The Boca Ciega High School Human Rights Project Anthology, 2017

© by Community Leveraged Learning (2017)

This project was incredible. I wrote a Human Rights curriculum and combined this with the effective writing curriculum I produced for CLL (Community Leveraged Learning), my educational nonprofit. Dr. AnnMarie Gunn at USFSP served as an advisor on the project and hooked me up with a ninth-grade teacher, Nicole Darbois, who was willing to let me have her class time and students for the course of the project. For two months, with her support, I instructed and mentored 103 Boca Ciega High School ninth-graders in an examination of the history of Human Rights in America within a framework of applied effective writing instruction. The first month was in-class four days a week, and the second month was editorial instruction via email. The students were incredible! Once they submitted their final works, the book was professionally edited by our CLL team and published.

For the book’s launch, USFSP, The Bishop’s Center, Kappa Delta Pie, CLL and myself hosted a large scale book signing event with close to 200 attendees who witnessed each of the book’s authors take the stage to receive their first copies. This was followed by book sales and signings: a life changing event for many of the students.