A total of 11 student-led projects across six area school districts have been awarded funding from the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation's latest round of Service Learning Grants. The grants, amounting to $8,970, support classroom initiatives that combine academic learning with meaningful community service, giving students the opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world impact. This year's recipients are:
- Brocton Central School -- Senior Class Day Service Project. Seniors will landscape the courtyard, maintain school gardens and memorials, and help preserve the Rails to Trails path ahead of graduation.
- Cassadaga Valley Central School -- Spring into Learning. Business Math, Foods, and Studio Art students will partner with middle school special education classes on an Earth Day event featuring pot painting, planting, and student-designed T-shirts.
- Chautauqua Lake Central School -- Growing Fresh Produce and Hydroponic Gardens. A new hydroponics and sustainable-living course will grow produce for donation to a local food pantry.
- Dunkirk City Schools -- Reader's Theater. Sixth-grade students will perform “The Phantom Tollbooth” for younger students, senior citizens, and other community audiences.
- Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES -- Community Policing. Criminal Justice students will complete a year of community outreach events, from Special Olympics support to appreciation projects for veterans, nursing home residents, and law enforcement.
- Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES -- Earth Day: Expanding Native Plant Stewardship. Conservation students will propagate and distribute native plants and host an Earth Day event with greenhouse tours and workshops for the school community.
- Fredonia High School -- Culture Fair. Students will build cultural displays and lead younger students on a hands-on "world tour" through 27 countries.
- Fredonia High School -- Culture Day. Ninth-grade students will host a cultural showcase event for elementary students.
- Fredonia High School -- Mental Health Wellness Kits. Psychology students will research and assemble wellness kits for counselors to share with students facing difficult situations.
- Fredonia High School -- Hillbilly High-Tech Harvest. AP Statistics and Agriculture students will use micro:bit sensor kits to collect and analyze real-world data in the school garden.
- Silver Creek Central School -- Native American Education Program. Students will design an indigenous courtyard reflecting Haudenosaunee values of land stewardship and conservation.
