Imagine stepping into the old library and seeing new splashes of color painted on the walls, calming activities spread throughout the area, and comfortable seating arrangements of all kinds, a space created to support students during the exhausting school days. Over the summer, librarian Debrielle Baldwin revamped the school library into the Student Success Center. The upgrades to this space have provided students with new options for their preferred learning environment.
Baldwin asked students for input through many conversations and their voices were heard. Quiet areas, colorful art, individual seating, collaboration tables, and a calm place to eat lunch have been added. Once colorless the Student Success Center is now covered in swaths of bright colors. Students have begun to participate in seasonal decorating and have contributed to displaying art. This space also offers activities like friendship bracelet making stations, trivia, and book analysis quizzes.
Senior Grace Lackey is one of many students who participates in these fun yet community building and educational activities during her online classes. She helps Baldwin organize and brainstorm ideas for the Student Success center so that other students and herself can have positive experiences in the space they helped make their own.
“I like to represent my student body,” Lackey said, “I think always having a student involved when it comes to changes that happen within the school is necessary because we come here for nine months to learn and spend the most time in this space.”
Staff members around the building have noticed students gravitating to the Student Success Center more than ever before. Stockbridge Principal Jeff Trapp is among the staff members who have noticed this positive impact.
“I think the biggest change that I have seen is students getting involved with the changes in the SSC,” Trapp said.
Students go to the Student Success Center throughout the day to catch up on late work, re-take tests, and work in silence because they feel comfortable in the environment, which helps them to succeed in school.
“I like being in the media center because it’s calming,” Junior Melina Sayre said, “I focus more because it’s quiet and it’s now a comfortable space.”
Even though the Student Success Center has improved tremendously since last school year, there is still great space for improvement. However, in order to carry out new improvements, funding is needed. It’s easy to assume that the school has funded all of the advancements to the Student Success Center, and while that is partially true, Baldwin also spends her own money on furthering this area for students at Stockbridge High School. The school paid for the colorful paint and new books students had suggested, but Baldwin reached the yearly budget for books, so she ended up spending her own money on books students were wanting in the library. Baldwin also spent her own money on two comfortable chairs, neon lights, coloring pages, markers, book marks, pins, etc. She is currently working on proposing a grant in order to make the space an environment where students can succeed so that she isn’t spending part of her paycheck to buy items for the Student Success Center.
“I feel like the little things I purchased really brought the character I was looking for to the Student Success Center,” Baldwin said.
Sayre agrees that Baldwin’s changes have transformed the library into a place where students can actually succeed.
“It doesn’t feel like a boring classroom, it feels like a home,” Sayre said, “It’s a comfortable place to learn.”
Baldwin’s main goal for the Student Success Center is to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students. Compared to other high schools’ and colleges’ student support areas, the Student Success Center is only a fraction of the way there due to funding purposes, but students still appreciate the many great advancements that have been brought to the Student Success Center.
“The improvements make me want to be in there more,” sophomore Zoey Horstman said, “It sparks creativity in my mind.”
