When You Show Kids They Can Make a Difference
Teacher Kris Odenbaugh shares how three years of Project Heart transformed her students into confident difference-makers through a student-run coin drive.
What happens when you show kids they have the power to make a difference? Teacher Kris Odenbaugh at Olander School for Project-Based Learning has spent three years finding out — and the results have transformed her classroom. Through Project Heart, Kris watched her students evolve from curious learners into tenacious difference-makers who understand that their time, talent, and treasure have real value in the world.
One of their projects — a student-organized coin drive for the Make-a-Wish Foundaiton — brought that lesson to life in a tangible, community-facing way. Now in her third year using Project Heart, Kris shares how philanthropy has changed not just her students but the culture of her classroom. The changemakers of tomorrow are being shaped right now, one coin, one conversation, and one act of giving at a time.