Middle School Community Life Explores Empowerment at Severn

8/18/2023

What do you think about when you think about empowerment? Severn 6th, 7th and 8th graders spent the morning of Wednesday February 15 discussing what it means to feel empowered in our community. Coordinated by Ms. Diana Talbott and the student-run Community Life Committee, the day’s events included rotating workshops to explore different ways that we can realize empowerment as individuals.

What is Community Life?

Community Life is part of the student leadership program for our Middle School and offers ways to help students participate in, embrace, and celebrate our Middle School community. Community Life also creates opportunities for students to think about and discuss the larger issues of what it means to be part of a world community by exploring such topics as civility, equality, understanding others, and diversity.

Why Empowerment for Middle School Students?

Empowerment is a big topic and particularly relevant for Middle School children as they learn to navigate the complex social structures of their immediate peer groups and the whole school community. During these formative years, students develop a sense of self-worth and learn how to advocate for themselves and others. Empowerment is the foundation of that development. Our Community Life Day focuses on empowerment to explicitly explore and model ways that students can become positive, supportive, and active members of the Severn community.

Severn Middle School teacher Mr. Joe Christie facilitates a discussion about empowerment. — *Middle School students split off into small groups to begin the empowerment workshops.*

Empowered by Design

Community Life Day embodies empowerment and leadership through the very design of the program. The day is planned and run by students so they are invested in the outcome and interested in creating activities that will resonate with their peers. The students that attend the workshops are similarly invested, looking to their peer leaders for support and guidance through topics that can be uncomfortable.

Severn Middle School students are excited to share their ideas about empowerment with their peers.

The student committee planned three ways to explore empowerment:

Drawing. To promote teamwork and to communicate ideas about empowerment, students in each workshop created collaborative drawings to symbolize empowerment.
Gender Stereotypes Discussion. These discussions were based on lists of gender stereotypes that the students themselves created. From “girls like pink and boys like blue” to “only boys like sports,” students unpacked these ideas to gain an understanding of how gender stereotypes can harm our community
If I Wasn’t Me I’d Be … In this writing activity, students used their metacognitive skills to critically think about and discuss empowerment and sense of self.

Severn Middle School students present a drawing about empowerment to the class. — **Rachel Weinberg** '22, **Jacob Darrow** '21, **Luke Sadowski** '21, **Hailey Stewart** '21

Meaningful Character Education at Severn

In our Middle School, we believe student leadership is best taught when students are provided areas of good action, responsibility, and productive practice to increase the quality of our community. As educators we teach leadership by example every day. Community Life gives our students the opportunity to model leadership and strong character for one another. This program gives our students the tools and vocabulary to better defend their values, empower themselves, and advocate for others.

Interested in learning more about our character education program in the Middle School? Check out this article and video about our Middle School Community Service Day!

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