FCL: Updates

Full-Circle Learning News: Message from the Board

Children stood at the center of world events in the first quarter of 2013, caught in the maelstrom of moral and natural disasters, from the events at Newtown to Boston to Texas to Sichaun Province. Thankfully, they also led the movement for change in positive, powerful ways, in communities around the world.

Wherever society's outliers give rise to our fears, the quiet and ongoing efforts of silent heroes worldwide - teachers, community members and young people - give rebirth to our hope for transformation. The new generation of humanitarians will apply their carefully practiced character strengths, creativity and practical skills not to destroy but rather to sustain life; not to dismantle civilization but rather to rebuild and unify it; not to become agents of despair but, rather, the agents of change in their generation.

In this newsletter, we invite you to meet a few of these radiant faces of change. May their efforts create bright spots, amplified by those of their 25,000 peers who have also been nurtured in Full-Circle Learning programs over the years. On their behalf, thank you for envisioning education as a light switch to empower these young luminaries. Thank you for being a part of the Full-Circle Learning Family.

Teresa Langness, Board President, for the Staff and Board

(Above: Piru Full-Circle Learning Preschool students; photo by Fabian Ochoa)

On the Horizon:

Teacher training in Contra Costa County - June 18-20
Training 10 Schools in Zambia - June 10-15
Rancho Sespe Summer School - July 8-August 2
Training schools in Papua New Guinea/Australia - September
Training trainers in Gambia - October
Expansion to 3 new counties in Liberia - Fall 2013
Opening of second Ventura County preschool - Fall 2013

Current Activity: Since the start of 2012, Full-Circle Learning has trained or collaborated with 372 teachers serving 12,000 students in 60 schools.

Hearts Connect Across the Globe

Jade Romain participated in the first Full-Circle Learning project as an elementary school student in Los Angeles in the 1990s. She has devoted herself to volunteerism and altruism and now studies speech pathology and audiology at a university in New Orleans.

Driven by her passion to reach out to a new generation of FCL students in need, Jade established a scholarship to pay a year's expenses for a student at the Blessed Vale School, in Zambia. The Zambian recipient, a 12-year old girl named Melissa, orphaned at age 5, wrote, "I was so happy when I received the blessing from you....I failed to believe it was true when my teacher Beauty told me...This makes me understand what I was taught at Blessed Vale School, that I should always have a positive mind..."

Jade was moved to tears when she read the heartfelt letter, but now her story has an even happier outcome. In the summer of 2013, she will travel with Antoinette Wright to volunteer at Blessed Vale, where she will meet Melissa face to face. She will get to advance her own research and to see how students in a community facing great obstacles are striving to become its change agents. Now, as a teacher instead of a student, Jade's service will come full-circle.

Sacrificial donors and on-the-ground collaborators have helped grow the African projects all around. Honorary board member Dr. Farzin Rahmani is working out a plan with the school to donate land for the Blessed Vale high school and Full-Circle Learning training center.





Upon receiving her scholarship from Jade (bottom) Melissa (top) said: "This makes me understand what I was taught at Blessed Vale School, that I should always have a positive mind..."

The Pillow Project: Creativity to Keep Girls in School

The Pillow Project funds youth reaching out to other youth! Full-Circle Learning Students at Tarzana Elementary School were the first to participate in this collaborative project of Full-Circle Learning, Barnett & Company Design, of Decatur, Georgia, and participating fabric stores in that region.

Here's how it works: students create fabric art that reflects their current habit-of-heart themes and cultures. They sew their work onto fabric patches for Margaret Barnett and her team to display on designer pillows. Retail stores will sell the purposeful pillows. Once sold, the pillow proceeds will benefit Girls United Liberia, a Full-Circle Learning project that helps girls publish creative works to encourage other girls to stay in school and avoid childhood marriage.

Full-Circle Learning volunteer artist/blogger Arlo Gordon led volunteers at Tarzana as they helped students create meaningful art. Arlo praised the designers, the volunteers, the teacher and the children. Click here to read Arlo's new blog!

