Naomie, Baban, Cindy, Kaitlyn, and Amy created donation drives at Medford High School. Their goal was to make a difference in the community by getting the old unwanted shoes from students and parents. The shoes that were donated go to the Soles4Souls organization, which focuses on creating a business where they can give children and adults who are struggling a pair of shoes. By keeping these pairs from going to waste the students the group was able to help an organization expand.

During the summer of 2021, Zayn Yousuf organized a Cleanup at Haines Square to beautify the Square and also prepare the location for an event. The Cleanup was made possible with the help of the Mayor's Office and the Department of Public Works (DPW). Gloves, vests, and all necessary tools were provided by the DPW at the site. Student volunteers were able to sign up to help at the cleanup and receive community service hours.

The American Sign Language Club is a brand-new club through CCSR that helps kids to learn the background of sign language along with the language itself. It is not offered at the school, which is why it would be such a great opportunity for students to learn without having to worry about grades or tests. Students learned sign language through videos and hopefully in-person speakers if Covid-19 regulations allow. By joining the club, students can learn a new language at their own pace along with others who share some of the same interests. This was created by CCSR student leader Annabelle Bolitho.

A group of CCSR students is collaborating with Susan Altman from the Medford Arts Council to paint the utility box behind Medford City Hall. This past year, they came up with the design for the box. Currently, the group is painting the box with an outer space theme. Through this project, they hope to bring a new style and appreciation of art to Medford. Stay tuned for the final product.

The Medford CCSR website is a website that anyone can access that shows news, updates, projects, and much more information about the CCSR program. Every year the portfolio, showcasing projects from all members, is uploaded to the website. This site is a great tool for members to spread or showcase their work or project. Please check out the website at https://ccsrmedford.org

The Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility (CCSR) and Carroll’s Restaurant collaborated to honor our first responders - fire and police personnel - in remembrance of 9/11 by providing them with coffee and pastry on Saturday, September 11th and Sunday, September 12th from 9 AM to 11 AM at Carroll’s Restaurant, 21 Main Street, Medford.

The Micropantry Project, also known as the Oasis Project, is committed to combating food insecurity throughout the Greater Boston area by opening 'micro pantries.' These are the spearhead of a growing national movement of citizen-operated public food cabinets, that has led to just under twenty being opened in Medford (as of now). The Oasis group will continue working to get as many of these built as they can this year. They hope this project will be ongoing, in one form or another, even after they graduate.

This project was a book drive that donated books to the new Medford Public Library. Teachers or students were able to donate any unwanted books they had. Flyers were put around the school to inform people that boxes have been put in offices for students and teachers to donate their books. The boxes were collected at the end of November and the books were brought over to the library to be used for their book sale. Excess books were given to the free little libraries. The reason they decided to do this project was that more than 2 billion books are thrown away each year, and they wanted to help share some books with others.

The Democracy Campaign was a voter registration drive for all students ages 16 and up. Organized by Teagan Mustone, this project encouraged future participation in democracy. The young people of our nation hold the power to influence the legislation that will affect their future. In addition to a registration day in class, the online registration process was posted throughout the school and hard-copy forms in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and other languages were available to students because no one should be denied this right. The CCSR, with a shout-out to the Humanities Department and Mr. Bowen-Flynn, is creating future voters!

This group organized a food drive at the McGlynn Middle School. Last school year, the 8th-grade civics class organized a food drive from May through June. The food drive was very successful! To plan this, an email was sent to Mr. Tucci for permission and to the previous civics teacher, Mr. Tiberi, for his partnership. This project took place from November 29th to December 10th. The food was donated to the Unitarian Universalist Church and the extra food went to micro-pantries all over the city! Thank you!

