Project Wisdom Club

Overview and Adviser Manuel

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A. Purpose and Mission………………………………………………………………………3

B. Leadership and Organizational Structure…………………………………4a. Global

Leaders……………………………………………………………………………………………4

b. Committee Leaders……………………………………………………………………………………5

c. Sub-Committees…………………………………………………………………………………………6

d. Members………………………………………………………………………………………………………7

e. Non-members………………………………………………………………………………………………8

C. PW Club Meetings and Calendar…………………………………………………9a. Meeting

Structures……………………………………………………………………………………9

b. PW Calendar…………………………………………………………………………………………………10

D. Technology………………………………………………………………………………………12a. Google

Drive…………………………………………………………………………………………………12

b. Weebly……………………………………………………………………………………………………………12

c. Social Media…………………………………………………………………………………………………13

d. YouTube…………………………………………………………………………………………………………13

E. Tips for the Advisor………………………………………………………………………14

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a. Learning Objectives……………………………………………………………………………………14

i. 21st Century Skills……………………………………………………………………………14

ii. Authentic Learning…………………………………………………………………………14

iii. Global Studies/Civic Literacy………………………………………………………15

b. Philosophy of Aid…………………………………………………………………………………………15

i. Global Partners…………………………………………………………………………………15

c. Service-Learning Projects…………………………………………………………………………16

i. PW Store……………………………………………………………………………………………17

ii. Global Service Day…………………………………………………………………………17

iii. T-shirt Fast………………………………………………………………………………………18

d. PW Support……………………………………………………………………………………………………18

e. Other Tips………………………………………………………………………………………………………19

i. Creating an “Experience”………………………………………………………………19

ii. Let Them Lead; Let Them Fail………………………………………………………19

F. FAQs…………………………………………………………………………………………………21a. Can we use the PW

logo?...............................................................................21b. Can we use the PW web

site?.......................................................................21c. Can we go to

Ghana?........................................................................................21d. Isn’t there a Project Wisdom

class?...........................................................213

G. Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………22

Purpose and MissionThe purpose of the PW Club is to provide an authentic platform for students to learn about global issues, practice 21st century skills, hone leadership skills, and make a difference in the world. The mission of the PW Club is to raise funds and awareness for important global issues through creative, student-created service-learning projects. The philosophy of the PW Club is that students have the abilities and the resources to be difference makers in the local and global community. This belief is essential to the program, and the most successful clubs are the ones in which students are empowered to be the leaders and creators. Advisors should rest easy knowing that the success of the program is truly rests with the students. For this reason, some events or some meetings or even some years might not be as successful as imagined. This is the nature of the program and should be embraced. Even in failure, advisors should force students to embrace a growth mind-set and learn from their missteps and shortcomings – this is an essential part of the learning aspect of the PW Club.

Leadership and Organizational Structure

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The organizational structure of every PW Club will differ greatly due to club size and student interest. In the most basic sense, the organizational structure should center around four basic objectives for club.

1. Serve – The PW Club aims to serve the global community through service-learning projects and volunteering opportunities.

2. Learn – The PW Club seeks to learn about important global issues and the role that students can play in the global community.

3. Fund – The PW Club seeks to increases funding in order to support global causes and improve learning opportunities.

4. Grow – The PW Club looks to grow in number and in impact each and every year.

With these four objectives in mind, it is time to organize the student body into leadership roles. Leadership roles fall into one of three categories: Global Leader, Committee Leader, or Sub-Committee Leader. Before you read about each leader position, let me make one thing very clear: Ultimately, the organizational structure of the club is completely up to you! As long as students are being empowered to assume leadership positions and practice leadership skills, there is no wrong way. What follows are simply suggestions.

Global Leaders: The first four roles that should be filled are in direct relation to the four major objectives. These should be filled by capable and motivated students. Advisors may decide to elect these positions via a student-vote or have interested students fill out applications (see Appendix 1). If necessary, advisors and/or other adults may assume one of these leadership roles. The four primary leadership positions are as follows:

1. Global Leader: Service 2. Global Leader: Learning3. Global Leader: Funding4. Global Leader: Growing

The overall goal of these leadership positions is to define and monitor the progress in relation to the major objective that defines their leadership role. For example, the “Global Leader: Service” student must collaborate with his or her peers to create realistic goals for “serving the global community through service-learning projects and volunteering opportunities.” The outcome and implementation of these goals will look vastly different from club-to-club as each group of students add their own interests and creativity to the problem solving process. The idea, however, is that at least one student (or adult if necessary) “owns” this major objective.