Advocating for the Tiniest Among Us

Students advocated for the most vulnerable members of society - premature newborns - as part of their learning unit plan at the Full-Circle Learning Tarzana Habits-of-Heart Club in March. The project culminated with a field trip to the hospital to hold a special ceremony in honor of the parents and caregivers who work tirelessly to help the infants thrive. Teacher Miguel Pena helped the students prepare speeches, certificates and gifts. Full-Circle Learning Operations Director Hyla Douglas rehearsed their music with them. The overwhelming response from the honorees was captured by the hospital's representative, Michelle Schaubert, R.N. , who wrote in an unsolicited letter:

"Words cannot adequately express how very moved we all were by the presentation at Providence Tarzana Medical Center for our NICU caregivers and parents. The children in your program (Full Circle Learning) are an inspiration to us...the children displayed so much courage, sang to us from their hearts and spoke so eloquently about their feelings. Everyone played a role in the presentation; whether it was speaking and sharing feelings, or singing or drawing beautiful certificates about caring and heroes.

Personally, I feel great joy and much hope having experienced first-hand the character, compassion, courage and leadership that the children shared with all of us. I am looking forward to these same children, our future generation, to lead our country while embracing those very same qualities."





Students advocated for premature newborns at Providence Tarzana Hospital as a Full-Circle Learning unit culmination project. This Tarzana-based Full-Circle Learning project receives funding assistance from the Mona Foundation.

Youth Mentoring Youth

In a recent visit to mentor their Tarzana Elementary School counterparts, the Oak Park High School Full-Circle Learning Club discussed recent learning units as themes for dramatic interpretation. The children will develop skits on Dedication that apply their habit-of-heart to the act of community-building .

Sending Cross-Country Comfort

SANAD children in Pomona, California practiced the habit of empathy by expressing their mutual grief to the Sandy Hook school community. The parents and children could not seem to articulate the sadness, but the mood was somber at this Sudanese cultural preservation school. This inspired Katie Smith, the early childhood teacher, to provide students with an act of empathy... locally.

The children surveyed the teachers and students to calculate the number of hot chocolate servings needed. They also tallied those who did and did not prefer whipped cream. Once the data was collected, the students and teachers went to work, pouring and stirring the mixture. Students counted the cups and proceeded to deliver the offering. Students sang the Empathy song to bring them to a deeper understanding of the habit. They sent their picture and letter to their "brothers and sisters" in Connecticut.

Dear Sandy Hook Families and Community,
This letter comes to you from the preschool, kindergarten, and first grade children of SANAD Foundation in California. I volunteer with this organization that strives to teach habits of heart. Recently, we have been practicing the habit of empathy in our own community. When we heard of your sadness, we were unsure how we could express our empathy so many miles away. As a group, we wrote this letter to express our condolences, our empathy, and our love. "We want you to know that we are sorry for your loss. Today everyone at our school felt so sad. We wanted to cheer up our school, so we are giving everyone hot chocolate. We wish we could give you hot chocolate and a hug."
With Love,
SANAD

Universal Connectedness Through Science

Professor Marisol Rexach's Chapman University class won over fans not only on her campus this semester, but at King Elementary, the Santa Ana elementary school campus where the student teachers apply their learning. The professor explained:

"With the current shift to the Common Core State Standards, this approach to teaching and learning offers the opportunity to engage FCL's long-standing dedication to promoting critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration with a commitment to applying these skills to benefit all of humanity."

Marisol commented, "As they study various ecosystems, they clearly recognized the local and global implications of individual actions. They engaged in learning projects that allowed them to recognize the importance of connecting to a larger purpose. On the final day, we hosted a celebration. Over 50 family members attended the student presentations. Students and the Chapman soon-to-be teachers all sang the Questions song, a FCL song that emphasizes that all scientific inquiry begins with a question."



This semester, 28 students were enrolled in a Chapman University course called "Teaching in a Culturally Diverse World: Math and Science Methods," where Professor Marisol Rexach explained that they "applied their blossoming understanding of Full-Circle Learning's integrated education model." The Chapman student teachers then helped King Elementary students in Santa Ana express the habit of Universal Connectedness through a study of eco-systems.

