Day 5: Culmination

The culminating day of Design week arrived too fast! After a quick morning meeting, groups had just over an hour to put the finishing touches on their projects and get ready for their presentations. it was a chance for each group to bring together their experiences of the past week and articulate their response to three key questions.

1. How did your group come to understand the theme of community through the work of the week?
2. What did your group group do? Explain the choices you made and the final project you created.
3. How did your group come to work together?

Of course many groups went farther. Documanting their week-long process through photographs, video, poems, their scaprbook, students had ample material to use in sharing their process with the other groups. Each team used a slide show to support their presentation.

The Urban Neighborhoods groups explored the position of Billings within the Green Lake community. They traveled throughout the neighborhood interviewing people about the lake and the school and created a final mural on canvas depicting the relationship of the school in direction of the compass.

The Sports groups explored the way games and sports create community through shared experience, fanbase, rivalries and statistics. They created a new sport Rufoofla and tested it live in Green Lake. Arena League is coming soon!

The "Forced Communities" group explored the way institutions force people together. They considered jails, schools, public transportations and even ideaologies. They created a video and sculpture posing interesting questions about school as a forced community.

The music group explored the way a song can pull together histories, cultures and genres. Their rendition of "One Love" required input from every team member and represents the power of community to create a positive world.

The Animals group explored the living community of animal groups with a focus on ants, penguins, gorillas and animals who require the synergy of others to thrive.

The Outdoor Environment explored the way our new space, the East Village, could be expanded to a broader use and purpose by designing plans for an outdoor cinema space and building a marquee for future films. They analyzed the cost and technical details of the equipment necessary and brought together information about licensing for public use of films by a school.

We had two art groups. The first one groups explored the icons of our Green Lake community in a sculptural form creating a vehicle symbolizing the many neighborhod partners and business we share space with. The second looked at ways graduating classes could "leave their prints" on the Billings Community. The cleaned and painted the east entrance to the main building and identified space for the next 20 classes! Further, they drew up an ongoing improvement plan for the space which will invite art for years to come!

Our presentations were followed by a celebration pizza lunch and a HUGE all-school clean-up. In the cleaning crews you could see the energy and trust built over the week. Despite being tired from a HUGE week, every team brought their spaces back to looking beautiful.

Students throughout the day commented on the impact of the week for them. "I love working in teams like this," said one, "but I'm amazed at the energy it takes to keep a group moving forward." Another remarked, "Not me, I have more energy when classes include this much movement."

Others reflected on the full community experiences. "Tribes made us not hide in our bodies, but use them to talk to other people. It was uncomfortable, but I liked it." "World Relief was complicated. It didn't feel good to be yelled at by the State Department Lady but I get why she was -- Is there another way to experience that?"

Or a final comment about our opening excercise, " I knew as soon as we started the opening challenge that I could lead the group. I am just comfortable with that - helping people and they trust me to do that, but I have to make sure I hear what are saying as well."

An enormous thanks to all who worked so hard to make Design Week a special experience. To all the students who committed themselves with an open mind, to the teachers who prepped each day to each of our guest artists. Thank you for a tremendous experience!