Connecting Community with Nature: The Environmental Learning Center
Every year for the past five years, the American Institute of Architects puts on a national Film Challenge. The competition invites architects and filmmakers to collaborate in telling stories of architects, civic leaders and their communities working together toward positive community impact, creating a Blueprint for Better. Last year we were 1 of 14 finalists, out of 43 submissions with our memorable short film, “Hub on the Hilltop“. This year, we are pleased to present our latest short documentary titled, ‘Connecting Community with Nature: The Environmental Learning Center”.
The Environmental Learning Center (ELC) was conceived out of the need for a permanent presence for the Science and Math Institute (SAMi), a Tacoma public high school located within Point Defiance Park. Since its founding in 2009, SAMi has created a powerful community of learners that partners with the conservation and education mission of Metro Parks Tacoma and Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (PDZA). Amenities in the park include the Zoo and Aquarium, rose and rhododendron gardens, beaches, miles of trails and most notably, a stand of old growth forest. The new Environmental Learning Center is the first permanent facility designed around SAMi’s approach to education.
Students explore and gather artifacts in the forest, Zoo and waterfront ecosystems, and bring them back to the Center to analyze, interpret and demonstrate so that upon return to nature they see it with new eyes. Students and teachers engage with community partners through citizen scientist workshops, interpretive exhibits, as well as advance the research and educational mission of the Park and Zoo. Designed to put student and partner work on display to the public, the new ELC is a community asset that supports greater understanding and appreciation of nature’s ecological systems and our relationship to them.
Partner Michael McGavock wins 2018’s Al Beck A4LE Award!
Last night Michael McGavock was recognized by the A4LE Washington Chapter with this year’s Al Beck Award. Al Beck is considered to be one of the founding fathers of A4LE in the Pacific Northwest. This award is given to honor a Washington State A4LE member who exemplifies the principles of service that were so diligently represented by Al Beck’s contributions to the organization. Congratulations Michael on this truly deserved recognition!
Michael has dedicated over 30 years to supporting exceptional learning environments throughout western Washington, seeking out rewarding relationships with peers and educational providers along the way. Michael’s involvement with the Washington Chapter of the Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) has been particularly rewarding. He has had an active role in A4LE for over 25 years, including serving for five years on the Washington Chapter board as an officer and President. He has learned a great deal, made great friends and has great memories to show for it.
Inspired by Michael’s commitment to Learning Environments, McGranahan Architects has followed his lead with participation in the A4LE Schools Next (formerly School of the Future) program, working with students at Tacoma’s Stewart Middle School for 3 years. Students are challenged to plan and design sustainable and resilient learning spaces that encourage innovation, critical thinking and collaboration. Stewart Middle School won the State competition in their third year!
During his leadership of the Chapter, Michael instituted new “behind the scenes” communication and accounting methods that are used to this day. The board and committees organize and develop the Chapter’s initiatives with Basecamp. Communication with members is conducted with MailChimp and the board watches our funds with online banking and proactive budgeting that began with his time on the board.
Michael’s involvement with A4LE has fed his passion for how learning environments serve individuals and society and has taken that inspiration into other areas of educational activism and involvement.
Michael has served on the board of Tacoma Public Schools’ Elements of Education, beginning in 2000, including two years as President. Elements is an organization that supports Tacoma Public Schools’ partner schools (SOTA, SAMi and iDEA) and offers enriched educational opportunities to students across the district. Through Michael’s engagement, we have had the opportunity to host several SOTA/SAMI student interns nearly every year since Elements’ Next Move internship program began. Luis Servin, a former intern from SAMi, was a particularly rewarding experience. He’s now studying architecture at WSU and returns to work with us on holiday breaks.
Michael recently completed his second term as President of Tacoma North Rotary Club. Each year the club provides dictionaries to every third grader in Tacoma, about 3,000 of them. Over the past four years with Michael’s guidance the club has provided one iPad for every two students and one for each teacher in each of Tacoma Public Schools’ 15 autism specialty classrooms. Now he is leading the club’s efforts to create a demonstration farm in Uganda. The first step of drilling two water wells will provide better hydration and hygiene for hundreds of families and lead to irrigation on the farm. The goal is to help families grow food more sustainably and consistently so their children can learn better because they aren’t going to school hungry. He is also active in the club’s new initiative to address homeless youth in Tacoma, a major hindrance to their education.
