Public Achievement

What is Public Achievement?

Public Achievement (PA) is a national grassroots civic engagement initiative that strives to engage young people in public work, community organizing and social change movements. The goal of PA is to empower youth to become active participants in the struggle for positive change in their own communities. To this end, youth in small groups partner with Naropa coaches over a sustained period of time and actively work together on a project that affects themselves and their community.

Coaches assist the youth in choosing an issue in their school/community/world that they feel passionate about and want to work on. The youth themselves decide on a project to address this issue, and then work to complete this project over the course of time they work with their coach.

Coaches do not control or direct the group, but are there as scaffolding to help youth to make their own decisions regarding what is important and how they want to get things done. Through the process of working on their project, coaches make connections between the work the students are doing and core concepts such as public work, accountability, diversity and power. A major goal of PA is that the time spent working on these projects will help youth develop skills and knowledge that they will continue to use to do public work throughout their lives.

Public Achievement at Naropa University

This year, a Public Achievement program at Whittier Elementary School in Boulder was started. Amanda Charles began the program in the spring 2008 semester, and it continued on into the fall session. The children, from grades 1–5, participated in and created their own projects to deal with issues such as pullution, local trash cleanup, animal rights, raising money for EFAA through a bake sale and interschool community building. We are very proud of all of the participants, and are continuing to offer the program in the spring semester 2009. Contact Aaron Guman, coach coordinator at Whittier, for more information or to participate as a coach.

The academic year 2007–08 marked the fourth year that Naropa University has hosted Public Achievement at Centaurus High School. Students of HUM 330/331, Democracy, Education and Social Change, served as Public Achievement coaches at Centaurus and also met once a week as a class to reflect and critically examine their work in light of course readings and lectures on educational theory, social policy and child development. The Centaurus program is temporarily on hold.

In 2007, Naropa University started an exciting new Public Achievement Program at Angevine Middle School in Lafayette. We are very excited about the format of this program: Each week, Naropa students brought a small group of Centaurus High School seniors, who went through Public Achievement the previous year, to coach a sixth and seventh grade class at Angevine Middle School. Naropa students coordinated these Centaurus seniors and Angevine students.The Angevine program is also currently on hold.

Enjoy a video created by our 2008 Whittier Public achievement crew!

Public Achievement at the Family Learning Center

The Family Learning Center (www.flcboulder.org) is a nonprofit organization in Boulder, CO, serving the needs of primarily low-income and culturally diverse children and families. The Family Learning Center aims to increase employment and educational opportunities through added literacy and computer technology opportunities, to facilitate access to enhanced health and wellness, to provide quality daycare and preschool programs, and to improve the educational performance of children of all ages.

This is the first session of PA at the center, and it has already proven to be an excellent fit, as both organizations seek to promote sustainable community efforts and a greater sense of civic responsibility and involvement in the Boulder community.

A group of approximately twelve elementary-aged students are currently enrolled in the spring 2009 session of PA, with the assistance of two Naropa coaches and one Colorado University volunteer. The students are currently working on planning and creating their own educational videos to be published to Youtube.

To get involved with the Family Learning Center Public Achievement program, contact coach coordinator Chelsea O'Neil at chelseaoneil@gmail.com.

Past Projects

The following are a few of the issues that have
been addressed by Centaurus students and their
Naropa coaches.

• bilingual counseling
• campaigns to address African genocide
• campus beautification
• creation of campus murals to address diversity and unity
• curriculum revisioning
• diversity awareness
• driver’s licenses for undocumented Immigrants
• extending the youth curfew in Lafayette
• hip hop as a tool for consciousness raising
• public perception of Centaurus High School
• raising critical consciousness about war
• school parking permits for undocumented students
• securing a youth venue
• teen parenting and teen pregnancy resource development

How to Get Involved

If you would like to get involved or learn more about this program, please email Jessica Giles, director of community studies, or call her at 303-245-4719. The Community Studies Center’s office is located on the second floor of the 2111 Arapahoe office building in the Northwest corner.