Liberia Listens

Davidson Efetobore, the Full-Circle Learning Program Director for Africa, had just finished a successful meeting with the Education Ministry of Liberia, the Honorable Tarpeh, when a local radio show, Liberian Women Democracy Radio, called him in to spread news of the widespread success of Full-Circle Learning programs in the region. His companions, administrators of local schools, were Mrs. Dorbar and Mr. Cooper. They told stories of the transformation of their students and the increase of motivation on campus. One listener remarked, "This is what the country really needs now!"

A year of planning is underway to implement new trainings in three more counties. Davidson has videotaped some of the training workshops to make the process smoother. A private donor's sacrificial grant has made it more possible to reach the point where we meet the request for growth in Liberia.



One listener remarked, "This is what the country really needs now!" in response to the radio show about Liberia's growing Full-Circle Learning initiative. Mrs. Dorbar, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Efetobore answered listeners' questions.

A Lifelong Train of Thought

Piru Full-Circle Learning Preschool students started a lifelong habit of respect for elders this year. They practiced applications of the habit of respect and they studied all the places where the skill might be useful. Special field trips gave them experience using their polite words in public. When their integrated learning unit included a study of transportation, this skill became a community project suited for the annual parade.

Families, friends and neighbors helped them decorate a float on which to demonstrate their special skills for the community. The preschoolers enjoyed riding the Respect Train together. Out in Ventura County, where the Fillmore and Western has long served the public with railway service, the float was a relevant place to practice meeting and greeting elders on a train.



This Full-Circle Learning preschool is highly praised for its community involvement. The Respect Train project benefited from the donation of a tractor from a local citizen and from the creativity of Sugey Lopez and her teaching team. A tobacco tax through First 5 Ventura County and plenty of parent volunteers help make this program possible.



Photos by Fabian Ochoa

Messages from our Chinese Collaborators

Regarding the earthquake, we have received assurance from our friends at the Hangzhou Teachers College at Zhejiang University:

People are acting immediately and trying to do everything to help. Our government has been carrying out the rescue work continuously and effectively. Everyone, including the very young in the kindergartens, is doing something (such as making good wishes) for the people in Ya'an, Sichuan province. ...And we truly believe that with your heart-felt support and love, we'll finally conquer the crisis. We are sharing this belief, "Hold on, people in Lu Shan, Ya'an! We're together."
Thank you, our good friends. Our hearts will beat together forever.
Yang Congcong

Education, especially pre-school education, is important in this sense. The love of nature and of people, the altruism, compassion and empathy it teaches to children surely will help to reduce all the social and environmental tension in this world. I want to thank you [Full-Circle Learning] for bringing that thought of preschool education to Greentown.
Yu Shuigen

Poetry with a Purpose

Several students of SANAD Academy participated in the Orange County Young Author's Fair. The theme of "Green" made clear connections to the group's habit-of-heart focus, Empathy. Eighth grader Ehsan Hassabelrasoul articulated these sentiments with two poems demonstrating an understanding of actions tied to empathy and hope for our Earth.

We end with these words of inspiration from a young luminary. Read Ehsan's first poem below. For the second poem, with artwork, please click here to read The Beautiful Tree.

Can't You?
By Ehsan Hassabelrasoul, SANAD Academy

Can't you hear it?
The sound of birds chirping
The sound of the worlds weapons falling, hitting the ground
The sound of harmony throughout all nations

Can't you smell it?
The smell of clean pure air
The smell of live healthy flowers
The smell of ripened apple trees

Can't you taste it?
The taste of clean fresh drinking water
The taste of that apple... off of a grown apple tree
The taste of the first bite of your meal, after knowing everyone else in the world has a meal, too

Can't you see it?
The sight of locking of hands from country to country, continent to continent
The sight of earth being green instead of brown
The sight of a full healthy human being instead of a brittle hungry one

Can't you feel it?
The feeling of unity between everyone doing this together
The feeling of achieving an impossible dream of making this world a better place
The feeling of a warm sun, instead of a hot sun caused from global warming
The feeling of the Earth being healed
The feeling of GREEN !

Mother's Day idea!

Your contribution funds schools, wisdom exchanges and teacher support, locally and around the globe. Please help by donating online or by sending a check to Full-Circle Learning, at Box 996, Topanga CA 90290.

Thank you!

