Looking Back on the Spring Season: How Teams Inspired Change On & Off the Field

Over 500 games

59 schools

2,500 students impacted

189 coaches

44 service-learning projects

This spring season DC SCORES poet-athletes did more than extraordinary things. While playing their hearts out on the field on game days, students also participated in service-learning projects that made their communities safer, healthier and all the more stronger.

Students learned how to keep their communities clean; they advocated for safe drinking water for Flint; researched how to keep their communities safer; found ways to alleviate hunger among the homeless in their neighborhood; strengthened the reading levels of their classmates; helped their community gardens flourish; and … learned how to spread kindness throughout their school

On the field and in the classroom, poet-athletes learned how to use sportsmanship and teamwork skills to support their classmates and their community.

Brightwood Education Campus is one school that excelled this spring at putting soccer and service-learning hand-in-hand. At the elementary school level, poet-athletes researched how to address hunger in their community by putting on a food drive.

At the middle school level, Brightwood students observed differences in the way cafeteria staff and students were treating one another and decided to create a kindness campaign featuring a hallway kindness tree that had acts of kindness written on its leaves. They also made announcements and distributed kindness messages to classrooms.

Screen Shot 2018-06-12 at 5.24.11 PM.pngA 'Blossoming Acts of Kindness Tree' is displayed in the hallways of Brightwood Education Campus to remind students to do good for others.

“I feel like it [service-learning] has made me feel more connected to other kids who are also in DC SCORES. I don’t feel as shy as I was in the beginning and now I feel more confident when I do poetry or raise my hand in class,” says Tatiana H., 11.

Brightwood poet-athletes even had the opportunity to attend the 6th Annual Congressional Soccer Match at Gonzaga College High School as ball boys and girls where they met politicians, D.C. United players and Washington Spirit players.

Screen Shot 2018-06-25 at 11.13.08 AM.pngPoet-athletes, D.C. United players, and Washington Sprit players show how excited they are to be at the 6th Annual Congressional Soccer Match.

At Cesar Chavez Prep, poet-athletes took initiative with a trash/litter school clean-up. And at Jefferson Middle School, students used the leadership skills they learned through soccer and service-learning to be role models and encourage younger students to read more.

Screen Shot 2018-06-11 at 7.39.49 PM.png Pictured above is Cesar Chavez-Prep’s service-learning poster, which mentions their plan to clean up their school community.

The leadership, creativity and teamwork skills that DC SCORES students have learned this season has provided them with a transformational experience like no other. Students have grown to be leaders and strengthened the bonds formed during the fall season.

Now comes Summer SCORES — four camps open to all DC students beginning next week.

Click here to learn more!

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