Coaches

Jared Urchek (Rootstown, OH)

Jared is the site coordinator for the Whittier Elementary program. He is 6 feet tall, 160 pounds, and enjoys communicating inter-institutionally in order to support both Naropa University and Whittier Elementary in the process of enacting a PA program. He also enjoys working for the smooth sailing of our society into the port of democratic reality which he would like to see manifest within the United States. Jared enjoys drinking fine teas. Please contact him if you wish to drink tea together, or to learn how to start a Public Achievement program in your area.

Aaron Guman (West Chester, PA)

Aaron, who is not a sophomore anymore, has ceased to be a visiting student from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and has decided to stay in Boulder and at Naropa, somewhat like a couch surfer. He is seriously considering staying at Naropa for the duration of his undergraduate years majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in Peace Studies and Psychology. Before college, Aaron spent the first eighteen years of his life in West Chester, Pennsylvania. As far as careers go, he’s looking into counseling, ministry, teaching and nonprofit work—probably a combination of all these. Aaron’s Public Achievement group is working on renovating the bathrooms at Centaurus, to improve morale and cleanliness in order to create a more enjoyable environment for living and learning. He says that his experience in Public Achievement may be the coolest thing he’s ever done. Aaron is also the coach coordinator for the Whittier Elementary program. Contact him for more information and to become a coach at Whittier Elementary.

Chelsea Oneil (Verona, WI)

Chelsea is currently a graduate student in the Transpersonal Counseling Psychology: Art Therapy program. She hails from Verona, WI also known as Hometown USA in America's Dairyland. Although she misses the nine months of winter, abundant dairy selection and good ol' Midwestern charm; she finds comfort in the Greeley aroma that blows in from the North, similar to that Dairy air. Chelsea has served her community through various employment and volunteer opportunities with community agencies, nonprofits and student organizations. Her involvement is mostly in grassroots organizing, family support counseling, sexual abuse/assault advocacy and support, and domestic abuse support services. She has also served as a K–8 educator abroad in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, an art teacher, and as an AmeriCorps volunteer with the Schools of Hope Literacy Project in Madison, WI. Chelsea is the Graduate Assistant for all of the COR 220 Civic Engagement Seminar sections and the Coach Coordinator for the Public Achievement program at the Family Learning Center here in Boulder....both programs are totally awesome. For more information on either, feel free to contact her at chelseaoneil@gmail.com.

Portia Johnson (Santa Barbara, CA)  

Portia is a co-director and coach for the Family Learning Center Public Achievement program this semester. She has worked with Public Achievement off and on for the past three years, beginning as a coach at Centaurus High School in Lafayette where she facilitated two student groups who created both a Hip Hop Culture Club and a Teen Pregnancy and Parenting Program. She has also coached PA at Whittier Elementary. In addition to her work at the Family Learning Center, Portia currently facilitates sophomore Peak to Peak High School students in a leadership and service learning pilot program. Her passions are youth empowerment and social justice in education and she is stoked to be so fortunate to work with such incredible students who know how to keep her on her toes! 

Jennifer Lukas (Glenville, NY)

Jen began her first year in the Environmental Leadership program this past fall under the misguided belief that her life's journey would become more lucid in graduate school.  Future endeavors seem to be in the realm of reconnecting people with the environment, and so she began volunteering as a PA coach to help encourage kids to take a more proactive role in their community.  Perhaps needless to say, Jen herself enjoys connecting with nature through every possible means: hiking, camping, snowshoeing, biking, running, rock climbing, stargazing, meditating, drawing...

Jessica Bynum (Evergreen, CO)

Jessica is a student in the psychology and visual arts departments at Naropa University. She likes people. Part of her reasoning for this is because of the energy that can emerge when individuals get together and get creative. This is when the limits of the imagination are expanded.  Working with young people is a way of recognizing this and demonstrating the power that arises from listening to others and being supportive in ways unique to each individual's ability. Jessica feels that listening and being supportive are critical when learning how to be effective in the world. It is best to start young. Just imagine what will happen...

Kristy Butts (Chicago-ish, Illinoise)

Kristy Butts is a senior double majoring in Environmental Studies and Yoga. As a coinsure of gourmet vegetarian food, Kristy loves to cook (her recent fascination is with homemade cheese), taste and arrange food as her mindfulness meditation practice. Kristy spends most of her time reading or listening to audio-books. Kristy was born and raised in the Chicago land area and has been to Disney World about twenty times.