Thank you to EDI/EHG Fund, First 5 Ventura County, the Mona Foundation, Aspen Environmental and all our pledged donors, volunteers and supporters who help sustain the projects that make the difference for the next generation.
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Full-Circle Learning News: Summer and Fall of our 20th Year

We at Full-Circle Learning are pleased to share the latest news with our friends - from the calendar, from our global projects and from our own backyard. Your support and encouragement has been an integral part of this vision. As a nonprofit charitable organization that receives continual requests for service and collaboration, we understand that many people in the world see young people as the hope for change and for a more altruistic society, where skills are valued for the ways in which they can contribute to the wellbeing of humanity. We thank you for your commitment to this same vision and invite you to celebrate with us the summer and fall successes of our 20th year!

We at Full-Circle Learning are pleased to share the latest news with our friends - from the calendar, from our global projects and from our own backyard. Your support and encouragement has been an integral part of this vision. As a nonprofit charitable organization that receives continual requests for service and collaboration, we understand that many people in the world see young people as the hope for change and for a more altruistic society, where skills are valued for the ways in which they can contribute to the wellbeing of humanity. We thank you for your commitment to this same vision and invite you to celebrate with us the summer and fall successes of our 20th year!

Teresa Langness, Board President, for the Staff and Board

Pictured above: Full-Circle Learning Academy students onstage, taken by Baktash Aazmi. Other photos in this newsletter by Baktash Aazami, Cassandra Fairfield, Sugey Lopez, Arlo Gordon, Davidson Efetobore, and the staff of Zhejiang University's Hangzhou College Affiliated Preschool and Greentown's Yua School.

EVENT CALENDAR

20th Anniversary Event
Full-Circle Learning celebrated its 20th anniversary at an Attitude of Gratitude event this Fall. Heartfelt gratitude goes out to all those who participated and supported FCL programs through this event and over the past 20 years! We look forward to another 20 years and beyond with your continued support!

FCL 2013 calendar is here!
Please feel free to view the online version of the calendar by clicking here. Or if you would like a calendar sent to you via USPS, please contact our Southern California office at (310) 455-3909 or via email at info@fullcirclelearning.org.

Run for Children, Run for Change!
If you believe in this new generation of change agents, support Full-Circle Learning in the January Los Angeles 13 Allstate half-marathon! Bring friends and supporters and run along Venice Beach. Begin to collect pledges now to help us reach our goal of $20,000.  Or recruit and assist a friend who likes to run. Click here for details.

We also congratulate Sugey Lopez and the Behar family for funds raised through the Rotary Club in Ventura County marathon over the summer.

NEWS FROM GLOBAL PROJECTS

Recognition and Requests from International Leaders

"Other NGOs come to teach techniques," said an education minister who had requested a meeting with the Full-Circle Learning representative for Africa this month. "But Full-Circle Learning teaches a new mindset...This is what we need for our country."

Full-Circle Learning began the 2012-13 school year with newly served students at two schools in the US, along with 18 new schools abroad. These new relationships came through community requests. The teachers are excited to show their students how to apply their skills and habits in service to their communities.

The summer training programs abroad, in fact, proved so transformation successful, that the Education Minister of Liberia was the second ministry to press Full-Circle Learning to share its approach with more schools to intensify the higher purpose of its teachers and students, paving the way for the kind of transformation the country so deeply needs. The Ministry began to plan for ways to train all the schools in Liberia to become Full-Circle Learning schools, a process similar to the challenge taken up by the Zambian team in response to the President Kenneth Kaunda's request. It may be a slow process, fraught with challenges, she admitted, but together we will work for change.


Educators celebrated at graduation from summer training courses in Zambia (left) and Liberia (right). Teachers at participating schools are first trained in vision, theory, philosophy, and curriculum design. They practice customizing integrated lesson plans that culminate in relevant service projects. They learn new strategies for classroom management while also considering traditions and best practices that support a culture of service and self-mastery. They redefine the significance of their own role in community transformation.


Over the summer of 2012, nearly 20 schools planned to offer Full-Circle Learning to new communities of students. Often the trainings engaged students as well as teachers. Students and teachers learn how Full-Circle Learning music plays a role in linking themes to school work and service (left). Students rehearse for a parade related to a community clean-up campaign during the summer workshops (right).


