Country of Residence
United States
Age
15
Project title
My Super Powers
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Helping students understand kids with special needs and boosting special needs kids self esteem.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
My brother Luke is 5 years old and has spina bifida. I have always wondered how the other kids are going to treat him when he gets older. Is he going to get bullied when he gets older if he can't walk like others? Are others going to treat him right and include him because he has a walker? I am also in a religious club to help kids who have special needs learn about God. These two things have helped me realize that I would love to teach students how to communicate with kids who have special needs and except kids with disabilities.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
We are advocating for kids and adults who have special needs. We are trying to help middle school students better understand how to communicate better with other kids who have special needs. I feel working with middle school would work the best because that is when students start realizing that their peers look different. It matters to me because I would never want my brother to feel left out because he has a disability. I have made it my mission to teach as many middle school students as I can to be kind and include all kids and adults that have a disability.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
We are going to solve this problem by teaching as many middle school health classes as possible healthy relationships with special needs people. In those middle school health classes we are going to talk about the different ways to communicate with a kid who has special needs. We are also going to share with the students some conversation starters so if they do ever have a conversation with a kid who has special needs they know what to say. We will also be playing 5 different activities with them. We will do this to show how special needs kids live their everyday life. Then we will go to the special needs classroom and talk to them about how to boost their self esteem. We will do this by creating confidence crowns, self esteem mirrors, and affirmation jars. We will also give them sensory stickers that have reminders that they are perfect no matter what they look like.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
We chose to focus on middle school because we thought they would be the right age to make a real impact. We felt this is the right age because middle school students are focusing on their appearances and their friendships. If we were to go to an elementary school they would be too little to understand what we are saying. If we were to go to a high school they already have a set mindset and it is harder to change.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
In our district, very few people are trying to solve this problem. We want to start a project to help kids with special needs feel like they are normal. We feel that many kids are never taught to talk to kids with special needs. They get told by their parents to not talk to them or don't play with them. They are weird because they can't do the same stuff you can do. We want to break that so kids will include everyone and not just the people that can do what they do.
How many people are on your team?
2
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
We equally share leadership. We both have a part in everything we do for our project. We both work on different things. Adison (My partner) handles most of the designing. For example our slideshow we will present to the kids. She puts it all together and puts all the information into the slideshow. I gather all the information and I figure out what we will be doing and what we need to get.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
We want to go to the middle school special needs classroom and the middle school health classes. Right now we have a plan but we just need help buying the activities , motivation reminders, and supplies to help make crafts for the special needs classroom . We would love to get these things to make a bigger impact in the classrooms. We are hoping after we go to the health classes we could have a hangout day and take 15-20 middle school students that we taught in the health classes to the special education room and play games and have snacks with them for an hour to show what they have learned from our presentation. About having conversations and building relationship with kids who have special needs.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
In the middle school health classes we are going to give a survey to the students to determine their current level of exception and interaction with their special needs peers. We will give the students two different tests: a pre test (before the presentation) and a post test (after the presentations). From the survey we will choose the students who have grown the most from our presentations and want to create the most change in our building and take them to the special education class.
