This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
About My Students
Over the last three years, The Show Me Costa Rica Project has worked relentlessly to raise over $75,000 in order to provide an international learning experience in Costa Rica to 29 students from the city of St. Louis. Our students use their leadership skills to fund this educational journey.
After visiting an affluent suburban school right outside of St. Louis during a school swap experience, our students pushed for more opportunities like they observed at the suburban school. One opportunity they were passionate about was to have access to international traveling. My students committed to fundraising all of the money necessary in order to make their trip possible. The students who travel to Costa Rica stick around the following year to peer-mentor the next group. This year, they came up with the idea to write a student-lead grant together in order to help the largest amount of students from our high school make their dream of traveling internationally become a reality!
Through this year-long project, our students learn a variety of skills that will help them become successful. First, they are held to high expectations in order to participate in this project. They must maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher, 90 percent or higher attendance record, and participate fully in all fundraising efforts. In order to make sure this happens, students learn study skills and attend tutoring sessions at our high school and with Washington University. Every student is required to individually raise some of these funds, and then participate in all of the group activities to raise the rest of the funds.
Students go through a public speaking workshop to learn skills in order to craft their own speech about their lives and how traveling to Costa Rica will impact them. They give this speech in front of large crowds. Students work as a team all year to make this trip a reality.
In Their Own Words
We are on a mission to fundraise funds to travel to Costa Rica and Nicaragua to study biology and culture. Twelve of us will receive our first passports and will travel internationally for the first time through this project. Through this project, we will be able to learn and compare the cultural differences between two countries in Central America! For many of us, this will be our first time traveling out of St. Louis and on an airplane.
Our teacher always tells us that we have to be go-getters in order to make this opportunity happen for ourselves! We are taking charge and stepping up to the challenge by writing this grant. We want our voices to be heard because our voices and goals are important. We will take the lead by using our voice to spread the word about this project in order to get it fully funded. We will have to step out of our comfort zones by getting out in our community to talk to people in order to gain support.
We proudly attend an inner-city school in St. Louis and we deserve the opportunity to become the first in our families to travel internationally. We are tired of hearing negative stereotypes about our school and community. Our goal is be leaders in our community by proving that we are At-promise students with bright futures ahead. Our families, teachers, and community believe in our potential and we want to prove that we can conquer anything that we put our minds to with dedication and teamwork.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Lurie and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
