Students currently involved in Spanish combined their language skills with BSM’s mission of servant leading. The students made children’s books written in both Spanish and English for the elementary students at Risen Christ school.

The students involved are Spanish III students of all levels including Spanish III, Honors Spanish III, and Español Para Hispanohablantes III.  “What we’re doing as kind of part of a service-learning project is we’re going to be working with [Risen Christ] to provide some books for their school,” Ms. Kathryn Jantscher, an Honors Spanish III teacher, said.

Risen Christ is a Catholic school located in South Minneapolis. The students who attend Risen Christ learn in both Spanish and English throughout the day. “[Risen Christ] has recently changed from having all English classes to being a dual immersion school…. And cause of that they didn’t have a lot of resources initially at their school like they didn’t have very many books in Spanish and things like that for their library,” Jantscher said.

This project not only allowed the students to challenge their Spanish writing skills but they also got to create a bond with the Risen Christ school. Each BSM student was paired with a Risen Christ student. The BSM students first learned about the students favorite things like their favorite color, favorite toy, favorite food, favorite sport and favorite drink. “The books are actually personalized to the story of the child a little bit… our students here at BSM will incorporate the student as the main character of the book and write a story around their interests,” Jantscher said.

The students also got to create a bond with the students at a field trip at the end of the project. At the field trip, the students got to play together at recess. The BSM students also got to deliver their books to their buddy and read the story to them. “We participated] in their literacy time at school and [practiced] reading with them. We [took] the books, each student will meet their student that they wrote their book about and they’ll read to each other,” said Jantscher.

The goal of the project is to create a bond with Risen Christ and help increase the literacy at the school. Each book was made into two copies, one for the school and one for the family so that the students have many resources to practice their reading with. “We’re using site words, words that they should be practicing reading at that age to help them in their own reading and writing, there will be a spot on the page where they get to practice writing words,” said Jantscher.

Overall, the project provided many benefits to both schools and brought the community’s together. The students were able to combine their learning with helping people in need. “I always feel like anytime we’re able to have relationships with other students or other schools I think like God really blesses that in a lot of ways,” Jantscher said.