Time Capsule Project
About
Time Capsule Project
Overview:
The Time Capsule Program is an inexpensive, volunteer intensive project that is implemented at the elementary, middle and high school levels in partnership with the English Language Arts departments at those respective campuses
Students and their respective parents are asked to write letters centered on family history and their goals and aspirations for themselves or their sons or daughters. These letters form the core of a lesson on setting short-term and long-terms goals and are read at the end of each academic year with the exception of letters written in 8th and 12th grades. These letters are stored in a safe on campus to be opened again at a campus reunion in ten (10) years, during which they are encouraged to commit themselves to connect to their alma maters and its current students.
Mission
To foster family and community conversations that are designed to explore their roots, past achievements, accomplishments, and future goals. We believe that these discussions lead to increased motivation which translates to increased student achievement and the development of future “Life-Long Learners” and “Life-Long Leaders”.
Program Description
LNESC believes that it is impossible to achieve great things without first knowing who and where you are and developing a plan to achieve your personal goals. As Franklin Covey and many others have stated we must “Begin with the End-In-Mind”. LNESC’s “Time Capsule Program” is strategic in guiding students to learn about their family’s histories, by first learning how they got to be where they are now by exploring their respective family’s history by requesting that one or both of their parents or significant adult write a letter to their child expressing their family’s history, and their hopes and dreams for their child. Students are also tasked to write a personal letter detailing their personal hopes dreams and aspirations
With the exception of 8th and 12th-grade student letters, the letters are read at the end of each academic year, and teachers lead students in a discussion evaluating how effective they have been at achieving their personal goals. The letters of the 8th and 12th-grade students are stored in the program vaults on campus for ten years at which time students are invited to return to retrieve their respective letters and to gather for a class reunion and an opportunity to reconnect to their alma mater. Finally, as part of the celebratory reunion, participants are encouraged to reconnect to their former school by serving as a career day speaker or presenter or serving as a community volunteer which we believe will be a “game-changer” in terms of community educational outcomes.