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When the PW Club is small, it might be best to simply elect four Global Leaders and meet as a group. However, as the club grows in size, it is time to create more leadership opportunities for the students. This is, after all, the main purpose of the club. When this happens, the next step is to create committees (and thus Committee Leaders).Committee Leaders: There is no definitive answer as to when to create a committee or which committees should be created first. Often, the creation of committees is dictated by the number of students in the club, and, perhaps more importantly, the number of students who are ready and willing to assume a leadership position. When club membership reaches approximately 20 students, it is probably a good idea to start thinking committees and, thus, Committee Leaders. Creating any type of leadership role, after all, allows students to assume ownership of the program and this almost always leads to a more engaged and more active student body.Committee Leaders oversee, obviously, committees. Committees are small groups of students (2-10) who share common interests and specific goals. All committees fit under one of the four main objectives (Serve, Learn, Fund, Grow), and receive support and guidance from the Global Leader above them. Committees represent a major means for reaching a particular objective. For example, under the Grow objective, their might be committees for Social Media, Ads and Marketing, and/or Hospitality. All of these committees are broad enough to have several students lending their voice and talents to their mission while, at the same time, they are specific enough to distinguish themselves from the other committees and to fall within one of the major objectives. Now that you know what a committee is, the most pressing question is what committees should your club create? Again, this will ultimately be determined by the students in your club. A list of the most common committees can be found in Appendix 2. Always feel free to add and edit this list to match your students’ strengths and interests. Here’s a couple of other points about committees to consider:

Committees should (unlike Global Leader positions) be led by students. Committees can ultimately create their own meeting times and places

(if necessary). I highly encourage all PW Clubs to become familiar with Google Docs.

Committees should create their own folders in a shared PW Club drive and invite all committee members, Global Leaders, and advisors to all documents for accountability and brainstorming purposes (more on this later).

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What happens if a committee seems to just fall apart? This happens pretty frequently – such is the fickle nature of high school students. Do not be discouraged! Often times, new leaders step up (although not in title) and sometimes the committee just fizzles out completely. Both of these options are OK – students need to see what happens when a leadership vacuum is created within a club. Everything is a great learning opportunity.

Sub-Committees: Sub-Committees are simply committees within committees. They will usually be formed when there are many students in the club who seek leadership positions and when there are enough students to support these more specific focus groups. For example, a major objective is “Grow.” Underneath this objective might be a committee called “Social Media.” If needed, advisors might choose to create a few sub-committees within the “Social Media Committee.” There might be, for example, a sub-committee that only focuses on Twitter. Sub-committees, because of their most specific agenda, will usually only have 2-5 students within their group. Sub-Committees will always fall underneath a major committee. Sub-committee leaders usually do not apply for positions (although they certainly can); more often than not, they are approached by the advisor or the Global Leader about assuming this role once the need arises. For the visual learners, here is what the leadership for one major objective might look like. For this example, I have chosen the objective “Serve” and have used generic student names to give you a better idea as to how the leadership positions might be set up.

Advisor: Ms. Teachero Global Leader: Serve – Joe Schmoe

Event Planning Committee Leader: Sarah Plain–and-Tall Sub-Committee Leader 1: Sally G. (PW Pep Rallies) Sub-Committee Leader 2: Jeff T. (Spring Concert) Sub-Committee Leader 3: Diana S. (Give Back Night) Sub Committee Leader 4: Patricia M. (Schools) Sub Committee Leader 5: Juan B. (Community

Service)Overview: This club is obviously quite big as it has five sub-committees underneath the first committee (Event Planning). Here is how it would all work. Joe Schmoe (Global Leader: Service) would work with Sarah Plain-and-Tall (Event Planning Committee Leader) to map out the major service events for the year. Recognizing that they have a lot of things planned, they would come up with a plan for finding able sub-committee leaders. Once sub-

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committees are formed, they are empowered to begin planning and organizing each event. Usually, the Event Planning Committee Leader will work closely with each group, spending more time with the events that are coming up on the calendar. They will oversee the details of each event and communicate needs and issues with the Global Leader. Meanwhile, the Global Leader will take a more holistic approach, spending equal time with each committee and sub-committee, making sure they have enough resources, troubleshooting any problems that arise, and ensuring that they always have enough man power to pull off each event (even recruiting new members when necessary). The advisor (Ms. Teacher) is only necessary when the Global Leader (Joe Schmoe) cannot figure something out on his own. Members: Outside of the leadership positions, the PW Club is made up of Members and non-members. Members can best be defined as students who are invested in the PW mission although they do not necessarily have a leadership position. All members should choose one specific committee to join and support (assuming that the club has committees).

To Pay or Not to Pay? Having a membership due is probably a good idea, especially for new clubs ($5-10 is recommended). The money collected from dues could be used to jumpstart major projects and events. If you do require all PW Members to pay dues, just make sure it is worth it. Here are a few ways to ensure that members want to pay their dues:

Members get discounted prices on Project Wisdom apparel. Members provide their contact information upon signing up with

the club so that they can receive e-mail updates, newsletters, Tweets, and any other type of communication that the club decides to do.

