nothin Friday Was Fly Day At HSC | New Haven Independent

Friday Was Fly Day At HSC

Maya McFadden Photo

Kaila Bonden and Kai-Ona Spears at A Day in the Life of a Band.

The staff and faculty of High School in the Community (HSC) took a step back and left the leading to the students all-day for what they call Fly Choice Friday.”

Now a student-led tradition at the school, Fly Choice Friday started eight years ago as a leap of faith by Fran Pierson, library media specialist, and Christian Shaboo, a director from the Future Project” who encourages student leadership.

The annual event took place this past Friday. The day consisted of 19 student-led workshops that student leaders proposed and organized in advance.

Cari Strand, HSC’s curriculum leader, said she gets excited to pass the school over to the kids every year.

Students began Friday by going to their advisory classes to get their workshop assignments for the day. The students previously submitted their preferences online for the workshop they were most interested in. Before heading to their workshop, the students gathered in their cafeteria for some morning motivation.

Since its start, the day-long program has always been the half-day before either February break or April vacation. Shaboo worked with many of the student leaders to prepare them as the day approached.

For the past five years students have taken on nearly all of the workshop preparation responsibility. All 19 workshops were planned, organized, and led by the students this year, said Shaboo.

The student leaders selected their topics and took complete control over the session’s design while working with a staff facilitator.

Fly Choice Friday should be the vision for high school education for the country,” Shaboo said.

The program started as an initiative to bring guest speakers in for students to learn from community leaders but in time developed into the students learning from each other and taking on the leadership role.

Shannon Dickey.

Shannon Dickey, an HSC alum and Gateway Community College graduate, spoke with the students during the morning commencement. While at HSC, Dickey was one of the first few students to join the Future Project with Shaboo. (The Future Project is a national organization that works with high schools with the mission to promote student leadership.) The students that join go through workshops and lessons to learn leadership skills then come up with a project/initiative of their own that they’re passionate about to pursue and make happen. Now a site coordinator at Solar Youth environmental nonprofit organization, Dickey shared words of inspiration with the students then closed with a musical performance of the Jill Scott hit Golden” alongside her parents and older sister.

Students of all grade levels are able to lead a workshop. This year the list of leaders included one freshman. Workshop topics ranged from music and dance to art and food.

Two student leaders put together a workshop titled, A Day in the Life of a Band,” in which they created an original song together. Some students, but not all, in the workshop had musical experience.

The group came up with the name the Bandits.” Simone Henderson and Angel Alvarez led the workshop with facilitation from the music teacher, Michael McGinley. The group put together a song from the simple foundations of a few chords the student leaders prepared.

We just want people to be creative,” Henderson said.

Marvel Mayhem

Ayao Tossah, Daniel Gitelman, Gianie Figuroa.

Ayao Tossah, junior Daniel Gitelman, and sophomore Gianie Figuroa led a superhero-based workshop. The leaders and their peers spent their time coming up with their own superhero characters to reflect themselves.

I really just have a love for comics,” Figuroa said.

Figuroa’s superhero’s name is Skylar Stark, aka Silhouette,” the daughter of Iron Man.

Others in the workshop, too, made their new generation of heroes the descendants of Marvel’s characters. Tossah’s character sketch was the son of the Black Panther, named Genisis Lynx.” Gitelman decided his character would be the son of Hawkguy.

For many in the workshop, superheroes and Marvel characters are an escape from reality. Like Marvel, we can take our ordinary selves and be bigger,” Figuroa said.

At the end of the workshop, the students shared their characters and their stories.

Future Vision

Zaniyah Reed (left)

Sophomores Asia Baker and Sani Murphy led their first workshop ever with vision board making. The students who joined them used magazine cutouts and online printouts to design their own poster board collage to visually describe themselves and their future goals.

I feel like it’s a good reminder for myself of what I want for myself and where I want to be soon,” Baker said.

Many of the student boards displayed their top colleges they hope to attend and the career paths they envision following.

I’ve never pushed myself this much before,” Baker said.

This was really out of my comfort zone but I’m glad we can bring out the student’s creativity,” Murphy said.

Junior Zaniyah Reed attended the vision board workshop. On her board, Reed featured Princeton University and New York University. She added a cut-out of the logo of her dream job, in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

When I’m feeling discouraged I can look at my board and gain some inspiration,” Reed said.

Culture Through Cooking

Marlen Pineda (left) teaches her peers how to make empanadas.

Another popular workshop was a hands-on cooking lesson led by five students.

The students present split into food-prep groups to make five different dishes. Student leader Marlen Pineda helped make the plantain empanadas with a rice and milk mixture filling.

We want the students to know the difference between cultural foods,” Pineda said. This is the third year Pineda had helped lead the workshop.

The students made rice, Italian style pasta, empanadas, guacamole, and spaghetti. 

Thomas Sabin uses his family’s special sauce.

Thomas Sabin who also helped lead the cooking workshop joined this year to share his Italian culture with his peers. After cooking a pot of ziti noodles, Sabin topped it with his family’s special sauce recipe that he learned two years ago.

After, the students sat down with a culture-filled plate to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Students join to eat the final product after workshop.

Each year the program is kept going by student interest. Our students really will take any chance to use their voices to lead which is why we are okay with passing the school over to them every year,” Strand said.

The culture of HSC is driven by student leadership, outside of a traditional focus on athletics.

We continue to remain a place of innovation because we have faith in turning it over to the students,” Strand said.

As the end of the day neared, Pierson said she felt success because the students were successful.

During the last half hour of the day, everyone gathered back in the cafeteria for an open mic. Students shared their workshop experiences until the final bell of the day rang, dismissing the students for February break.

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