Middle schools win awards in leadership and Odyssey of the Mind competition

Altimira and Adele Harrison middle schools have each earned accolades for outstanding leadership and creativity lately. At Altimira, a group of students placed first in the Sonoma County Odyssey of the Mind competition and will go forward to compete at the state finals in Brentwood on Saturday. Meanwhile, Adele Harrison’s leadership class was recognized by the California Association of Student Leaders as an Outstanding Activities Program.
“These are two wonderful, high quality programs at our middle schools that promote critical thinking, problem solving and leadership,” said Pamela Martens, superintendent of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. “Both programs keep students energized and help them build important life skills.”
Altimira put together two teams to compete in Odyssey of the Mind, an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and world level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.
“We learned from Greek mythology that Heracles had to do 12 labors before becoming a god,” said Jacob Little, an Altimira sixth-grader. “Our job was to come up with a thirteen lost labor for him to complete. We created a skit that involved Heracles rescuing a princess from a mythical creature called a spotted unizebradorus. It was pretty cool.”
Cool enough for the group to move forward and compete at the state level. Dutch Van Herwynen, an eighth-grade science teacher at Altimira, is the person responsible for getting the students involved. Noting fewer opportunities for students to think creatively in an increasingly test-driven academic world, Van Herwynen put the teams together and coached them on what to expect from the competition. Judges expect high levels of creative thinking, teamwork and of course, problem solving.
“Odyssey of the Mind is completely hands-off for parents, and the coach is only there to provide structure and focus, not help,” said Van Herwynen. “I’m proud of both groups of students. They all worked really hard and showed incredible creativity and problem solving. And hats off to our parents for their incredible support.”
Parents are a smaller part of the equation at Adele Harrison, where student leadership was recently rewarded. The 2008-2009 Adele leadership class, under the tutelage of teacher and advisor Ollie Hoban, was recognized by California Association of Student Leaders as an Outstanding Activities Program. And while these students certainly have the support of their parents, it was their actions and leadership that won the award.
“Leadership is about getting out and making each student feel good about him or herself,” said Hoban. “We work hard to create a positive environment for students and staff here at Adele because we want a happy, upbeat campus. There is also a direct, proven correlation between good leadership and increased test scores, which is important as well.”
Each of the Adele leadership students was invited to attend the CASL state conference on March 28 in San Jose, where student body president Raquel Rios-Gomez was presented with the award. Adele Harrison was one of 15 middle schools selected for this honor.
Students who attended the event had many positive and uplifting comments. “CASL was life changing,” said student Leanne Woods. “Everything I expected and more,” said Grace Bonn. “The conference made me think differently,” said Caroline Knef.
The award presented to the students at CASL is based on a school’s activities program in the areas of goal setting, utilizations of the CADA (California Association of Directors of Activities) Leadership Standards, creating a unique program that serves a wide spectrum of the student body and has a positive impact on the culture and climate of the school. The Leadership/Activities program at Adele has demonstrated excellence in each of these areas, as well as others, in receiving this recognition. This will be the second time Adele Harrison’s Leadership program has won this award.