Michael is passionate about our mission to create inspiring learning environments, because he believes they can be transformational to individuals and society. He cultivates a spirit that we are doing something very important, that our work has lasting impact for good in the world. He has lead educational visioning, capital facilities planning, community engagement and design all over Western Washington for initiatives that have led to community support for more than $1.2 billion in school construction.
Michael believes that the collaboration among design professionals, supported by enlightened school district leaders, in the region contributes to the quality learning environments we create with our clients and their communities. To that end, Michael has encouraged the firm to participate in the annual A4LE awards program to share our work, and be inspired by the work of our colleagues. Our consistent recognition in A4LE awards, locally and internationally, is a testament to his passion for the organization as a way to improve learning environment design.
VIDEO: Project Architect, Benjamin Fields, Wins Business Examiner’s 40 Under 40
Business Examiner Media Group’s 40 Under Forty program recognizes outstanding South Sound business and community leaders under the age of 40. Benjamin Fields, Project Architect at McGranahan, was one of the 40 impressive individuals awarded! Each class of 40 Under Forty represents the diversity and excellence of the South Sound and includes those who have made great accomplishments and significant contributions to their businesses, industries and communities. An alumni panel reviews the candidates to provide direction in the selection of the 40. Ben, we appreciate the skill, craft and passion you bring to our firm. Congratulations!
“McGranahan Spotlight” is a short video series featuring the skilled and passionate individuals we work with each and every day
“Hub on the Hilltop” AIA I Look Up Film Challenge 2017 (Video!)
This year’s I Look Up Film Challenge theme was “Blueprint for Better,” spotlighting how architecture can positively impact a community. With this theme in mind, we felt Bates’ new Advanced Technology Center centrally located in the Hilltop neighborhood was a fitting story to be told. At McGranahan we value equitable and just access to higher education. We wanted to share this unique story so that more people in the Hilltop community recognize the Advanced Technology Center as a resource for higher education.
It was important to us that Hilltop’s history be told and represented by someone who grew up in or around the neighborhood. In this case, Will Ragin, a student of Bates, shared his experiences growing up in South Tacoma and later living in Hilltop. We wanted to craft a story that felt connected to the people and the culture of the neighborhood. By reaching out to various community organizations, students, and faculty, we believe we were able to tell this story authentically.
Gentrification was a major point of discussion during the making of this film. What we discovered through our outreach within the Hilltop community was that, in the two years since its doors have opened, the new Advanced Technology Center has become a hub for students, community organizations, and hilltop residents to have direct access to higher education. What is special about Bates, this building, and this story, is that every player involved is working diligently to keep the culture and the residents of Hilltop intact by providing the technological and educational resources necessary to thrive.
Our goal is to share this story with as many people as we can. By doing so, we hope to inspire the hilltop community by spotlighting this valuable resource that’s right down the street. If you would like to participate in sharing this story, watch our video and vote. If it wins, Bates and the Hilltop community will be featured at the 2017 Architecture and Film Festival in New York City.
Summer of 2014: Tacoma women connected while making dumplings, sharing stories, and creating positive experiences for our young girls.
Autumn 2014: Babe Lehrer and Dawn Lucien became WILLO Advisors.
Spring of 2015: Sharing WILLO stories at the Tacoma City Club.
June 2016: Daughters listened to featured daughter storyteller, Dawn Lucien recalling a lesson of honesty she learned from her father on their farm in Prosser at WILLO’s 1st Father-Daughter Brunch at Annie Wright School.
June 2016: Many attending fathers were surprised and grateful for what they learned from their daughter while sharing their wishes and dreams at WILLO’s 1st Father-Daughter Brunch at Annie Wright School.
June 2016: Tacoma native and innovator in education, Jon Ketler, shared his passion motivated by his daughter as well as how he strives to provide the best inclusive learning opportunities for all students.
October 2016: A Tacoma-based producer, consultant, and storyteller, Megan Sukys, facilitating a Story Crafting Workshop.
October 2016: Six featured storytellers on the stage sharing their heartfelt stories of family, loss, success, challenges, entrepreneurship, and so much more at the 3rd Annual WILLO Storytelling Festival.
October 2016: A special afternoon getting inspired and connected at the 3rd Annual WILLO Storytelling Festival.
WILLO’s Melissa Jorgensen and her son, Reinger prepare for the Health+Happiness event.
Carol Milgard passed in 2007, but her legacy to make our community a better place for youth continues through her children and grandchildren.
