EATON RAPIDS, Mich — Fourth-grade students at Greyhound Intermediate School in Eaton Rapids are learning about civic engagement by lobbying for change and sharing their ideas directly with Mayor Pam Colestock.
- Dozens of students wrote letters to the mayor to identify local problems and propose solutions.
- Student teachers created the lesson to combine English and civic engagement following a downtown field trip.
- Mayor Pam Colestock visited the classroom to discuss the students' ideas, which included fixing uneven sidewalks and downtown trash management.
Student teachers Haylee Jasinski and Sierra Spallone developed the lesson to combine English Language Arts and civic engagement. Following a field trip downtown, dozens of students, including Lillian Meyers and Jensen Smith, wrote letters to the mayor identifying local problems and proposing solutions.
WATCH: Eaton Rapids fourth graders learn civic engagement by lobbying the mayor
"Being active members in the community and speaking up for what you believe is right is really important, so we wanted to give all our students a chance to do that," Jasinski said.
The students' letters included various suggestions for improving the city.
"I asked her if she could tear down the old abandoned building," Smith said.
"The hospital moved closer to the police station," Meyers said.
"The new thing that I had the idea to put there was a homeless shelter for animals and people," Smith said.
After receiving the letters, Colestock visited the students to discuss their ideas.
"It was cool to speak to the mayor and actually see her in person," Meyers said.
Colestock noted that many students wrote about uneven sidewalks and downtown trash management, which are issues she says the city council is currently addressing.
"It’s something we are striving to take care of, but just to hear that from their perspective, was just really important," Colestock said.
Jasinski and Spallone plan to introduce this civic engagement lesson to more classrooms in the future, after seeing a positive engagement from students.
"It was also just so cool to see them form those thoughts on their own, form their own opinion, and advocate for the change they wanted to see," Jasinski said.
Colestock hopes lessons like these will engage and inspire future generations to get involved with the Eaton Rapids community.
"It’s really important as a community whether it’s adults or kids to be engaged," Colestock said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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