PACE Senior Seminar
For my final PACE Pocket Change installment, I spoke with Dean of Student Life Aaron Hirsch about the “Senior Seminar,” the morning programming for 12th grade students next year. As I’ve spoken with Aaron and others, I am struck by how fortunate we are here at CSW to be among colleagues with such deep and relevant experience in social emotional learning, and a clear understanding of its role in helping students grow into healthy, thoughtful and socially conscious adults.
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JEM: We talk about the PACE Senior Seminar as an opportunity for students to develop “life skills” and strategies for “self-representation” and “resilience.” Can you offer more detail on what this looks like?
AH: The PACE morning program for seniors builds upon many of the foundations established in previous years in a highly hands-on, age-appropriate way. When we talk about health, for example, we’ll expand upon the scientific background knowledge students have already developed and examine ways they can put what they’ve studied into practice by learning First Aid and CPR and figuring out how to build their own First Aid kit. We’ll also cover topics like nutrition, responsible substance use, relationship communication, and resume writing and interviewing skills, in addition to “DIY” tasks like getting a passport, reading a lease, home repairs, and personal finance.
JEM: How did you decide what topics would be covered?
AH: First, the planning team came up with an exhaustive list of ideas. Next, we shared a survey with CSW alumni/ae from the past five years asking them to offer feedback on which topics they believed would be most valuable for high school seniors. We then sent this same survey to our current juniors, and reconciled their answers with those of our alumni/ae to generate a final list of topics to guide our lesson planning.
JEM: What kinds of projects or assignments might students engage in for this course?
AH: For our nutrition unit, we hope to have a class on “stocking the college kitchen,” to teach students strategies for preparing affordable, healthy meals for themselves. Students will be provided with a weekly flier from Market Basket that they’ll use to create three meals — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — on a budget. They’ll create a menu and a shopping list, calculate costs, and eventually have the chance to prepare the meals they’ve designed.
Another potential assignment asks students to figure out how to solve an everyday concern, such as a leaky toilet, a flat tire, or a bill payment. Rather than providing direct instruction from adults, the idea is to have students figure these things out for themselves so that they can then present their findings back to the class.
JEM: Aaron, we have worked together for a long time and I know that the elements of the program you outline here are dear to your heart. Can you tell me a bit more about why you, as coordinator of this program with a great deal of knowledge and background in health programming, believe this is important to our students?
AH: As our seniors get ready to head off to college, we want to make sure they have the space to learn practical, directly applicable skills in a place that feels comfortable to them, with people they know and trust. Lots of colleges provide orientations to help students adjust, but we believe that addressing these things even earlier, in a familiar setting, will give our students a big advantage, and further solidify important concepts. For them to recognize and value the many small habits and practices they can implement in their lives is a total game changer, and is potentially life-changing. PACE offers a real opportunity to make a uniquely meaningful impact on our students, and I’m glad we’re able to do this.
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.