Directors of the Mulela School for the Disabled, Helen and Susan, warmly greeted Beauty Nzila, Director of Zambia's Blessed Vale School, for a visit. Beauty continued her mentorship visits to participating schools after the summer 2012 sessions (left). Full-Circle Learning leaders Peter Simukanzye (of Zambia), Davidson Efetobore (the regional facilitator, residing in Liberia) and Beauty Nzila (of Zambia) have inspired and trained hundreds of students and teachers this year alone (right).

New Stories from Liberia
From Davidson Efetobore

Let me share this short touching story of a grade five (5) class and their experience of practicing habit of Friendliness, Aspiration, Patience and Acting on Conviction.

Last week, we decided to conduct reflection meetings with few schools where our program is vigorously effective, in order to access and evaluate students' progress on some of the habits of heart they've been taught since the beginning of this school year. These schools include Kingdom Foundation Institute (KFI), Web International (WEB), Deborah K. Moore and Light House International. These schools have student's mastery award events coming up November.

As the teachers take turns sharing their successes and challenges, Mr. Bendar, a 5th grade sponsor at KFI, shared his experiences with his class in a very relieved manner, You know, he said, until I started teaching the habits of heart lessons, my class was known as one of the most vulnerable--vulnerable, in terms of rudeness, abusing and insulting of other students on campus and slight stealing. But since I have started working with them on Patience, Friendliness, Aspiration and Acting on Convictions under Habits of Helpers, the story has changed altogether. My students now come to school on time, sweep the classroom, report missing items and are now well behaved. In fact, two students from my class have been nominated for the upcoming character award ceremony in November. The class now preferred to be called "class of one human family". [Student's name], one of the radical students, secretly confessed to me that it was the habit of Friendliness and Patience that really made him change for good and from now on, he will continue to be friendly and patient.

In another school (WEB), a 7th grade girl called Luvina Chea, told her teacher how she showed kindness to someone she doesn't know or hasn't met before. She said two weeks ago, a young man came to our shop to ask for a favor. From his look, he seemed very tired and hungry, but yet he asked for just a cup of water to quench his thirst. She said, "I observed that he needed something more than water but was kind of shy to ask for it. I told him all right, but went to get him a loaf of bread and a bottle of soft drink. He ate the bread and drank the soft drink slowly. After he was done, he told me that he was really hungry but has no money to buy anything to eat. Even right now, he was thinking of how to pay for the bread and the drink. I told him that he doesn't have to pay for it, that our teacher taught us to be kind to others and that you should not expect to be paid for kindness you shown willingly."

Mrs. Taylor, vice principal for instruction at WEB, narrated how parents heap praises on their school at a PTA meeting for introducing the habits of heart.

Other Nations Continue Growth

This story of exponential growth in West and Central Africa echoes the enthusiasm of other nations where even modest human and fiscal resources, matched with high commitment, bring results.

The School of the Nations in Brasilia reported great success with its Full-Circle Learning program. In the spring, the schools in Chad also reported a stirring experience with overflowing attendance at its graduation, although funds are now needed for follow-up visits. Funds will also be needed to continue the growth in West and South Africa. Sri Lanka has also requested a training program in 2013.

One by one, members of the global family discover that when you empower a teacher with a greater sense of purpose, you ignite the potential of every child and community served.

China is one example of a country where Full-Circle Learning (teacher training, translation, ongoing mentoring and funding projects, materials, staff and schools) is now a self-sustaining program.

Chinese Children Master Habits-of-Heart As New Teachers Master Strategies

Full-Circle Learning programs in China continue to help children learn at an early age to connect learning with life skills. An October report sent by the Affiliated Kindergarten of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou depicted the fall training sessions held at the university for preschool education majors throughout the province and also at Greentown schools. The teaching units at the university's kindergarten integrate Patience into their current academic learning unit, while Greentown schools are practicing Cooperation as a theme. The photos below highlight sample activities.






