Seniors establish simulated nonprofits for capstone project to address social justice issues

One of the culminating projects that the senior class completes at Stuart is Invisible Issues. This social justice project exemplifies the Sacred Heart Goal 3 of a social awareness which impels to action and requires students to work in groups to create a simulated nonprofit organization that addresses a lesser known issue of human suffering.

After learning about the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching, seniors selected a topic to address. Throughout the semester, the groups conducted research, drafted grant proposals, created budgets, designed flyers and a poster, logos, video loops and presentations.

One the first of the two-day presentations, the groups shared their formal presentations before a panel of professionals who evaluated the viability of the grant proposals, asked questions and shared feedback with the students. The judges provided expertise in the areas of fundraising, evaluating grant proposals and running nonprofits and scored the presentations based on teamwork, clarity of the mission, five-year scalability and many other factors. Year over year, the panelists have been impressed by the professionalism of students, with this year being no different. They were floored by the "sophistication of the research" and were "challenged in their deliberations to rank the top three presentations." 

On day two, the groups set up displays in the Front Hall and pitched their organizations to Middle and Upper School students, and Stuart faculty and staff, who then voted on the most convincing presentation with "Stu-Bucks." Based on the points earned from the panel of judges and votes from students and teachers, a sum of money is donated to a nonprofit organization closely associated with the winning team's issue. 

Congratulations to the winning Invisible Issues project teams:

Third Place: Alimu, Alimu - Teacher training in Tanzania

Second Place: MOSAA - Awareness of/therapy for male sexual assault victims in Rajasthan, India

First Place: WHY - Women's healthcare in Yemen

Below are reflections from a few seniors on their experience educating the public on their issue and any skills that they will carry with them onto college: 

"The  Invisible Issues opened my eyes to these issues and how invisible they really are. Educating yourself is a choice that you have to make, and you have to seek out and find these things to really bring them to light. When we focused on men, I thought it was very interesting because I didn't know the statistics. One in every five men are raped in India. That's so many people, and I had no clue, and no one really had any clue. Researching the real organizations that actually exist and bringing them to light is very rewarding, especially when we hear people say things like, "Oh, I never knew about this, and now I do." We're bringing attention to issues that are so prevalent in not only the United States, but the whole world." - Peighton, MOSAA

"Invisible Issues showed us that not everything is black and white. Our group was specifically focused on solving an education crisis from a different lens. Instead of focusing on resources, we're focusing on aiding teachers. Sometimes one solution that's normally approached might not be the correct one. And that’s one of the big things that I learned from this. I also did not know Tanzania had this crisis in the first place. Education is not the same in America. It's a privilege that we sometimes forget about, and how good our educational system is, but also how much it can improve. Other countries don't have the privilege of education that we have ourselves."  - Lucy, Alimu, Alimu 

“The Invisible Issues has been quite challenging because there's so many components to it, but it's been really nice to work with a team and be able to come up with something to help with a specific issue. This nonprofit means a lot to my group, and I really am happy to see it come to life at the Invisible Issues fair. On transferable skills acquired: “Definitely writing a grant or doing a budget, working with numbers, and actually planning ahead, which is something I need to do for college.” - Anita, Shelter