I know I’ve mentioned multiple times how much I love the curriculum that Classical Conversations provides for my kids. As a tutor at the Challenge level for the second year in a row, I only appreciate it more and more. As my younger two kids come up through the Foundations, Essentials and Challenge A levels, I can see how it all works together and builds on previous years. So thankful for this program!
This week my Challenge II class had to present a proposal for an art grant from the Phil & Thropist Foundation. This has been a long term project. The assignment was given near the beginning of the year, and it was due this week. (We put it off a week because one family was out of the country.) They were to “design a real or imaginary work of art, project, or related cultural event to convince a jury of peers and other judges to give grant money. Also, create an overall presentation including art work, budgeting projections, verbal persuasion, and other expository techniques.” Because I only have 3 students as opposed to the allowed 12, I had to tweak the assignment a bit. They competed for only one grant of $10,000 and I brought in adult judges whose evaluations I averaged alongside their two peer evaluations.
Kory’s idea (Who can guess?) was a monument to Major Richard Winters who served as a paratrooper in World War II and was instrumental on D-Day in taking out a German artillery encampment along with many other quite heroic actions during the war. He is one of the main characters in the book and movie Band of Brothers. As you can see, Kory created a design for the monument (copper statue of Richard Winters) as well as the landscape design for a park surrounding the statue. He also created a portfolio for each of the judges including his application, credentials (B.S. Business, Univ. of TX, M.A. History, Harvard, current Harvard History Professor ; ) ) budget proposal ($85,000+), and information about the sculptors, landscapers, and other contributing organizations. The park and monument would be located in Philadelphia, as Major Winters is from Pennsylvania.
Megan’s proposal was for a summer theater camp for inner city kids in New York. During the course of the summer, the kids would practice, make sets, and eventually perform the musical The Music Man.
Megan had several handouts which included a daily schedule for the camp, budget projections, and her grant application. Above you can see how the distinguished panel of judges scrutinized every detail ~ they were great and gave the students wonderfully constructive feedback!
Kory and Megan caught me trying to get their picture while they were evaluating Anna’s presentation! By the way, this is not representative of their normal class attire, but maybe it should be! Hmmmm…..
(Just kidding guys!)
Interestingly enough, we had two proposals for a military-type memorial. Anna’s proposal was for a monument to rescue dogs. Her monument would be located in the mall area of Washington D.C. Anna also had a portfolio of including her application, credentials, and budget proposals. She ended her proposal with a story about a soldier named Cory and his rescue dog named Cooper (yes, really) ~ it was a true story! It’s actually a very sad story in which Cory and Cooper are both killed in action, but for our sakes Anna changed it to read that the soldier and his dog “were harmed” instead of revealing the true outcome of their mission!
I was so proud of the three of them! They all did spectacular jobs on their presentations. One of the judges~ a friend of mine from church ~ happens to be a Brown University Professor. After all presentations were given, she turned to the kids and said, “I am so impressed! I listen to college students give presentations all of the time, and you all are definitely on par with them. Great Job.”
Kory ended up “winning” the grant money by a slight margin, and I was really proud of him. (And glad that I wasn’t a judge this time!)
One of the other great quotes of the day was during the Q & A segment following Kory’s presentation. Sarah, our Classical Conversations Foundations Director asked Kory why he chose Philadelphia over Lancaster, which is where Richard Winters is actually from in Pennsylvania.
Kory’s reply was: “I didn’t think the Amish would like it.”
I couldn’t stop giggling.
So proud of my little class!
Congratulations, Kory! Remind me to show you my father's letters written during WWII. You'd enjoy them. Blessings and blue skies from K&J
That was pretty funny! I was just talking about these presentations. They were really great. I enjoyed being a part of it. 🙂
great post, I am a challenge II student and this project is due in a few weeks, I was really stuck hard, but your post offered some great inspiration!
Thanks!
Hi Stephen ~ I'm glad the post helped! Wow, it seems like it was so long ago. I tutored Challenge II again last year, and the students (12 of them) had some really amazing presentations. I hope yours go really well!