One of my favorite presentations at this year's Forum was a gregarious group of students from Birmingham Covington School in Michigan whom I've come to revere as my empathy heroes. I cried in their session when they showed this clip that they made as part of their Project Cope service-learning project:
They set their goal at $12K, so they could purchase that tractor to help their friend Victor and his village. They did all sorts of projects, but my favorite was the jewelry they made by repurposing used gift cards ... and I'm not even a jewelry girl.
They had a booth set up and were taking orders
for custom-made pieces. So cool.
I donated my empty Starbucks card for the cause.
In their breakout, they talked in pairs about what they'd done, how and why. They were unstoppable in pursuit of their goal for this project with a purpose. They worked to find people to partner with; they even got Microsoft to contribute $3,000, which helped them exceed their goal by that much.
Kids as entrepreneurs and philanthropists, because of their elevated empathy for some people and their plight clear across the world.
I like it.
Want some more information on empathy?
Check out Teaching Empathy in Five Easy Steps {here},
Roots of Empathy {here},
Start Empathy {here},
and The Empathy Library {here}.
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