Congratulations to the sixth grade students at Creative Arts Secondary School. AwesomeStPaul's March grant is helping fund overnight gear for their field trip to Wolf Ridge Environmental Center in Finland, MN.

Deborah Karp-Castrenze explained, "We will build community, extend classroom learning into an outdoor environment, and foster environmental stewardship by taking our 60 sixth-grade students on a 3-day, 2-night field trip to Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, MN. This will take place April 3-5, 2024. The primary focus of this overnight adventure is to embody our school’s Core Values: “We are creative. We support each other. We are good at what we do.” Taking learning and creativity out of the traditional classroom environment both fulfills our goals and supports our students in new ways of meaning-making and healthy risk-taking. On the pristine grounds at Wolf Ridge, bordered by rivers, lakes, streams and expansive views of Lake Superior, students will learn how to be creative with paper making, block printing and earth works - art made in the outdoors using earthly materials. They will practice supporting each other at a high-ropes course, a campfire improv, and while geo-caching in a forest environment. Away from city light pollution, our urban youth will explore the starry nights through an astronomy class and learn about the Ojibwe people during a Heritage class. For some of our students, this will be their first time overnight away from their families. For many of our students, it will be their first time immersed in an unspoiled, natural environment. Our students will be chaperoned by their teaching team of 5 licensed educators that they learn from every day and with whom they have built trust and community, as well as a group of parent volunteers. We want our students to enjoy their time and make life-long memories as they explore, discover, and learn outdoors."