We are a small, diverse high school with a focus on problem-based learning and integrated curriculum. We are located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but the students commute from all over the city. They come from a variety of cultural and economic backgrounds with around 50% receiving free lunch.
The students selected for this program will have a particular interest in pursing education, physical therapy, animal care, or will be otherwise interested in working with special needs populations.
My Project
At the end of each of our semesters, my school has an Intersession term for our juniors and seniors. Students take one intensive course for four weeks, and they work on a culminating project to share at an Expo. My course is to connect students to an internship with Gallop NYC. Gallop provides weekly therapeutic horseback riding lessons for autistic and disabled children and adults. My students have volunteered for Gallop to earn internship and physical education credit for the past two years. They complete at least 30 volunteer hours, then each student researches and presents one aspect of therapeutic horsemanship to present to peers, teachers, and parents.
The students in the program grow a great deal in maturity, compassion, and knowledge from the experience of volunteering for Gallop.
They learn how to positively support special needs populations, how to handle and care for horses, how to adapt activities for individual developmental, emotional, and social needs, and basic job skills like working with a supervisor. One aspect that has been missing from the experience for my students is that since they are city kids, most have never ridden a horse. They assist the riders they are helping by repeating the Gallop teacher's instructions, but they have no first hand knowledge of horseback riding skills, or even what it feels like to sit on a horse.
This year I would like to provide them with a group riding lesson before they begin volunteering to help them better assist in their volunteer work. In the lesson, the students will learn how to hold reins, how to use their legs and reins to go, stop, and steer, and how to post and hold a two-point position during trotting--the same skills they assist riders with during the therapeutic riding lessons.
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