High School In Community Features Story Exchange, CT Poet Laureate

NEW HAVEN, CT — High School in the Community, the oldest, small high school in New Haven, focusing on leadership and social justice, seeks to empower students through storytelling that fosters connection, builds empathy, and bridges divides.

Thursday, the school partners with the global non-profit Narrative 4 to lead a school-wide N4 Story Exchange, in which participants swap stories with a partner and tell their partner’s story as their own.

Students, teachers, and administrators will take part in this powerful exercise meant to connect people across differences, leading to newfound insights into another's experience. HSC hopes the school-wide program will help to increase empathy and connection among students, improve school culture, and increase attendance and engagement.

In a recent NBC’s TODAY show segment featuring N4, co-host Craig Melvin said of the non-profit’s work, “It should be in every high school. It’s genius.”
See the Today Show video here.

HSC’s N4 Story Exchange kicks off with a special guest performance by award-winning, Connecticut local poet, Frederick-Douglass Knowles II.

Poet Laureate of Hartford and Professor of English at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, Knowles is the author of the poetry collection BlackRoseCity and he is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, recipient of the Nutmeg Poetry Award and the Connecticut of The Arts Fellow in Artist Excellence for Poetry/Creative Non-Fiction.

HSC students selected the theme of “Metamorphosis” for their school year, and Knowles’s performance and the N4 Story Exchange will explore this focus. Students will have a chance to engage with Knowles in a special Q&A before taking part in the school-wide Story Exchange.

“In my experience, a Narrative 4 Story Exchange is the fastest and most effective way to bring people together, to make connections, and to build empathy," HSC Building Leader, Cari Strand said.

Prior to her work with HSC, Strand taught at Newtown High School where she worked with then fellow high school teacher Lee Keylock, who is now N4's Director of Global Programs. When Keylock joined N4 in 2013, he invited Strand to participate in the organization’s facilitator training, which equips educators with the tools needed to lead a N4 Story Exchange. Strand then moved on in the training to become a N4 Master Practitioner. Since that time, HSC has held a wide variety of N4 Story Exchanges, including student-to-student and teacher-to-student exchanges, as well as an exchange between police-in-training and HSC students, and a virtual Story Exchange with students in Limerick, Ireland.

About High School in the Community

Founded in 1970, HSC is known as “the small school for students who want to do big things,” and it offers students a progressive education through project-based, inquiry-based, and experiential learning opportunities both in and out of the classroom. Its multidisciplinary, project-based approach helps students develop the skills they need to thrive and offer solutions to pressing issues within their community and the world at large. With a specific focus on leadership, social justice, public policy, and service, HSC graduates are poised to make significant contributions to law, government, education, politics and nonprofit professions.

About Narrative 4

Co-founded by Lisa Consiglio and international, multi-award-winning author Colum McCann, Narrative 4 is a global non-profit that uses storytelling and the arts to foster connection and build community. Offering educators creative tools to teach compassion and develop strong leadership skills, N4 partners with schools and organizations, using classroom- and community-based activities and projects to support the growth of the whole individual, building critical life skills while fueling the imagination. The non-profit operates in the U.S., Mexico, Ireland and Africa, and while the Story Exchange is its core methodology, N4’s Artists Network, Learning Resources, and Civic Engagement projects allow schools and organizations to further customize a specific N4-engagement plan that meets their needs.