Members are invited to the end-of-year party! Members get first dibs on field trips and other PW events.

Non-members: These are the students who have shown some interest in the club, but have not officially signed up to join. It might be their first time visiting; they might be super busy and can only come a few times; they might keep forgetting to pay dues. Whatever the reason, they have not “committed” to the club; however, even non-members are ALWAYS WELCOME! Students should never feel a pressure to officially join; students should always feel encouraged to come back at any time.

Welcome Sheets: There should be at least one student in charge of welcoming and explaining Project Wisdom to new students. It might also be a good idea to create a Welcome Sheet (See Appendix 3 for

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an example). This Welcome Sheet should introduce the mission of Project Wisdom as well as the organizational structure (Committees) and meeting times among other key information. The example Welcome Sheet also talks about the educational focus and major event(s) for a particular PW Club.

PW Club Meetings and CalendarMeeting Structure: As in all things Project Wisdom, the meeting times and structure will ultimately be decided by a number of factors and, therefore, there are no set rule or regulations; rather, there are just a few suggestions. In this section, we introduce suggestions with an essential question.

How often should we meet? Short answer: whenever you want. It might be a good idea to start small (say, twice a month), and as the club grows to add more meetings if necessary. A full grown club with several committees, a handful of major events to plan, and at least two advisors will want to, most likely, meet at least once a week. Advisors and club leaders should also be aware that as major events approach, more meeting times will need to be scheduled to ensure success. A final note to consider about meeting times: once committees form, encourage students to meet on their own time outside of school (there are a number of useful on-line platforms for digital meetings). How long should we meet for? Typically, one hour is enough time for students to meet, discuss, and delegate. What should we do at meetings? Great question, and one that is totally up to the leadership of the club. Obviously, the PW mission will

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provide some guidance, but more often than not, there will need to be some serious consideration given to this questions, especially in the early years of the club (side note: as the club grows and more students assume leadership positions, the club will eventually just run itself!). Here are a few things to consider:

Give time at the beginning of the year to create a vision for the club along with some specific goals.

Give a lot of time for committees to meet (once they have been established).

Give some time each month for only leadership to meet. Give some time each month for the whole club to meet together

and share ideas, do icebreakers, and learn together. Plan a field trip or two each year (or even better, have a student

leader or committee do this). PW Club Calendar: Once, the PW Club is official it is a good idea to create a calendar to share with Members. Again, Google Calendars offers a fairly easy-to-use shared calendar. There are a couple of things to consider with the calendar: 1) meeting structure, and 2) major events and/or dates.

Meeting Structure: Here is an example of what an established PW Club calendar might look like in terms of meetings times and structures.

1st Wednesday – Leadership Meeting 2nd Wednesday – Announcements (10 min.) + Committee Time 3rd Wednesday – ½ Committees and ½ PW Club (whole club) 4th Wednesday – Lesson/Video (10 min.) + Committee Time 5th Wednesday (when applicable) - (Something fun!!!!!)

A few things to notice about this particular meeting schedule: This club will meet once a week for one hour a week. Weeks 2, 3, and 4 all have at least half of the meeting time

devoted to committee time, allowing ample opportunities for the students to assume their leadership roles and collaborate together.

The leadership (Global Leaders, Committee Leaders, Sub-committee leaders, Advisors) will meet at the beginning of the month. This is a great opportunity to set agendas and provide each other with feedback.

Weeks 2 and 4 begin with a quick huddle. Week 2 focuses on announcements (usually decided on during the previous week’s leadership meeting. Week 4 focuses on learning. This is often in the form of a quick video and discussion, a skype call with a

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Global Partner, or a short reading passage. Depending on the size of the club, this part of the meeting can (and should) be led by students.

As always, keep in mind that the above meeting structure example is ONLY A SUGGESTION, and only works for a larger PW Club. Ultimately, when you meet, how often you meet, and how you use your time is up to the Advisor and the student leaders. Major Events/Dates: For the sake of creating a unified vision and a sense of community and collaboration, it is highly suggested that students work towards at least one major event each calendar year. For example, the club might put on a spring concert, a winter festival, a week of service for their school, a during-school pep rally, or some sort of community event. Decide on the date early on, delegate responsibilities to students, and create deadlines (also to be added to the calendar). This dates should be clearly marked on a master calendar and communicated to all students. As the club grows and more committees form, other major dates will be added to the master calendar. Be sure to keep it updated and teach students how to use calendars to set deadlines. Another cool idea for the PW Club calendar is to become familiar with international and national days of awareness. For example, did you know that April 25 is World Malaria Day or that January 11th is Human Trafficking Awareness Day? This web site (http://www.awarenessdepot.com/awarenesscalendar.html) offers a good resource and Google calendar for awareness days. A neat idea is to have students vote on which days to include in the PW Club calendar at the beginning of the year. This will allow leadership to gauge student interests and, perhaps, create some events or other activities to include in the calendar.

