Making Bright Futures

In the past hour, 228 children ran away from home, 114 unwed teen-agers put a needle in their arms for the first time, 216 youth were arrested for the first time.

If that weren't enough, the popular media would have you believe the worst, but here and there are pockets of change, programs with purpose and young adults enriching themselves and the world around them.

Enter the world of service learning: a creek restoration project through an Arcata High School biology class, Straight Up AmericCorps and Cadre of Corps youth programs, traditional woodworking at Blue Ox Mills in Eureka and the Creeks Project in Fortuna.

Whether or not our young people are at risk, they all benefit from opportunities to effect change in themselves while developing concern for our environmental and social problems.

Louis Arman-Hoiland, a biology teacher at Arcata High School, has been leading his students in a Jolly Giant Creek restoration project for the past 10 years. This is an interdisciplinary project that ranges from revegetation studies to fish rehabilitation to water quality.

Students leave Armin-Hoiland's biology class with a valuable information on environmental devastation.

Funding for these programs is aided by grants coming from state agencies such as the California Department of Fish and Game, as well as the Eureka-based non-profit Redwood Community Action Agency.

Armin-Hoiland points out that one of the benefits of the Jolly Giant Creek project is the improved habitat and access for the migrating fish populations. He says these projects give students the opportunity to "reverse the trend of (environmental degradation) and change things for the better."

Aleta Greenspan, a high school senior, took biology last spring and mentioned how the program really worked because "we planned it all out ourselves" and that it was "one of the only classes (in high school) where you actually did something relevant."

Six student council-appointed environmental commissioners, also at Arcata High School, are helping the student population become more environmentally aware. According to Fuschia Myer, one of the six commissioners, their goal is to educate the high school population.

Myer was wearing one of the 1,200 stickers reading "I'm a vegetarian," which she made in preparation for World Vegetarian Day. They are asking the student population not to eat meat for one day.

They plan to improve the recycling effort at their school, as well as organize larger educational fairs around Arbor Day and Earth Day.

They plan to improve the recycling effort at their school, as well as organize larger educational fairs around Arbor Day and Earth Day.

Commissioner Maya Kessler is also concerned about waste issues on campus and mentioned that "a lot of students get pizza and that's like 10,000 paper plates."

Meanwhile, at the Manila Community Center, many recent graduates from Humboldt State University have gone through training to be Cadre of Crops members. Cadre of Corps is a partnership between California Conservation Corps and AmeriCorps.

The members will be dispersed throughout the community in order to serve local schools, parks and environmental restoration projects.

One such project is the "Bay to Dunes" educational day, which involves in-class presentations followed by extensive field trips to the unique marine and coastal dune areas of Manila for second and seventh grade students. About 1,000 students will go on the field trips this fall and spring.

Nicole Wortman, a seventh grader at Fortuna Elementary School, practiced her observation skills while walking through the Manila dunes and pointing out tiny mice trails on the dune face.

Denise Claus, one of the Cadre of Corps members coordinating "Bay to Dunes," expressed her satisfaction with the program.

"It's really fun to see the students learning through experience," she said.

Another local AmeriCorps program, partnered with the Redwood Community Action Agency, is called Straight Up AmeriCorps. Members are found at both Eureka High School and Zoe Barnum High School, among other sites. Straight Up AmeriCorps targets disengaged youth with a wider variety of activities.

Zoe Barnum High School is known as a community learning center, and students are given the opportunity to develop different interests through the Straight Up AmeriCorps program.

Brennan Cassidy and Ruth Rouvier are Americops members at Zoe Barnum and teach classes such as sign language and cryptozoology. Crptozoology is the study of mystical and unknown animals in the world, like Bigfoot, a local legend.

Classmember Jacque Brunson, commented that the "less information you have on something gives you more reason to study."

Also at Zoe Barnum is senior Tiffany Torgersen, a founding member of Y.E.A.H. (Youth Education Against Homophobia), which was initially supported by Straight Up AmeriCorps. Students in this three-year-old club provide training sessions at local schools and organizations about preventing homophobia, most recently for the Unitarian Fellowship.

Torgerson has also worked at the RAVEN project for two yeas, which is a "youth-led street outreach" through the Redwood Coast Action Agency Youth Service Bureau.

Over at Blue Ox Mill in Eureka, students from Redwoods-to-the-Sea Community School are learning traditional woodworking skills, preserving the local blackberry harvest, making apple cider and vinegar, building a 40-foot scow, making clay from bay mud and using glazes from local minerals.

Blue Ox Mill, run by Erica and Viviana Hollenbeck, is a working Victorian job shop and serves as an "off-campus campus for local schools."

Through partnerships with local schools, court systems and county employment agencies, students have an opportunity to learn traditional arts. There are currently 29 students in the program, which is coordinated by Don Hoch and Cadre of Corps member Bryan Gibbs.

Tanya Unger, a sophomore, likes going out to Blue Ox Mill because it's "more hands-on, not sitting down all day and getting lectured."

Fortuna Creeks Project is an after-school club advised by Fortuna Union High School biology instructor Pam Halstead. The club's president is senior Kim Dokweiler, who runs the meetings.

This club of 40 students monitors creeks that flow into the Eel River. They also do habitat restoration, public education about their working and maintain a website: www.springville.com/fcp/.

This past fall, junior Michael Bruck and freshman Ambria Renner-Copx did water-quality testing at four creeksites. Bruck explained that the chose to fulfill his community service requirement by joining the Creeks Project because it is "less trivial than other stuff."

These programs provide elements of service learning. Local service learning projects provide a unique way for people to learn, serve and teach.

Nationally, AmeriCorps reports that every $1 spent translated to at least $1.66 in direct benefits to the communities they are working in.