High School Students Give Back

Recently, a group of students at showed appreciation for their country in a significant way.

After an earthquake damaged the Washington Monument in Washington D.C., David Rubenstein, the 55-year-old owner of private equity firm The Carlyle Group donated $7 million to help restore it.

"This Washington Monument is probably one of the most recognizable buildings in the United States next to the Capitol and the Empire State Building," he said. "It could use a little repair work, and I wanted people to get to see it as soon as possible."

After Ms. Price, a teacher at Woodland High School, read about this generous act, she thought of a great way to give back.

The class she teaches was in the process of learning geometry, and Ms. Price thought of a way to show appreciation to Rubenstein, while also helping her students learn. The class watched several videos about the Washington Monument and used math word problems to answer questions about it. A few students also chose to write thank-you letters to Rubenstein to show him how much they cared.

“If I was a billionaire like Mr. Rubenstein, I would have donated money, too. I think everyone should!” Savannah, a student of Ms.Price's, said.

About a week after they sent their letters, the students got an unexpected package from the National Mall. The package contained National Mall T-shirts for each of the students who wrote a letter.

“I really didn’t expect anything back. We just did it because we thought it was the right thing to do,” Ms. Price said.