To celebrate the final night of Science Adventure School each week, we host a campfire with skits, songs, and s’mores. At the end of the campfire, a SAS staff member shares a story about how living in or moving to West Virginia has transformed them, emphasizing the natural beauty and opportunities in West Virginia. Finally, we all sing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” together in the firelight.
One night during “Country Roads,” a student named Aiden began intensely crying. While his teacher consoled him, he simply said, “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I never want to leave West Virginia.” Later, the teacher shared with us that Aiden had only recently moved to West Virginia, and that the teachers had never heard him speak up in class as much as he had at SAS. The teacher then continued to say, “I haven’t been able to make an impact like this with a student in the past ten years that I’ve been teaching middle school. This is the type of experience students need, to really want to stay in this state and be passionate about it.”
I believe that this teacher truly felt a renewed spark to empower students in his school that day, and I believe that SAS can empower youth, teachers, and the rest of the community, in turn. I hope that all students in West Virginia will one day get the chance to experience “Country Roads” by campfire, like Aiden and his teacher did.