I was born in Seoul, Korea and came to the San Francisco Bay Area when I was 18 years old. I graduated from San Jose State University, then worked in Palo Alto. I moved to Washington and after a few years of living and working in Seattle, I found Tacoma to be home for my daughter and I.
As a little girl, I was always surrounded by my mother and aunts. When we would spend time cooking and sharing meals, they would tell stories of their lives, along with the wisdom they had gained over the years. Their stories captivated me. I cherish the lifelong influences they have had on me; their stories have helped shape my life.
In May of 2013, I had an idea: I wanted to create a Women’s Story Museum in Tacoma with passionate women, celebrating the voices of local women and girls. This space would be an interactive gathering place for our community, intended to engage in person; face-to-face and inspire one another.
While turning this idea into reality, I met a woman who empowered me with her wisdom: Michelle Hunt.
In the spring of 2014, I met Michelle at the Neighborhoods USA Annual Conference in Eugene, Oregon. She had given the keynote address and during lunch at an outdoor café I approached her and shared my vision for the Women’s Story Museum. She encouraged me and gave me her book, DreamMaker with a personal note to me. She said, “Look to the North Star when you are low and weak…” The words from Michelle stayed with me as I shaped WILLO and reminded me to trust my intuition.
Four years ago, my dream became a reality. WILLO is a local nonprofit organization for women and girls to connect across generations and other differences to give voice to their stories from all walks of life. We celebrate all women and girls of any culture, ethnicity, nationality or sexual orientation. As a non-profit we are respectful of others’ views and do not participate in or promote any political position or agenda. We stand for inclusion and respect, and do not tolerate exclusion or discrimination of any kind, WILLO women and girls hold space in loving-kindness for all who come with peace in their hearts.
Brainstorming ideas as WILLO became a reality.
WILLO’s primary purpose is to knit together women and girls from all walks of life to share and celebrate personal stories of wisdom, resilience, strength and compassion, as a catalyst to inspire and engage youth and elders alike in our community.
WILLO’s primary goal is to act as a change-agent in Tacoma—as a catalyst for reconnecting the missing “synapses” in modern life between generation gaps and cultural stereotypes—by nurturing the personal connections that have historically strengthened our communities. The intimacy and support of traditional “village” intergenerational relationships—once so instrumental in women’s lives, have been replaced by insular communities defined by neighborhoods, race, religion, profession and politics.
Finding common ground through shared stories, WILLO seeks to bring together diverse groups of women and girls—and their fathers, sons and brothers—in dialogue to break down culturally perceived boundaries and foster strong leaders through mentoring and personal relationships.
WILLO’s Storytelling Festival is founded on the belief that storytelling is an ancient and universal communications ‘bridge’ which can strengthen our community and foster leadership capacity in women and girls from diverse cultures and traditions in Tacoma.
WILLO’s mission is to serve as a catalyst to inspire and engage youth and elders alike by inviting Tacoma’s women and girls to share their personal stories of resilience, strength and compassion—and to spotlight the diverse women who co-create our unique community.
WILLO members believe…
Women at all ages and stages in their lives are enriched and supported by learning from each other’s traditions, values, struggles and accomplishments.
Young girls develop self-esteem through personal relationships with successful role models, and conversely, older women re-experience the spontaneity and vibrancy of their youth through meaningful relationships with younger women.
Development of critical character traits like confidence and self-esteem are life-skill requirements linked to leadership capacity and successful economic independence—skills which are essential for every woman’s health and well-being, and which ultimately determine the health and well-being of her entire community.
Strong, successful women co-create a resilient and more vibrant community.
Each woman and girl has a unique story to share that has the capacity to shatter cultural stereotypes and create opportunities for deeper understanding and respect. No matter her age or socio-economic circumstances, every woman has experienced a personal moment of triumph or insight in her life that can be shared with others to break down stereotypes, offer encouragement and bridge perceived cultural chasms.
As we enter the fourth year of WILLO’s women and girls-centered, community-based activities—from the Annual Storytelling Festival, to our winter Health & Happiness Conversation and the debut of the Father-Daughter Brunch—I am grateful to our WILLO Board, Founding Members and numerous Community Organizations, and my husband for their support.
I traveled to Uganada with Circle of Friends in Action who support this 12 classroom, 3 building school.
Teachers have made posters to display the curriculum in the school. There are no books. Each student has a notebook and a pencil. Children sit three to a desk.
Science deals with hygiene and disease.
This is a small class, only 55 students. All the students keep their hair short for reasons of hygiene. There are an equal number of boys and girls in the school.