In collaboration with the EL teachers at Medford High and the help of Medford High students, Khushi Kaur and Sophia Sunwoo created the EL Give Back Program. The EL Give Back Program is a student-led project designed to help new English learning students. Their goal is to help adjust the English learning students to their new school and environment. They created videos that have been translated by Medford High School students into seven different languages. Their videos are in Arabic, Haitian-Creole, Hindi, Portuguese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Some of the topics they have recorded include graduation requirements, how to get free/reduced lunch, how to get a bus pass, the school dress code, and there will be many more videos to come.

For the Harvest Your Energy Festival, Anamol helped organize the event and acted as an intermediary between the city and CCSR in running the festival. Anamol ran a fundraiser for electronics, which helped raise money for the CCSR. In an effort to reduce waste in the City of Medford, the project contributed towards preserving the environment of the local community.

Mrs. Ververis’s third-grade class and 21 high school students exchanged pen pal letters throughout the 2021-2022 school year. They exchanged letters monthly, regarding their hobbies, classes, and anything else they had in common. The letters were decorated and age-appropriate for the third graders to comprehend. This project helped reinforce the students' writing skills creatively as well as create friendships within the schools!

Every year on May 18th, the students of Medford come together in order to participate in Medford High School's District-wide Haitian Flag Day celebration. It is executed so that every student in the Medford School District can learn about the importance and participate in the celebration of Haitian Flag Day. Many students volunteered and went to other schools in the school district in order to educate younger students on the importance of this day. After going around to the other schools an assembly (split into small sections) was held for the MHS student body, where an informational video about Haitian Flag Day (created by students) was played. The video was followed by performances (dancing and singing), and many guest speakers who educated the students on why we celebrate this holiday. At the end of the day, all were welcome to a small celebration with music and Haitian food! Many were able to celebrate with us, which made the celebration even more special, and memorable.

Common Ground was an inclusive collaboration class between the Diversity and Enrichment class and Mrs. Goldberg’s class which met twice during a six-day week. This project has been active for 3 years which has created ever-lasting friendships between both classes. Common ground took place in Mrs. Goldberg’s classroom (A210), the Life Skills Classroom at Medford High School. All activities were collaboratively planned by students from the Diversity and Enrichment class and Mrs. Goldberg. Students both with and without disabilities participated in hands-on, interactive activities that promote teamwork to help build relationships among peers. Some of the activities included; interactive hello’s, marshmallow towers, slime making, getting-to-know-you Jenga, and painting!

The student leaders worked together to collect donated skateboard parts and then make those parts into skateboards. The group donated these skateboards to those in need. The goal was to have at least 5 skateboards by the end of 2022. The group hopes that those in need could experience one of the most wonderful things—skateboarding!

The CCSR officers worked together to create officer jackets. They discussed what they would like to see on their jackets and organized spreadsheets to send to the printing company. Using all of their ideas, they designed a jacket that incorporated everyone’s input as well as important aspects of the CCSR. After being sent to print, all officers were able to get their new jackets to wear with pride, representing their importance in the CCSR.

CCSR student leaders Michele Beagan, Oprah Nkera, and Eleanor Nkera planned and executed a fundraiser project by handing out "Boo Grams". These "Boo Grams" were pre-ordered by students and teachers and sent to their person of choice. The Boo Grams included candy and other trinkets such as Halloween tattoos, stickers, and rings. This was not only a fundraiser but also meant to bring cheer and bring members of the Mustang community together by celebrating Halloween!

The student leaders organized a Rock Paper Scissor tournament on the Early Release day, December 15, 2021. They wanted to host a fun event that would encourage student engagement and would also bring back a sense of normalcy during a demanding year. The first-place winner, Mary Schmidt, won a $50 Amazon gift card, and the second-place winner, Natalie Galindo, won a $25 Amazon gift card. The student organizers sold tickets for the tournament during the first and second lunches for an entire week leading up to the tournament. They believe the tournament was a great success and plan on organizing other similar events in the future.

Many people can agree that music has helped them in some way throughout their lives. “Music Mentality” focuses on utilizing social media and Youtube to create short videos promoting artists that students may be interested in. Whether the posts may inspire them to create their own music or simply help them through tough times, their group overall hopes to leave a positive impact on students through music.