IN OUR BACKYARD

Consultation Enriches Global Project Parallels

Full-Circle Learning welcomed a first US visit from our honorary board member Dr. Farzin Rahmani, from the U.K., in September, who has served the needs of Full-Circle Learning work in Africa and now is assisting efforts on the Navajo Reservation. Education projects for children and youth are currently being piloted on the reservation, with plans for possible expansion to three areas. Dr. Rahmani has assisted the development of Full-Circle Learning projects in Southern Africa over the past decade, so his visit came as a historic first face-to-face visit among the Friends of Full-Circle Learning. Dr. Rahmani is introducing concepts for the junior entrepreneurial training program integrated into the FCL schools and educational programs attended by secondary students.He is pictured here with Navajo project participants and Full-Circle Learning representatives.



Public Health as Community Service

North American students in a new program surprised their cosponsors with the extent to which they were able to evoke change in a short time this summer. Participants in the Habits of Heroes summer program in Marina Park, San Leandro, California, dedicated their summer to the goal of diabetes prevention, applying Vision Seeking, Advocacy and Selflessness. The program reached out to schools where both children and adults were at high-risk for diabetes.


Students exercised an hour a day, changed their eating habits and integrated science, reading and oral presentations into their service projects. They learned to be advocates from community heroes such as Dr. Preston Maring (who founded farmer's markets at the region's Kaiser hospitals) and Jeff Ritterman, a city councilman who initiated a soda tax in his city. The student "heroes" cooked fresh food for their families and helped write letters-to-the-editor advocating a soda tax. They learned about community gardening and practiced public demonstrations on the importance of water and comparisons of the PH in water versus sodas and commercial drinks. They even monitored the insulin of a diabetic teacher, to comprehend the influence of exercise and diet on diabetes. By the end of the summer, they had set altruistic career goals related to health.

The program was sponsored by Full-Circle Learning, Lift/Levitante, Meridian Health Foundation and Dash, with support of Kaiser, the San Leandro school district and Parks and Recreation District.


Dr. Maring demonstrates shopping and cooking for good health at a farmer's market (Above). Heros examine the number of sugar cubes in a serving of soda and display a daily insulin chart created with their teacher while monitoring exercise and sugar/carbohydrate intake with him.

Rancho Sespe Summer School Thrives

The "planters of peace," also known as the students of Rancho Sespe's Full-Circle Learning Summer School, touched our hearts this year with many expressions of Sacrifice, Consideration and Integrity. By integrating their reading, writing, artwork, math, music, homework assignments, guest presentations and public service field trips, they reflected a model to other schools of how strengthening our character can bring greater meaning to the application of our learning.

Rancho Sespe students gather around a globe they painted to give to a field trip host.

These students' visit to a fire hall evinced tears when their artifacts and songs honored the chief for the habit of sacrifice. Their creations of art from recycled material were given to a local museum to show consideration for both the esthetic and conservation needs of humans. Their visit to City Hall helped them express and explore the role of integrity in community building. A wisdom exchange with Zambia allowed them to give and receive messages about the role of these habits in students' personal lives.

For homework, some students called 911 for people suffering on the streets from diabetic shock or helped elderly strangers cross the street. They did not take their mission lightly. One highlight occurred when Gorgonio Tobias, a former student and current teachers' aide, became a guest presenter on the nature of Sacrifice. He had saved a life a few years ago during the summer program when he was a young student practicing the habit of Sacrifice in the summer school.

Parents became part of the shifting dynamic as they also noted differences in their children. All could feel the unity of a group of young people who had formed a bond as family and considered this family as large as the world. One boy actually signed his papers with his first name, his surname and "A member of the human family."

The program was funded for a decade through Full-Circle Learning's special fundraisers. Full-Circle Learning now receives an annual grant from the Mona Foundation to fund this summer school program.

Rancho Sespe students gathered to read a wisdom exchange from a global partner after a presentation at City Hall.

Local Schools Expand

In California, the Piru Preschool and the Tarzana Habits-of-Heart program are up and running again with waiting lists for 2012-13, and service-oriented field trips and projects around the theme of Vision Seeking already taking place.

Oak Park High School will once again sponsor a club to serve and mentor the Tarzana elementary school children. Meanwhile, the demand for expansion of services has led to a request for a second preschool in the Piru Preschool area - news to come.

