Little Renegades, Big Impact
The education students receive in their early years becomes the foundation for the rest of their academic careers. Getting students engaged when they are young is pivotal in ensuring a future of exploration and learning. To achieve this, junior Charlotte Fast started a nonprofit by the name of The Little Renegades. As the executive director and the lead of writing workshops, Fast started hosting classes at Silver Spur Elementary School with the goals of enhancing students’ STEM and writing skills, as well as helping them pay attention and engage more in class.
“It is difficult to be motivated to do something that is challenging if we do not think it is meaningful in some way,” Fast said. “As a student, it can be hard to see how what we are learning matters in a context beyond the classroom; this is why a lot of kids are not interested in learning. But the truth is that what kids learn in school does matter and can be used to do meaningful work. This is why we have the students in our workshops use what they have learned to write books and create videos. The idea that their book is published on Amazon and anyone can see and learn from their videos creates the feeling of meaning and purpose. Once students connect learning with meaning, the world is theirs to discover.”
Junior Natalie Tom is the lead of workshops and senior Brindha Srivatsav is the lead of STEM-oriented workshops. Both executives assist Fast in creating and teaching classes for the students. Tom took AP Psychology her sophomore year and came out with a mission to focus on the well-being of children, believing much of the science relates to how younger students learn. Tom especially expressed interest in creating different learning techniques that are suited to each student’s personality.
So far, The Little Renegades have had two major workshops: The Egg Drop, where students used analytical and reasoning skills to build a device that would prevent an egg from cracking when dropped from a certain height, and The Friendship Book, a workshop in which students wrote a small book about their friendship experiences. By publishing the books from students on Amazon, the Little Renegades hoped to show that no one is too young to make a difference with their words. In order to make these workshops a success, Tom takes into account multiple factors and tailors each workshop to the needs of the students, with an emphasis on creating different learning techniques that cater to students’ individuality. The workshops need to be planned out very carefully because the Little Renegades have to work around the students’ busy schedules.
“Time [restraints] are a big [factor],” Tom said. “[We have to plan ahead] what we can realistically do in a specific [amount of] time and what guidance we can give the kids without taking away their creative freedom. Creative freedom is important to allow the kids to experiment with what they can and can not do, so they can let their imaginations run wild and do amazing things. The meetings that we have after lessons are also important since they help the students communicate to us what they liked and did not like.”
Fast believes younger students are more open to new ideas and have incredible imaginations. However, since kids have a shorter attention span, it can be hard to find a way to keep them engaged. Making the workshops suitable for younger students is one of the challenges The Little Renegades executives have had to overcome. To address these difficulties effectively and ensure the success of the workshops, the organization has had to rely on strong communication, not only among themselves, but with school staff as well. The leaders of the organization can reach out to principals and other staff members within the school to schedule times to meet up or to advertise. This way the process can be smooth and students can have time to do workshops. They have also encountered obstacles such as managing schedules, finding extra time to meet up and dealing with reservations for these free classes.
“Going from an idea in your head to something that you are actually doing, especially when it involves other high schoolers, the administration of elementary schools and elementary schoolers means there are so many people involved,” Fast said. “Sometimes in our heads we think that we can create something and have it be a lot easier than it really is. [We had to learn how] to sit down and know how to communicate with people and spread ideas.”
While discussing plans for the future, The Little Renegades executives expressed a desire to reach out to different communities. They plan to extend beyond PVPUSD through a supply drive branch that provides underprivileged children with supplies for learning. Srivatsav believes their organization has the responsibility to reach out underprivileged communities and help students have an opportunity to access these resources.
“Schools [in communities] with lower incomes have fewer [educational] opportunities,” Srivatsav said. “One of the things our nonprofit wants to work on in the future is providing more money for these areas and also provide younger kids a chance to participate in hands-on activities, [such as the workshops].”
The commitment of The Little Renegades to these children not only bridges the gap in certain educational skills but also instills hope and empowers them. The organization’s various mentors exemplify community empathy and the belief in the potential of every young mind. In the future, The Little Renegades hope to collaborate with other schools to enlist more volunteers and to create more workshops. Their work stands as a reminder that together, students can create a brighter and more equitable future for all.
