Standing in front of one of his Honors U.S. History classes, history teacher Daniel Gavin posed the question, “What is the goal of learning, you know, what’s the goal of school?” The 21 juniors in his HUSH class gazed up at Gavin as he answered, “It’s to prepare you for the real world.”

“I want kids to understand that they are also the makers of history and that they do have a voice and that they have power,” said Gavin.

With this goal in mind, Gavin set up civic action campaigns that would soon busy his class for the the second half of the year. He split up both of his HUSH classes into three groups of seven students each. The goal of each group is to pick an issue they care about and to create a campaign to raise awareness and create positive change using new media such as Facebook and Youtube.

“I’m looking at the fact that Facebook is bringing down governments in North Africa,” said Gavin. “This media has the potential to really change society. I want you guys to tap into these as tools in your organizing.”

First, each of the groups gathered together and brainstormed what issues were most important to them. Then, the groups polled their community (fellow WHS students, faculty and parents) to see if there was any overlap in what issues were most important. With this data, each group came to an agreement for which issue they each should cover. After electing campaign managers, the groups got to work.

Here is a breakdown on what each of the six groups has been focusing on:

Beantown Education

Beantown Education is working to raise awareness about poverty and its effects on education, particularly in Boston. Their goal is to help Wayland students learn more about other learning environments and how WHS can help these places.

“I feel like we can really make a difference and that is inspiring to me and to the members of my group,” said Campaign Co-Manager Stephanie Kra. “I highly recommend that [the project] continues at WHS.”

On Tuesday, June 7th, 2011, Beantown Education will be showing a documentary during all lunches in order to raise awareness about their cause. This event will be organized through Facebook.

Creating Multicultural Students Abroad (CMSA)

CMSA is working to help more WHS students explore opportunities to travel and study abroad in order to give students a more multicultural education and experience in global situations.

Group members Megan Osborn and Andrea Defina both studied abroad this year at the Island School and with WHS’s exchange program in Spain respectively and would like others to have the experiences that they had.

“It was an eye opening experience that others should try,” said Campaign Manager Andrea Defina. “It really changed our perspectives on our lives and even the world. It was a rare opportunity to step out of our lives and view it from a different perspective. I know that I have grown from the experience, and we hope that others could see how amazing studying abroad really is.”

On June 9th, CMSA will be holding a study abroad fair at WHS where students will be able to learn more about different study abroad programs.

Hope for Homeless

Hope for Homeless has set out to raise awareness about poverty in Boston. They are working with the St. Francis House Homeless Shelter and are hoping to raise money and awareness for them.

“We think it’s really important to raise awareness because this is right in our backyards, and it’s really important for people to care and want to help,” said Campaign Co-Manager Bailey McAfee.

Hope for Homeless will be showing a documentary that features opinions of Wayland community members as well as the homeless community at St. Francis to the Wayland High School community to raise awareness. Hope for Homeless will also be collecting donations at this event.

De-Stress WHS

De-Stress WHS is hoping to help students at Wayland High School deal with and decrease stress. This campaign is focusing on three main topics: AP classes, homework over vacations and weekends and testing days. The group will be meeting with the administration and department heads on June 14th to propose changes for these three topics in order to make Wayland High School less stressful.

“I think that this project is a great one,” said Campaign Co-Manager Nico Pascual-Leone. “Not only does it make you research a problem that is prominent in our world today, but it also has you try to fix it. And I think that the best part is that we as students pretty much run everything.”

For the new media part of their project, De-Stress WHS created a website which explains their goals.

Fresh Initiative

The goal of Fresh Initiative is to help prevent childhood obesity by proposing healthier food and vegetable options at Wayland High School.

Fresh Initiative is using Facebook and a website to publicize their campaign. After June 17th, when their plan will be drawn up, Fresh Initiative will propose their plan to the administration.

Make Those Lines Less Defined

Make Those Lines Less Defined is working to stop bullying by targeting younger children in order to prevent kids from growing up and facing the challenges that bullying creates.

“A lot of people in my group feel like bullying is such a broad topic that a lot of people don’t think of small things like class bullying,” said Campaign Co-Manager Ariel Cormier.

To reach their goal, Make Those Lines Less Defined is making a video about bullying, and they are also creating a educational anti-bullying workshop for 5th graders that they hope to share with Wayland 5th graders.