Herren Project Club Spotlight
Cranston High School East in Cranston Rhode Island mission of the Cranston Public Schools is, through collaboration with the entire community, to deliver a high-quality, aligned, and evidence-based instructional system that is accessible and responsive to diverse learners, which is supported by finances and facilities for the 21st Century and promotes student achievement and success through active learning and personalization. As the home of the Thunderbolts, Cranston High embodies its mission statement in both its academics, athletics, and extra-curricular clubs, including its Herren Project Club.
Herren Project Club Advisor, Andrea DiCicco oversees the club and teaches her students about the dangers of substance misuse and teen issues. They partner with the Cranston Substance Abuse Task Force, to spread the message of healthy living and the importance of staying true to you. Andrea states that combining the mission of Herren Project Clubs with the course content allows them to, “use various media and current events geared towards teens as a vehicle to enhance their reading, writing, and communication skills” The class itself is, “a blend of an ELA, health, and psychology class, combined with the spirit of Freedom Writers. During the course of the semester, they delve into the following topics: identity, and addiction, relationships, race, discrimination, and bullying.” Andrea shows true pride in the work she does as an educator and Herren Project Club Advisor. See what she has to say about her work:
“I teach a class that explores teenage issues, and one of the issues is addiction. I contacted the organization after Chris Herren visited my school, Cranston High School East, in Rhode Island, and described my course. His organization signed me up and gave me a toolkit and access to online films to share with my students. I have two Mirror-Mirror classes yearly, and we’ve been active since 2012. Every year feels different, as we have new students and new projects to complete. Over the past few years, we’ve worked with the Cranston Substance Abuse Task Force on focus group discussions and designing Project-Based experiences around vaping and marijuana. This year, my students read “Roxy,” and they are currently working on art projects and writing samples connected to the text.”
Andrea shared images of her club members reading, discussing, and then completing activities aligned with the book, Roxy. She shared that the students truly enjoyed the book and that it sparked deep and meaningful conversations between them. Students were encouraged to write, draw, and create anything that may help them share their feelings after reading the book. The Roxy books were donated to Cranston High School East from Herren Project with the hope of raising awareness around substance misuse and prevention.
Some artwork done by one of the students reflects their thoughts on Roxy:
The students also engaged in meaningful conversations with each other:
“Our Herren Project Club provides my students with unique, authentic, timely teaching materials to address Emotional/Social Learning in the classroom. I created an ELA elective around teenage issues. Addiction is rarely talked about outside of a health classroom, so I made sure to include it in our curriculum. The Herren Project Club Toolkit gives me lesson plan ideas for us to engage in discussions, viewings, projects, and readings aligned to addiction.” -Andrea DiCicco
At Herren Project, we are so grateful for Andrea and all of the work she does to help teach her students the importance of remaining substance-free along with sharing tools to help them cope with life’s challenges. Her ability to reach her students and help them make healthy choices for their overall well-being will make a difference for years to come!
Herren Project Clubs is a school-based, evidence-informed prevention and wellness program designed by prevention specialists, clinicians, and school counselors to empower students to live substance-free while creating a peer network in schools. Its goal is to provide tools to strengthen social-emotional learning and coping skills to make healthy choices and live fulfilling lives.
Learn more about Herren Project Clubs and register to start a club at your school.