The SANAD Saturday school in Southern California is imbuing new leadership skills into its elementary aged Sudanese students through activities that link character, multiple talents, and service.

Children from Tarzana Elementary Habits-of-Heart Club sing about the pursuit of personal paths to service, on Gandhi's birthday, at the Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial at Lake Shrine.

With your help, we can help every young participant associate education with the fulfillment of their vision for a meaningful life.

Rhode Island School Lauded for Adaptation of Peacemaking Curriculum

Students attending the Bradley School-Portsmouth recently marked the completion of a "Peaceful Garden Ceramics" art learning unit with the "planting" of a five-foot "Peace Pole" near the entrance of the school. Students from Bradley East Bay Works School made ceramic tiles at the Newport Art Museum's Coleman Center for Creative Studies. Students from the Bradley School Portsmouth decorated the tiles with images and messages of peace. The project received community support from multiple sources.

Coleman Center faculty member Charlene Carpenzano spearheaded the project after Full-Circle Learning board member Margie Maher passed on a copy of one of the Full-Circle Learning curriculum manuals, Making Peace. James Chung-Brcak, Psy.D., Clinical Director of the Bradley School-Portsmouth said, "This Peace Pole captures the importance of peaceful communication, which is an important life lesson for all of our students, regardless of their age or ability...Our art teacher Charlene created an amazing curriculum for our students, and this project represents the cumulative efforts of several of our classrooms, ranging from kindergarten through high school."

In designing the Peace Pole project, Carpenzano combined poetry and art-making to highlight the peace and unity that can come from group collaboration. Carpenzano said she was seeking, "a project where everyone worked together toward the same goal, and what better goal than peace is there? I wanted the students to reach out to their community for support and to feel proud of their accomplishments when walking into their school."

L-R: Bradley School employees Pat McKenna and James Chung-Brcak, Psy.D., with Newport Art Museum faculty member Charlene Carpenzano and the Peace Pole created by Bradley School students.

Chapman Applies Full-Circle Learning (FCL) Curriculum

Climate Change Agents was launched as a text for a required education course at Chapman University beginning in Fall 2012. With this step, newly trained teachers at the university are learning ways to integrate meaningful character and service themes into science units laced with social studies, math and language arts components.



Based on the integrated education techniques these university students are learning, their instructor, Marisol Rexach, is challenging them to design an internship program for a local Santa Ana school based on the Change Agents concept. Integrated education-especially with purposeful objectives-is new to these university students, who sense an exhilarating new alternative to the compartmentalized teaching and tutoring programs their university education had included so far. Hats off to Ms. Rexach and her mentees.

ARLO'S NEW BLOG

Volunteer Arlo Gordon provided outstanding service at Rancho Sespe's summer school this year, traveling more than an hour one-way each day she attended. She has included comments on her work in an ongoing blog on how teachers might incorporate art into their Full-Circle Learning projects. Follow her work for art ideas that can inspire creative teaching. Click here to download Arlo's new blog.

Arlo assisted students in creating a gift art project -- a community based on the habits-of-heart. Milk cartons become centers for compassionate service and streets take on names such as Sacrifice and Consideration.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Your contribution helps fund these ongoing integrated education programs that can influence the process of community transformation for years to come. Let's work together to contribute to a generation of humanitarians and change agents who find greater purpose in their learning.

Be a friend of Full-Circle Learning. Contribute online by clicking on the Donate button or by sending a check to Full-Circle Learning at PO Box 996, Topanga CA 90290.



Liberian teachers in Full-Circle Learning classes met to continue their work with 98 girls on Girls United projects. The girls have used arts advocacy to reduce childhood marriage and to encourage girls education, to meet a UN goal for their country.

FCL Updates: Web Updates - July 2012

Our hearts cheer to good news from abroad. In sunny Chad, Les Etoilles Brilliante ended its school year with a more robust program than ever, with every nook and cranny in the school yard bursting with community members who had come to see the astonishing things the students had accomplished. The behavior of the students at the school had completely changed, according to the director.

At the April Woods School in Haiti, graduation followed a season of many service projects, with the community and the children uniting to learn deforestation techniques, solar cooking methods, environmental jewelry making and many other skills. There is no end to the transformation of this little community over the past six months since the school opened, with the habits-of-heart inspiring new skills and a new vision of service.