The 8th Grade Open House is held every year at the Medford High School in order to introduce and familiarize 8th graders to the high school. CCSR officers Lily, Julie, and Zayn created and presented an informational slideshow about the CCSR to the students. The goal of the presentation was to inform the public of what the CCSR does as an organization, as well as encourage them to be future CCSR student leaders, and become more involved in their community.

The Adaptive Soccer Program was an inclusive after-school program held once per week for six weeks by the Medford Family Network. The program was established in order to create a safe environment where students with disabilities could play a sport side by side with other students and learn teamwork skills while making important friendships. Student leaders Laurel, Baban, Anamol, Amine, Edward, and Zayn took this on as their CCSR project and helped coach the kids. They all were extremely happy with the time spent in the program and the results and hope to pass this project down to underclassmen as most of them are graduating this school year.

CCSR student leader Sahib Gill organized a toy drive at Medford High School throughout the winter season. Sahib donated numerous toys to provide for young children who were unable to receive toys during the holiday season. The reason Sahib wanted to start this project was to help the parents who were unable to buy toys for their children. Sahib delivered these toys to Brookside Community Health Center.

The dog toy donation project was centered around helping animal shelters in need by making dog toys through donated pieces of fabric. Due to the current pandemic, many shelters have experienced an overflow of animals and a decrease in the donation of supplies for these animals. Through this project, the animals received handmade dog toys. The goal of this project was to help animals in need and allow shelters to allocate money towards veterinary visits, food, and bedding for the animals without having to worry about entertaining the animals. These toys were dog and cat-friendly, as well as having more than one use for the animals, such as: being used as chew toys, comfort objects, or as a simple accessory to play catch with. We can all help make a difference in the lives of those in need through simple acts.

As the original Pen Project became a very successful project, Racheal, Sherlyn, Naomie, Teagan, and Stanley decided to expand it to the McGlynn, Missituk, Brooks, and Roberts Elementary Schools. They allowed high school students to sign up through Google Forms. Those who volunteered were paired up according to their favorite genres of movies, hobbies, and more. They exchanged letters between the 3rd graders and were proofread for grammar, language, and ensuring that they are age-appropriate.

In their project, Better Bike Racks, Thea Cruz, Clark Barayuga, and Stanley Sunwoo have worked with Ellery Klein and Walk Medford to make cycling within Medford a better experience. The original plan was to install better and safer bike racks for students to bike to school. They also wanted to encourage more people to bike. To do that, they wanted to start with making Medford a safer place to bike, so more people would feel comfortable doing so. By conducting surveys and obtaining help from all around the community, their goal was to promote cycling and biking in Medford, as well as making the city—and its bike racks—safer.

These CCSR Student leaders created a video for the MLK panel. The video mentioned ways in which their project had a call to action, similar to Martin Luther King Jr. This video was showcased during the live MLK panel on January 17, 2022. This event was created by Chelli Keshavan. In the two videos, they reflected on their environmental action to how Martin Luther King was able to fight for justice through his actions and activism.

CCSR students Ava Chasteen, Madeline Morris, Ainsley McInnis, and Emma Ademaj worked on a fundraiser during January and February. Proceeds from the fundraiser went to victims of the Kentucky tornadoes. To fundraise, they had a bake sale every week in January and February. Their goal was to reach 500 dollars. They were very glad that they had this opportunity to help people in this time of need!

Naomie, Baban, Cindy, Kaitlyn, and Amy created donation drives at Medford High School. Their goal was to make a difference in the community by getting the old unwanted shoes from students and parents. The shoes that were donated go to the Soles4Souls organization, which focuses on creating a business where they can give children and adults who are struggling a pair of shoes. By keeping these pairs from going to waste the students the group was able to help an organization expand.