End-of Year Celebration: One final suggestion for the club calendar is to include some sort of end-or-year celebration. It is so important to allow students the opportunity to reflect on their work and to feel proud of their accomplishments. This is an essential part of all service-learning.

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TechnologyTechnology, like in all facets of life, plays an ever-increasing role in the success of a Project Wisdom program. Here are four technologies to be familiar with.

1. Google Drive – We recommend creating a Project Wisdom g-mail account. Something like projectwisdomhhs@gmail will do (“projectwisdom” followed by your school’s acronym). Once you’ve done this, create a few folders in your Google Drive software that matches your organizational structure (e.g. “Events Committee” or “Hospitality Committee”), and now you have a simple and effective file sharing system in place. The final step is to invite Project Wisdom members to become editors for specific folders or sections or, for smaller groups, you might invite all members to be editors to all sections – it’s up to you.

What can you use your Google Drive software for? Have students take pictures from their smart phones of different

Project Wisdom events or images. Students can download the Google Drive app on their phones and have these photos automatically upload to an “Images” folder in your Google Drive. On a related note, you can have a student create a digital yearbook, via YouTube, from all the captured images from the students.

Committees can work on shared documents from different locations, and you, the advisor, can monitor their progress.

Committees can share information and collaborate with each other easily.

By inviting members to the Google Drive, you provide a small incentive for students to sign up to be mentors. In doing so, they are given access to the “behind-the-scenes” documents and workings of the club.

2. Weebly – This free web site creation software is super user friendly. The main Project Wisdom web site uses the Weebly Pro package: www.projectwisdom.weebly.com.

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We highly recommend that any PW Club creates a web page or two (or three) for their club and attaches it to the main Project Wisdom web site. To do this, it is really easy. Just let us know when you have a student (or adult) ready and willing to create the page. We will make the shell, add it to our web site under the growing list of clubs, and add any students or adults as editors. You can check out the Heritage High PW Club pages by going to this web page: http://projectwisdom.weebly.com/pw-club.html. From here, you can also get an idea of how we can link your page too!

3. Social Media – As you know, social media plays an ever increasing role in advertisement, marketing, and general information sharing. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you assign a students or two to lead your social networking campaign. When you create a social media page for your club, try to include your school’s acronym along with the “ProjectWisdom” name (e.g. @projectwisdomrhs).

4. YouTube – Project Wisdom has recently established our own YouTube page. Look for ways to post and watch relevant videos. This, we hope, will be a great way to share in our knowledge and experiences. Here’s the page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXKYNGUvkFTTuX_OOV1TLxg.

For Advisors13

Learning Objectives – In short, the learning objective for the PW Club is to empower students to become difference makers in the global community. To achieve this learning objective, it is wise to focus on four interrelated concepts: 21st century skills, authentic learning environment, and global studies/civic literacy.

1. 21 st Century Skills – At the turn of the 21st century, business leaders, policy makers, and education experts came together to address the educational implications of a rapidly changing society. The marketplace, they claimed, was becoming increasingly global, collaborative, and information driven, and our educational system, they reasoned, needed to reflect these changes by promoting such skills as “collaboration, social responsibility, critical thinking and problem-solving” (4). Within a couple of years, the 21st Century Skill Partnership was born and curriculum changes were taking place across the U.S. Educators were now faced with the task of turning naïve adolescents into an army of critical thinking global citizens.

With proper context in place, the PW Club has fully embraced the idea of 21st Century Skills. We want the club to be a place for like-minded students to come together and troubleshoot, brainstorm, delegate, synthesize, plan, and organize. We want it to be a place where real discussions can be heard (with no teachers leading them) on topics like global health inequalities, environmental degradation, and the merits of traditional aid and development. We want the PW Club to include technology to solve problems, and problem solving to solve technology. We want it to be a working model for all educators to replicate when it comes to 21st century skill acquisition.

To learn all about the 21st Century Framework and the myriad of skills attached to this educational movement, please visit http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework.

2. Authentic Learning Environment : To accomplish such a daunting task, educators were urged to create dynamic “Learning Environments.” This concept is at the same time the most basic and the most essential concept behind the initiative. According to the 21st Century Skills web site, “Learning Environments” should “enable students to learn in relevant, real world 21st century contexts” and “support international involvement” (5). This is where PW comes in. If high school is aimed at teaching these ever-important skills, PW aims to be the ultimate test, built to assess the mastery of these skills

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in a real world setting with real world implications. In other words, it aims to be the ultimate “Learning Environment.”

