequality! 

DC Update # 1

We are so excited to announce that we have set up our first two meetings while in Washington, D.C. The first will be with Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, James H. Shelton III. The second will be with president of American University, Cornelius Kerwin. Looking forward to hearing their thoughts!

DC students during their first prep session !

What is learning? How do we know if we have truly learned something? 

Huntsville, AL most unequal city in America?

In 2012, The Atlantic published an article listing Huntsville, Alabama as the number one most unequal city in wage distributions. Although the data is from two years ago, the facts haven't changed - the dichotomy between the haves and have nots is as stark as ever. How can we change this? Make education more accessible and more equitable.

Fifth Chaperone

We have just confirmed our fifth and final chaperone for the trip and we are so excited to have them join us. Who will it be? Stay tuned!

Butler DC Students Make the News!

Posted by Anthony Martini in Operations on Jan 8, 2014 10:09:00 AM

Balcerzak Tour Takes Off to the Rocket City
Huntsville, Ala. marked the spot for day 2 of the Edward Balcerzak tour of the owned-and-operated Customer Care Centers, and boy what a day it was! The day started in frigid Huntington, W.V. (where the flight attendant said the temperature reached -19 degrees overnight) and we almost were unable to leave due to the frozen mechanics of the de-icing equipment. That’s a story for another day, and we did make it out in just enough time to make our connection to in Charlotte, N.C. for our flight to Huntsville (after a little begging and pleading to re-open the already closed flight).

After the group warmed up upon arriving in single-digit temperature Huntsville, Ed began to see all the inner-workings of the Huntsville site. Site Director Anita Hilbun and her leadership team led Ed through the Huntsville version of the employee lifecycle (similar to what he saw a day earlier in Huntington), which was capped off with Kandy Richardson-Fletcher’s QA team’s rally after this afternoon’s huddle.

But the highlight of the day was a visit with a dozen Butler High School students. Butler High is a school the Huntsville site has developed a close, mutual relationship with: site leadership learns just as much from these high school students as the students learn from DIRECTV. DIRECTV wanted to help a school in need from the local community, and Butler needed the help.

Led by the efforts of Jennifer Carpenter, the Recognition, Corporate Citizenship, and Events specialist in Huntsville, along with several others of Anita’s leadership team, DIRECTV is helping Butler students learn the necessary skills to be successful after their school days are done. The Butler students have developed a program called S.O.L.E.: a Self-Organized Learning Environment. S.O.L.E. is an innovative classroom setting in the high school that DIRECTV invested in to determine how students can change the culture of a failing school into one of a successful school. The students are learning some of the same principles that DIRECTV employees are learning about in the Customer Experience transformation.

In just two-and-a-half hours on Monday night, the group of students brainstormed and developed the website www.culturetransformations.webs.com and presented their findings to Ed and team during his visit. The results were nothing short of impressive. The students came up with – on their own – several of the essential leadership qualities we seek from DIRECTV employees: trust, family, community, and collaboration. The students also realize, through this exercise, to never lose the ability to take risks and that it’s OK to fail. Sound familiar?!

The unfortunate reality is that Butler High School will most likely be shut down at the end of the school year due to circumstance beyond this group of students’ control, but they will go down fighting until the end. They have one last project together – a trip to Washington, D.C. to see our national’s capitol and learn more about the various parts of our government. In order for this trip to become a reality, the Butler team has set up a fundraising site at butlerdctrip.blogspot.com. Today, the Huntsville Customer Care Center announced it would be donating $2,500 to the students’ efforts; Ellen Filipiak matched the donation, and then Ed matched Ellen’s match (plus $1, so he wouldn’t be outdone!). The students were beyond excited!

The afternoon of learning – from both the Butler students and the DIRECTV Customer Care leadership team – resulted in over $7,500 being raised for this educational effort. This is just another way that DIRECTV supports the communities we work and live in, and it once again makes me proud to work for such a great company.

Off to Tulsa we go (and hopefully some warmer weather – heck, even 30 degrees would feel balmy at this point!). Thanks, Anita and team for a great visit!