Learning through service

When students are active members of their community and do work that matters, student engagement and learning soars! Our teachers and school leaders work to create partnerships in our community, to give students the opportunity to learn and to provide service of real value.

Live Stakes Nursery

Did you know that The Franklin School of Innovation hosts one of the only “Live Stakes” nurseries in North America? The nursery, a partnership between FSI and Asheville GreenWorks, was planted in 2016 by Franklin 8th grade students as part of their Learning Expedition, “Water is Life”. The nursery is a great community collaboration; in addition to the school and GreenWorks, students from Warren Wilson College have contributed sweat equity to help maintain the nursery. In 2017, GreenWorks began harvesting stakes from the nursery. These stakes are being planted along the banks of Hominy Creek and the French Broad River as part of an ongoing effort to stabilize the creek banks and improve water quality.

Habitat for Humanity Student Build

During the 2016-17 school year, Franklin became the first public school in our region to participate in a Habitat for Humanity Student Home Build. We hope to make the student build a tradition at Franklin! The build grew out of the prior year’s high school Learning Expedition, where students dug into the causes and effects of migration – plant, animal, and human. Students were particularly engaged in gentrification in Asheville and the resulting barriers to homeownership for many members of our community.

Adult volunteers who supported the student build had a profound experience. Tom Kopp,  a Habitat volunteer and member of Franklin’s Board of Directors, had this to say about the student build: “As I looked down from the roof where I was hammering sheets of plywood, I didn’t see kids hanging out — I saw a young crew of real workers, building a real house, for a real family that will lovingly call this place ‘home.’  It was a proud moment — the soul of service learning for us all.”