3. Global Studies and Civic Literacy – If you visited the web site above, you would have noticed that Global Studies and Civic Literacy are both apart of the 21st Century Skills Framework. So why include them again? Because Global Studies and Civic Literacy should be the diving board that launches students into the swimming pool of 21st century skills.

The idea is that advisors (or student leaders) continue to reveal the complexities, unravel the myths, and turn the unknown into common knowledge in regards to the global community. With this knowledge base growing each month, students will have new ideas to discuss, explore, and engage in meaningful ways.

Philosophy of Aid – Closely related to the learning objectives above is the idea Project Wisdom’s philosophy of aid and development. We believe that the traditional, top-down “us helping them” approach to “making a difference” is, at best, counterproductive and, at worst, dehumanizing. In its place, we propose a partnership approach that recognizes the knowledge and self-worth in all humans on both sides of the equation. We believe that there are many problems in the world and that problem solving is best done in a multi-cultural group setting. For this reason, we strive to develop first class “Global Partners.”

Simply put, Global Partners refer to a growing list of small, community organizations and institutions that have agreed to “partner” with Project Wisdom. The word “partner” is essential in this equation because it denotes a reciprocal relationship. This reciprocity is essential to Project Wisdom’s philosophy of aid and development because it recognizes the usefulness of both parties. Carefully researched and vetted, Project Wisdom’s Global Partners possess a specific knowledge born from experience and a cultural awareness born from immersion that our students simply do not have. We rely on our Global Partners to teach our students in these areas (and much more!). In return, our students possess the 21st century skills, social networks, and community resources that many of our Global Partners desire. In the end, both sides add something to the partnership and, ultimately, a serious issue is addressed in a more comprehensive manner as a result.

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Project Wisdom’s partners can come from anywhere in the world (although we currently have a heavy bias toward Ghana). We are always looking for more Global Partners, and we encourage PW Clubs to both share partners and develop new ones. To see a complete list of PW’s current partners, go to http://projectwisdom.weebly.com/pw-partners.html. For more insight into Project Wisdom’s philosophy of aid and development, we strongly encourage you and your students to watch the new documentary Poverty Inc . You can view it from Netflix.

Service-Learning Possibilities – With learning objectives in mind and a philosophy grounded in building up people and not just programs, it is time to get to work. The most impactful approach for both the student and the Global Partners is often through service-learning projects. Advisors should definitely make sure they are well versed in the learning model. There are plenty of resources to help with this (including other PW Clubs). Two particular on-line resources that I found useful were the Campus Compact and the International Partnership for Service-learning and Leadership (IPSL). Once you have a grasp on the curricular concepts of service-learning and students have a basic (i.e. not harmful) grasp on making a difference, it is time to unleash their energy and creativity and brainstorm, develop, plan, and implement service-learning projects. I have found that the best, and simplest, way to ensure that there is equal parts service and learning taking place is to a) involve outside voices (e.g. Global Partners, experts, community members), b) always encourage research based approaches, and b) have students constantly reflect on their decision making. If you are having trouble coming up with service-learning projects that get everyone involved, here are three common PW Club service-learning project to consider:

1. PW Store – A good way to raise funds, learn about financial literacy and utilize problem solving and communication skills is to create a PW Store at your school. Students can design and sell wristbands and t-shirts to raise awareness and funds. Students can partner with apparel classes or art clubs to sell student made items (e.g. hair bands, frames, necklaces). Students can partner with Global Partners to raise funds and awareness for certain projects (i.e. students sell bookmarks to raise money for a library or students sell wristbands to raise awareness for child slavery or students sell carnations – Valentine’s Day – to spread the love to underserved people groups). Use the PW Store to teach students ideas behind marketing and advertising – the PW Store should sell more than just items; it should sell stories and hope. This is

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a powerful marketing tool! For more learning, have students analyze sales to determine what products sell best. Have students utilize marketing surveys to determine what colors to use.

2. Global Youth Service Day – This is the signature service-learning event for PW Club HHS (Heritage High). The school administration has given us one day out of the year to engage the entire school (well, at least most of the school) in a service-learning event. Here’s a basic run-down on how it works:

a. The PW Club develops pep rallies to perform during the school day (usually 1st, 2nd, and 4th periods). These pep rallies celebrate the difference making capabilities that all young people possess.

b. Leading up to the event, students donate $1-2 to get a cool bracelet. This bracelet acts as their pass into a particular pep rally. All the money raised from the bracelet donations is then given away at the pep rally. It is important that all money raised is donated. This allows us to “sell” them during school hours.

c. The pep rally includes performances, games, prize give-a-ways, guest speakers, presenters, and…..learning. As part of the event, the audience watches a handful of digital grants (short videos about our Global Partners) and then the entire student audience is asked to vote on which Global Partner they want their donation given to. Students vote with their phones and, in the end, the winning Global Partners are revealed everyone in the audience gets to witness the difference-making potential inherent in all young people. What an event!

d. To learn a bit more about this service-learning project and see some pics, you can visit this web page: http://projectwisdom.weebly.com/global-service-day.html.