Medford Veterans Recognition is a group of students working to raise awareness of Medford citizens of the past and present who have fought in the military. The group hopes to foster more widespread acknowledgment and support of the stories and heroics of veterans that live and have lived in our own community by publishing biographies of veterans on commemorative signs and plaques around the city.

This group partnered and worked with the senior citizens at the Medford Community Aging Center. There they helped and aided the seniors with tech classes for those who needed assistance with their phone/tablet/computer. This included creating an email, looking up videos, adding contacts, sending text messages, etc. These leaders learned and enjoyed spending and helping others through small tasks.

A group of students in Ms. Nyland's French 4 class, with the support of CCSR, had a Thanksgiving-themed food drive to help support Medford High School families with limited resources to enjoy the Thanksgiving feast. These leaders assembled baskets with Thanksgiving foods, paper goods, and a gift certificate and delivered them to Medford High School Families. As a small group, they were tasked with creating beautiful and inspirational art in a busy corridor where many students walk throughout the day.

CCSR student Rebecca Siegel held a used book sale for Medford educators and school librarians to give back to the Medford Public Schools. Rebecca partnered with the Friends of the Medford Public Library to receive and sort book donations from the community. Books were sold at a very discounted rate to help teachers and librarians fill their shelves. All proceeds were donated to support programming at the new Medford Public Library.

On October 25th, CCSR students Rebecca Siegel, Charlotte Gingo, Liza Lopes, Teagan Mustone, Anderson Prince, and Helena Knightly saw author, activist, and former Georgia State Representative, Stacey Abrams speak as part of her “A Conversation with Stacey Abrams” tour. Students were able to meet Stacey Abrams before the event and take a picture with her. The students were inspired by Abrams’s optimistic outlook on the future of voting rights and advocacy as a voice for political and social change.

This project is working to enact a Polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, ban in the food industry service of the City of Medford. Polystyrene is harmful to our environment and health, negatively impacting wildlife and ecosystems. Ellie, along with others, created a petition with over 1,200 signatures in support of this. She’s spoken in front of City Council twice, once in 2020 and once in 2021, and has received unanimous support to review an ordinance banning Polystyrene in a Committee of the Whole. In February 2022, she plans to present at the Committee of the Whole meeting and move forward with this effort. She hopes to ban polystyrene and move to more reusable, recyclable materials available in the city of Medford. She wants to make a lasting impact on our community and improve the environment by working with local and possibly state governments.

In an effort to increase STEM awareness within under-represented groups in Medford, student leaders hosted 4 after-school science workshops in the McGlynn and Andrews middle schools in the spring, working with faculty and existing science programs. The student-led workshops covered topics in physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering and provided students with the chance to conduct their own lab experiments. Aside from being educational, the workshops were also a great way to bond with new students and make connections.

Melanie Alvarez produced a video about Covid-19 and how it affected life as a high school student. In this video, she wanted to capture the reality of Covid-19 and the changes from doing school online to now being in person. Alvarez demonstrated the negative aspects of Covid as well as the positive aspects.

For Jasmine’s project, she worked with Mr. Skorker and Mr. Elsey to create posters for the Medford Chess Club. She used the internet and her friends to gather information about chess to put onto the posters. She made two posters about general information about the Medford Chess Club and general rules for playing chess.

The CCSR held an event in support of Ukraine during these difficult times. The Stand with Ukraine event was held on March 4, 2022, Friday, the image on the left were the nine students, Khushi Kaur, Amine Nazih, Emma Desharnais, Matteo D’Aveta, Jordan Lanakiev, Eamon Costello, Andersen Prince, Zayn Yousuf, Anamol Kaspel. who gave speeches about how they felt about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ten students on the right image volunteered with the concession stand which contained baked goods. All proceeds and donations were given to UNICEF. The students wore yellow and blue, colors of the Ukraine flag, to show their support to the people in Ukraine.

The members of the CCSR were able to show off their projects! Many people came to support their friends and see their accomplishments!