Every teen has the power to shape their culture.

At Education Without Walls, we help teens overcome challenges, build insight and confidence, and develop the communication and decision-making skills they need to achieve their goals. Each of our courses follows a theme, and throughout the year, the courses act like scaffolding to help students develop these skills.

Our most recent course focused on one important question: How can you positively contribute to your group?

A “group” can be many things: a circle of friends, a family, a classroom, a workplace, a team, a school, or even an entire town.

We know that young people influence one another every day. They affect the atmosphere in their classrooms, their homes, and their communities. When someone brings positivity, encouragement, and effort into a group, it spreads. The same is true when frustration, negativity, or disengagement takes hold.

Many teens have not yet fully realized the impact they have on the people around them. The idea that they co-create a group’s culture and standards is still developing. They may not yet recognize that they are not simply participants in the band, but important instruments helping create the music.

Throughout the course, students were encouraged to practice four components of positive peer culture: Flexibility, Compassion, Collaboration and Communication. By encouraging these qualities throughout the day, students experienced what it feels like to be part of a positive, supportive, and high-functioning group. We put a “cap on it” by teaching an Ed Group that helped students identify and solidify this process. Our goal was to stitch that feeling into their memory and encourage them to weave the thread into other groups they belong to. We want our students to understand that they have influence. Their actions matter. They can help determine whether a group merely functions or truly thrives.

We set a high standard, and the students met it. It may have helped that we announced a special reward: three students who best demonstrated flexibility, compassion, collaboration, and communication earned the opportunity to pie an EWOW staff member in the face!

We like to think the lesson stuck. The whipped cream definitely did. Beyond the laughter, students experienced firsthand what happens when a group commits to supporting one another. They learned that culture is not something that simply happens to them. It is something they help create every day, whether at EWOW, at school, at home, or with friends.

Next up: Camp Out! We can’t wait to see what our students accomplish next.