3. T-shirt Fast – This is an easy service-learning project. Have your group of students research a particular cause that they are passionate about. It works best when the cause is related to an underserved population (e.g. refugees, child slaves, human trafficking victims, etc…). Once a cause is researched and selected, have student develop a t-shirt design (Booster.com works great) to sell for fundraising. The next step is crucial. Instead of just selling the shirt, organize a t-shirt fast where a everyone agrees to wear the t-shirt all week in order to raise awareness for the selected cause. Even better, turn it into a social media event and have students record their outfit each day, share stories of awareness, and take pictures together. This is a great way for PW Club members to bond and raise money and awareness for a good cause.

PW Support – Starting a new chapter of a relatively unknown organization in which the content is advanced and the learning is student-centered takes

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a lot of courage. It will not always be easy; it will not always be smiling Twitter pics. BUT, we are here to help. Project Wisdom (the organization) wants to support you in every way possible.

To begin with, while we are still a relatively small organization, we want to extend two member-at-large invites to our organizations Board of Directors (it can be students or educators or either). This is a great way to get connected to the overall mission of the organization, to interact with other clubs and club leaders, and help shape the direction of the program. It is also a great way for students especially to distinguish themselves from their peers on their resume. Another avenue for support that we hope to develop this year (maybe with your help!) is something we will call (maybe) Club Gatherings. These will be informal events for all PW Clubs to come together to share ideas, resources, and time together. We hope to have one at the beginning of the year (if necessary) and one at the end of the year. If they are successful, we will build off of their success each year and make them bigger and better.Finally, and most importantly, you can always contact us. The easiest way to get in touch with us is e-mail (mmacleod@wcpss.net). If we can’t answer your question(s) via e-mail, we are happy to talk on the phone or in person. In fact, Project Wisdom would love to come visit your PW Club meetings and answer questions and offer support in any way.

Other Tips – Over the past three years as I have worked to develop the program I have learned a few things. Here are a couple of the more important lessons I’ve learned.

1. Create an “Experience” – Young people, I have learned, want to be a part of an experience. Maybe it’s a Millennial thing, or perhaps it’s a product of their social media addiction, or maybe it’s just human nature. Who knows? What I do know is that if you can make the PW Club an experience – one to be shared and Tweeted and Liked – more and more kids will want to be a part of it. Take, for example, the “T-shirt Fast” idea mentioned in the Service-Learning section above. Selling t-shirts for a specific cause is a good fundraiser. Having the people who buy the shirts wear those same shirts for an entire week and document their experience on Twitter is an experience. Try to find ways to make the PW Club an experience for students and more and more will want to join.

2. Let them lead ; let them fail – It took a couple years, but I have finally learned to let the students lead and (at times) fail. The first year or

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two, I wanted my ideas to be the ones that were adopted; I wanted things to be perfect; I wanted to make sure our Global Partners always benefited. While this led to some nice service-learning projects, it was also leading me to burn out, and it was lessening the learning experience for students. Eventually, I began to take of the reigns. I let students create posters and advertising campaigns that I didn’t think were top-notch. I let students control the Twitter feed. More and more, the decisions that students were making were getting bigger and more important to the overall perception of the club and the impact of its service-learning events. And while things didn’t always work out, they usually exceeded expectations. But more importantly, when students were asked to reflect, they were now reflecting on their choices (not mine). And when events or ideas did not exceed expectations, these were the best learning experiences. It took some time, but eventually I realized – the greatest impact students will have on the global community will not be in the PW Club. It will be when they leave, when they go on to college and go on to start careers. It is essential, therefore, that the focus of the PW Club is not to force success on the students; it is to force learning experiences on the students.

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FAQs1. Can we use the PW logo?

Yep. Once you start a club, we will give you the logos in digital format. As long as you are representing our mission, you can use it. We trust educators!

2. Can we use the PW web site?Yep. We would love to even create you a page on our main web site and invite you and your students as full time, sole editors to your club page(s). If you want to create your own, that’s great too. Just be sure that you give us the URL so we can link it to the main PW web site.

3. Can we go to Ghana?Yep. All PW Club members will be able to apply for our Ghana trip every two years. Club members will always get preferential consideration when selecting applicants. If your school wants to go on your own, that is fine with us too. We will help you create your own trip using our resources and our established partners. If you want to go somewhere else, we would love to explore this option with you.