Girls United students in Liberia felt empowered to see their poetry featured on the United Nations Foundation website in their efforts to prevent childhood marriage in their country. See the link below for more information.

http://www.unfoundation.org/blog/seeing_liberia_through_her_eyes.html



In California, parents from Piru to Tarzana to FCLA South Los Angeles were once again mesmerized by the character growth and achievements of their children at eight different mastery ceremonies. Students integrated grade level themes and aspirations in service projects, showcased at the ceremonies. One ceremony was dedicated to the late FCLA board president Leon Ferguson, who passed away in office this year. He continues to inspire us all.







A new summer school in San Leandro California, a collaboration of FCL, Meridian, LIFT and Kaiser, will focus on diabetes awareness, with students not only improving their own life choices, but advocating a soda tax, honoring community health workers, physicians and farmers’ market founders and making potentially lifesaving changes in their community. Simultaneously, the Rancho Sespe summer school students will launch new projects on Sacrifice, Consideration and Integrity.

In Zambia, 38 educators will train in July, in response to President Kenneth Kaunda’s challenge. Meanwhile, 26 educators have been newly trained this spring in Northern California. They will take their learning to the Navajo reservation, to Ethiopia, to Indonesia, and to various schools and community-based organizations in California. Surveys indicated that 100% of the participants were inspired to give their students a greater sense of vision and purpose. 95% feel better prepared to help students contribute their skills to improve life for others in their communities.



The last of the original alumni club members is moving on to university life – congratulations to Sonny Douglas, who is beginning his freshman year at Berkeley in the fall! So FCL will welcome the fresh new faces of the alumni club, formerly from the Full-Circle Learning Academy middle school from South LA. We extend gratitude to the staff and leaders of the Full-Circle Learning Academy for its accomplishments this year and for the past five years. The Leadership Team (Les Strawn, Baktash Aazami, Marisol Rexach, Office Managers Martha Gomez and Patti Olmedo, and afterschool director Antoinette Wright), along with the teachers, worked against great challenges to bring success in the final year of the charter. We also pay tribute to Shanti and Selva Selvakumar, founders of the Nishanth Full-Circle Learning Academy of Chennai India, whose sacrifices over a period of many years brought Full-Circle Learning education and dynamic achievements among the children in an underserved neighborhood in India.



If you are an art teacher looking for ideas, check out volunteer Arlo Gordon’s blog on how to integrate more art into your Full-circle Learning projects.

Hearty thanks to our private pledge donors and general contributors for making all this possible, and especially to EDI/EHG. Thanks also to the Mona Foundation for its financial assistance to Rancho Sespe Summer School and the Tarzana Elementary Habits-of-Heart Club. Thank you to Kaiser for its South Alameda County grant and to First Five of Ventura County for the Piru Preschool grant.

FCL Updates: Web Updates - April 2012

20 Years and Growing!

Help celebrate our 20th anniversary year! The civil unrest of 1992 initiated the need for Full-Circle Learning, as we saw the relationship between capacity building in context with personal and community transformation. Over the course of the next year, the elements of the first programs were put into place and the educational model began to evolve. Now in 50 schools in 15 countries, Full-Circle Learning is proud that about 90% of projects are self-sufficient. However, about 10% of those projects have specific needs to assist their growing programs. Click on DONATE NOW to send a congratulatory anniversary contribution, to participate in the successes of projects in Africa, India and the US!

Full-Circle Learning is hosting Girls United ongoing activities in Liberia for 98 girls. Currently, 98 girls in three participating schools have taken up the United Nations challenge of reversing the trend toward childhood marriage in Liberia. Watch for reports and samples of their creative works by clicking on the Liberia button.


Teachers from Fairview Elementary Magnet School, in Sunnyvale, California, participated in a workshop at the California Endowment, along with international volunteers gleaning insights for India, Zambia, Gambia and Bali. Meridian assisted with the workshop.


The Full-Circle Learning Club at Oak Park High recently received publicity for its service to the Tarzana Habits-of-Heart Club. Here, students unite three generations in a serve project with adopted grandparents.