Our Voices, June 2023

Students enter Yosemite High School, in Merced, Calif., to find an alternative path to earning a diploma. But in veteran teacher Jeff Rivero’s classes, students also get an education in how to change the world.

Rivero challenges students to participate in projects centered around the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Adopted in 2015, the goals are a call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030, all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

One of these projects—called Green That School—has had impact far beyond the school community. A partnership with the Daraja Academy, in Kenya, the project has earned accolades from the White House, United Nations, and U.S. Department of Education.

Powered by determination

The Daraja Academy is a Kenyan boarding school that provides secondary education to marginalized girls, who often face early

marriage and pregnancies that make professional opportunities

almost non-existent.

And even at the school, the girls face yet another obstacle: The city where the school is located lacks a reliable energy source.

“My students questioned, ‘If there’s no energy, how were they going to charge their Chromebooks, cook [meals], have light to study at night?’” Rivero explains.

Determined to help, the students set out to find solar battery backup units for the boarding school.

In 2021, they secured multiple units through a collaboration with the Sunrise Rotary Club of Merced and other companies that have made financial donations.

“If there’s no energy, how were they going to charge their Chromebooks,  cook [meals],  have light to study at night?”   

—Students at Yosemite High School, in California, asking about a school in Kenya.

The battery units looks like ice coolers on wheels and keep electronics going for hours.

“If we get enough of these battery backups, they won’t need to be on the grid as much,” Rivero says. “And [the batteries] could run just about everything when a power source fails.”

Now the students are working to raise funds for more units by creating a traveling exhibit, called “Take Art Serious,” to be displayed in locations throughout Merced, with a virtual option for people worldwide to see it. The art show is a collaboration among Rivero’s students, the high school’s art students, and the Kenyan girls, who will all create artwork for the exhibit.

“Creating relationships between students from opposite parts of the Earth with significantly different social norms … as well as learning to address social and environmental inequity issues, … what better teaching can you do than that?” Rivero asks.

The Small Things

Valencia Johnson

Teacher assistant, special education

Austin, Texas

“Sometimes there are big, obvious signs of progress in our work with students, and sometimes it’s the small things that mean the most. I worked with one student who had serious behavioral issues and was involved in the juvenile court system. He tried to improve but kept running into roadblocks.

While he was behind academically, I convinced him he could still succeed. He worked hard all year, but still came up short of credits to graduate.

He again saw no pathway forward. But I did, and worked with him one-on-one through the summer. He graduated and enrolled in community college to study HVAC installation and repair. This … [is] what I envisioned when I got involved in education.”

What’s the Most Memorable Compliment You’ve Received from a Student?

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