Aspen student projects thrive in International Baccalaureate program

What were you doing in 11th grade? 

Unless you were helping Aspen senior citizens learn the ins and outs of technology or taking it upon yourself to educate your peers about entrepreneurship by organizing discussions with experts, you would not have been going toe-to-toe with the pursuits of Aspen High Schoolers. 

As part of International Baccalaureate’s Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) projects, Aspen High School 11th and 12th graders organize community-oriented projects, which IB Diploma Programme Coordinator Eileen Knapp said must “go beyond oneself.”

“It can’t just be self-fulfilling,” she said of the projects, which students complete during their last two years of high school.

As part of their CAS project, Aspen High School 11th grade students Emma Jane Mallory and Elizabeth Lawson have helped senior citizens at the Aspen Valley Health Whitcomb Terrace Senior Residence learn how to use technology. Visiting Whitcomb the second Monday of the month for most of the school year, Mallory and Lawson are helping the residents with their phones, computers, iPads, or any other technological needs. 

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“We wanted to make sure that people in the community weren’t frustrated with aspects where we could help out,” Lawson said. 

Once the two students see the culmination of their CAS project at the end of this school year, they plan to start a high school club to continue aiding older adults at Whitcomb with technology. 

“The seniors, they’ve given stuff to us,” Mallory said of the project’s importance, “so it’s time for us to give back to them, to give back to the community.”

Aspen High School Senior Oliver Auvray has been working on his Aspen High School Speaker Series CAS project for about a year. Roughly one Wednesday per month, Auvray interviews an entrepreneur or expert in the community in front of his peers at lunch to share their experience in the professional world. 

“They share about the field they’re in, they share about how they got there, and what you need to achieve success,” he said. 

He has brought in the majority owner of the St. Regis Stephane De Baets and Aspen’s Benjamin Silverman, who was the executive producer of American mockumentary “The Office.”

“I just hope to inspire the student body, while also learning information (for) myself (to use) in the future,” Auvray said. 

Aspen School District IB projects don’t stop with high school upperclassmen. Tenth graders complete their IB personal projects to culminate the school district’s IB Middle Years Programme, an educational framework beginning in 5th grade and ending in 10th. 

Through their personal projects, the 10th graders can pursue an interest, craft, or area of research of their choice. 

“The purpose is really for them to choose a topic or a personal interest and do some in-depth research and learning about that topic over an extended period of time,” Personal Project Coordinator Kate Korn said.

At last winter’s showcase, 10th graders presented personal projects ranging from homemade skis to automated robots to studies on the impacts of vaping at the high school.

Middle and elementary schoolers, too, can take part in IB’s hands-on learning process. The school district’s 8th graders pursue a community involvement project, where students create collaborative projects with a community mentor. The district’s 4th graders do exhibition projects, which prompts them to show what they would do to improve various United Nations goals.

Knapp said the IB projects throughout the students’ educational progression are meant to help young people develop skills that come from project planning.

“It includes perseverance, setting long term goals, planning, time management,” she said. “So we’re building the skills that come from project planning, and students are able to … learn and reflect on each of the projects and, hopefully, improve as the years progress.”

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.