4. Isn’t there a Project Wisdom class?Yep. Check it out here: http://globalseminar.weebly.com/. Ask your API if you can start one too. We would love to support you with this endeavor.

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Appendix 1: PW Club Leadership ApplicationWhich position are you applying for? (Choose one)

___ Global Leader: Service___ Event Planning

___ Global Leader: Learning___ Global Focus___ Community Outreach

___ Global Leader: Funding___ PW Store___ Fundraising

___ Global Leader: Growing___ Hospitality___ Advertising and Marketing___ Communications

Which other position(s) might you be interested in? (Write up to three)

Why do you want a leadership position in Project Wisdom?

Why would you be a good candidate? What ideas, experiences, or skills do you bring to the table? It’s time to brag!

What other time commitments might get in the way of your leadership responsibilities? Please list all clubs, sports, or extracurriculars that you participate in.

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What is your e-mail address?

Appendix 2: PW Club Leadership PositionsGlobal Leaders - These positions can be filled by adults and/or students who have had prior leadership experience in the Project Wisdom Club. These positions are responsible for helping the committee leaders set goals and monitor progress. Rather than work with the minutia and details associated with committees, Global Leaders deal with long-term planning and the managing of people. The Global Leader positions represent the four major objectives of the PW Club: Serve, Learn, Fund, and Grow.

Global Leader: Serving - This Global Leader oversees all service projects and events. You will work with the Event Planning committee to plan, organize, and implement both small and large (i.e. pep rally) service events.

Global Leader: Learning - This Global Leader oversees the educational aspects of the program. You will work with the Global Focus Committee and the Community Outreach Committee to educate and inspire the general public as well as the club. You will also communicate with Global Partners as needed.

Global Leader: Funding - This Global Leader oversees the two major funding arms of the PW Club - the PW Store and the Fundraising Committee. You will help them create a budget, organize inventory, and create funding opportunities through sales and events. You will also collaborate with other groups and leaders in order to maximize profits and help raise money for global causes.

Global Leader: Growing - This Global Leader oversees the expansion of the PW Club both in numbers (student) and in awareness (community and school). You will work with a handful of committees (Social Media, Advertising and Marketing, Hospitality, and Communication) to make sure the club is consistently growing its presence in the school, in the community, and in the club itself.

Committee Leaders - These positions are filled by students who want to have a leadership role in the Project Wisdom Club. Students must apply for these positions via application. These students commit time and effort to organize and manage a group of students working toward a specific goal.

Event Planning - This committee is in charge of planning and implementing all service events, both small and large (i.e. pep rallies). This committee must be organized, forward thinking, and action orientated. Creating sub-committees in order to manage multiple events is an ideal scenario.

Community Outreach - This committee is in charge of educating the general public about important global issues and the Project Wisdom mission. This might include visits to nearby schools, presentations at public events, and any other avenue that educates and informs those around them. This committee will also work to establish partnerships within the local community.

Global Focus - This committee is in charge of educating and inspiring the club members on important global issues. In this regard, they help provide a vision and a mission for the group to raise funds and awareness toward. This committee will also be responsible for managing Global Partners.

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PW Store - This committee oversees the production, purchase, and sales of all PW Store items. The main objective of this committee is to raise funds to support Project Wisdom’s programs and Global Partners. This committee should strive to provide a professional and far-reaching business presence.

Fundraising - This committee is broad in scope and will often collaborate with other committees. They are in charge of raising as much money as possible for the Global Partners. They are also responsible for managing accounts and keeping track of the club’s finances. Creating sub-committees in order to manage multiple fundraising efforts is an ideal scenario.

Hospitality - This committee is in charge of making sure club members are cared for. They will be responsible for welcoming and managing new members, creating a positive work environment, and organizing an end-of-year celebration (among other things).

Advertising and Marketing - This committee is in charge of creating thoughtful and informative advertising and PSA campaigns in the school and the community. They will often collaborate with other committees to create specific ads and artwork.

Communications - This committee is in charge of communicating important information among PW Club members, among the school community, and among other PW Clubs. This committee will manage the club’s e-mail and/or social media accounts (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc…). They are also responsible for managing and updating the club’s web page.

Other – Committees and Sub-committees can form whenever the need arises. The limit to these committees should always be the students’ creativity and leadership capabilities.

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Appendix 3: PW Club Welcome Sheet ExampleWelcome to the Project Wisdom Club! This afterschool program aims to engage students in important global issues while equipping them with the 21st century skills needed to be difference makers in the global community. To achieve this mission, we will plan, coordinate, and implement a day of service-learning and fundraising in our school/community. This year’s event is the Global Service Day. If you would like to get involved with this movement, we would love to have you on board. But first, here are some important things to know about the PW Club.

