A Peek Into the Future

A couple of weeks ago, I had the absolute pleasure of going to a "wall walk" for the UM School of Information 501: Contextual Inquiry and Project Management class.  Summers-Knoll has been paired with an amazing team of information specialists (of all sorts of stripes) who are helping us to figure out a more workable registration process for our ever-growing (fantastic) summer camp.

I smiled hardest as the presentation began. There stood a group of five bright, talented, thoughtful students who could have been our own all grown up. They had been thoughtful in their inquiry, had considered all the important angles, had synthesized the information to form excellent conclusions and presented it in an inviting and inclusive manner. Each had his or her own special skill to contribute to the team, each had a role in the work that was vibrant and important. They were so excited about what they had experienced at SK, too. The team noted, each of them, that they wished they'd had the chance to learn in such a cool, creative, and engaging environment as the one they had seen at SK. Which, in my mind, is the biggest compliment there is.

Sitting there, taking it all in, I couldn't help but smile thinking of our 2/3 classroom students (who spend so much time on teamwork) and imaging any one of our wonderful students doing the same presentation, some time in the future. In that moment, I imagined Erin and Lea and Lukas leading the discussion, Atty and Ian throwing in the color commentary, Trent and Freya pointing out some interesting detail, Selden and Stanley giving the data to support the findings, Noah and Melissa making the audience crack a smile and Toussaint coming up with a story to connect it to the organization. Any combination of those children working together, doing what they loved and felt passionate about, helping an organization like SK that provides a place of learning that resonated with their adult selves as much as it did when they were children.  It gave me goosebumps, frankly. It was incredibly cool.

So let me say a huge "thank you" to Purdom, Ben, Jessie, Isabela, and James for their great work and for their interest in helping us with this project.  The School of Information should be proud of the excellent students that represent its vision and work.  We look forward to future partnerships!