This is a family compound out in the villages. There are separate buildings for sleeping, cooking and latrine. Adolescent boys build their own hut and live in them thereafter.
A teacher on the visit provided drawing materials for local village children each afternoon at Carolyn's mom's home. This home is unusually well made by Ugandan standards.
Teacher Joyce provided paper, pencils and crayons. Children in the village don't have these in their homes.
Alice showing off her drawing.
My friend Paul from Australia joins in on the fun.
Fun with the selfie camera.
I brought greeting cards from students at Jennie Reed Elementary in Tacoma.
Ugandan students draw their reply to the American students. Wood for cooking is kept in this unused classroom.
Ugandan students draw their reply to the American greetings.
A big celebration was held for "the visitors" at the end of our stay. Me and my Aussie buddy Paul.
Drawings by the Ugandan students being delivered to Jennie Reed students
A few weeks ago, I shared my experience of a week in Uganda with McGranahan staff. We were fortunate to have Carolyn Othieno join us that day. She grew up in a village in eastern Uganda, with a single mom, a sister and three brothers. While she was still in primary school, her family moved to the capital city of Kampala, where they could only afford to live in the slums. It was from there that she finished secondary school and college. After graduation, she got a job with the YMCA and that was her avenue to come to Washington State and she’s lived in the Tacoma area ever since.
Carolyn spoke at my Rotary club about a foundation she started that supports a primary school in the town of Tororo in eastern Uganda. They provide uniforms, instructional materials, ensure the children see a doctor once a year and provide housing and living support for the teachers. In the five years her foundation has supported the school, enrollment has grown from 200 to 700 students.
Carolyn invited me to travel with her to Uganda to explore the idea of building a library for the books she sent to the school. In the course of the visit, our plans went in a different direction…
Uganda is a highly impoverished country, and I saw it firsthand. Carolyn lived it. Children walk up to five miles to go to school. Girls must overcome the family practice of women gathering water and doing other chores in order to attend school like boys. Hygiene, avoiding disease, child advocacy and gender equality are a primary subjects in school. Class sizes are around 60-70 students. There is no power in the buildings, pit latrines are available out by the play field and one water source serves the entire site. Lack of food is a visceral element of daily living in Uganda. Most of the people are dependent on what the land and weather provides; what they can grow and what water they can find.
The foundation funded an artist to paint instructional graphics on the walls of the school. English is taught to all students.
While the foundation tried valiantly, providing meals at the school has proven to be too much of a burden. Asking American donors to fund a meal program indefinitely was not feasible. Another way had to be found.
Carolyn’s family owns 15 acres of land outside of town. We are looking into what that land can provide; in terms of growing food for the school or to take to market and generate funds to by meals for the children. An agriculture consultancy in Kampala, funded by the Dutch government, has examined the soil on her property and determined that it can grow maize, cassava beans, bananas, pawpaws and pumpkins. Mango trees grow wild on the site. Livestock would also be a complement to the plant propagation.
Women walk for a mile to get to this local watering hole. If water is not boiled, illness is common after consumption. It’s all they have as there are not many wells.
Our plan is to farm the land and take the produce to market to generate the money needed to feed the children; at first a few days a week and eventually everyday. We are also planning to create an agriculture school on the site; to oversee the farm, to teach children in the school and their families better farming techniques to use on their own property. This will also benefit other families in the region, as they can learn from the school and cultivate crops on their own property and take to market with the school. We are partnering with a Rotary club in Tororo on the project. That is the broad outline of the project, now we need to formulate the steps and engage partners.
This is out near Carolyn’s property with some of the neighbors. Carolyn is on the left, her mom is dressed in yellow in the center of the group. An American teacher, Joyce, traveled with us.
I have wonderful memories of the kindness and simple generosity of spirit of everyone I met in Uganda. The children are quick to smile and full of wonder within the frame of their simple existence; despite the challenges they face. On the last visit to the school they held a ceremony for “the visitors”. At the end I walked into the pool of students gathered, to shake hands and dance a little. How they all wanted to find out what white skin feels like as a hand shake turned into an extended slippery release. Simple things like paper, pencils and crayons opened them up to express themselves. They exchanged drawings with children at Jennie Reed Elementary in Tacoma.
I look forward to going back when the next steps are underway. I’ll continue to share progress along the way.
Carolyn’s foundation is called COFIA – Circle of Friends in Action. You can learn more here: cofiakids.org