Become a Member! PW Members are our most active student participants. These are students who believe in our mission and want to play an active and ongoing role. To become a member is super easy; it just takes $5, your e-mail, and a willingness to make PW Club a priority. If you want to become a member let one of the leaders know and we will get you signed up.

Meeting Times - To achieve our mission, the PW Club meets at least once a week in some capacity.

1st Wednesday – Board of Directors Meeting 2nd Wednesday - 30/30 (Committees and Board/Work) 3rd Wednesday - 30/30 (Committees and PW Club) 4th Wednesday - 30/30 (Committees and Board/Work) 5th Wednesday - (Something fun)

Committees – Every PW Club Member should join a committee. Every committee supports the PW Club mission in some way. Committees work closely together to meet objectives and bring change to our global community. An overview of each committee is below. Committee leaders are in (parenthesis).

Publicity (JP) – This committee is in charge of creating a social media presence for PW Club. They should manage Facebook, Twitter, and Remind 101. They should announce highlights and update progress on our planning. They should illicit excitement for PW’s mission in the school and the community.

Advertising/Campaigning (Emma) – This committee is in charge of creating creative advertising campaigns for both the pep rally and the Global Focus. They should maintain the PW bulletin board and create an Advisory lesson to inform the school about the pep rally, its global focus, and the service opportunities for that day.

Event Planning (Ben) – This committee is responsible for planning the logistics of our major events. They will work with stakeholders, the Board of Directors, and the PW members to create a process for picking entertainment, digital grants, and other parts of the pep rally. They will work with teachers to create a script for the show. They will plan rehearsals for the event.

Community Relations (Sean) – This committee is responsible for getting the community aware of and involved with the PW Club mission. They will recruit and update local sponsors; they will go into nearby schools and illicit interest; they will contact local civic organizations and brainstorm ways for the community to become a major part of our big event.

Global Focus (Jillian) – This committee is in charge of creating a process for choosing our Global Focus each year. Once selected, they are responsible for educating and inspiring our PW Club members about the global issue they are working for.

School Relations (Kailee, Peyton) – This committee is in charge of getting the Heritage High community involved with our pep rally. They will recruit clubs and classrooms to get involved with our mission.

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Finances (Mrs. Macleod) – This committee will be in charge of setting the PW Club budget and managing funds for each committee. This committee’s main focus is to balance our spending with our goals and ensure that we raise the most money possible for our Global Issue.

Hospitality (Sam) – This committee is in charge of creating a positive and nurturing environment inside the PW Club. They will create team building opportunities for PW members, manage member dues, and plan PW Club “parties.”

PW Store (Mr. Macleod) – This committee is in charge of purchasing and managing items to sell in the PW Store. Store sales go toward the Global Focus. They are in charge of designing and ordering bracelets for the event, t-shirts for the club, and other items for sale in the community. This committee is also in charge of creating and managing an on-line store as well as finding local and school events to sell their items.

Fundraising (Ryan) – This committee is in charge of organizing and implementing mini-fundraisers to get the community aware and involved in our mission. These fundraisers will help grow our total funding support and allow PW members to get involved in different ways.

Technology (Peter) – This committee is in charge of managing and updating the PW Club and Board of Directors web pages, including the PW Calendar. They will also work with the tech crew during the day of the pep rally. They will also work closely with the Advertising and Publicity committees to create multi-media ads and videos.

Global Focus - Each year, the PW Club chooses a Global Focus. The Global Focus is provides the club with a vision and a purpose. A portion of all PW Club donations and proceeds will go to support the Global Focus. This year’s Global Focus will be “Refugees.” The PW Club and Board of Directors selected this Global Focus for the following reasons.

It is both a global and a local issue. Each year, North Carolina welcomes over 2,000 refugees into its community.

It is relevant. The refugee crisis in Europe, the Syrian refugee debate in America/North Carolina, and the fact that today there are more refugees than ever before make this topic an important and relevant issue.

We can make a real difference. We can help local refugee families and donate to international refugee organizations.

It is crucial. Refugee living situations are some of the most tragic stories in our world. Most refugees are woman and children who are fleeing religious or political persecution. They need our help.

Learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClL1mQv4vm8.

Global Service Day – Each year, the PW Club organizes a major day of service and learning for the Heritage (and surrounding community). This year’s event is the third annual Global Service Day. Here are the basics.

Date: April 29th (Friday) Fundraising Goal: $5,000 Theme: Let’s Go Overview – As usual, the day will center around a series of pep rallies aimed at educating students about

global issues and empowering them to get involved and make a difference. On top of this, we are hoping to engage students in service and learning during their lunch periods and after school. In short, we want to make students more active in our mission.

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