JOINING FORCES HOW COLLABORATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IS CHANGING LOCAL EDUCATION.
espite modern education’s best efforts to equip 21st-century classrooms with all the gadgets and gizmos promising to yield society-ready students, there are some things students simply cannot learn within the brick-and-mortar confines of a classroom. To be truly prepared for the real world, students must actually experience the real world—not simply hear or read about it. That requires help from the community. Fortunately, in Cincinnati, many organizations have stepped up to the plate. Through a recent uptick in partnerships and collaborations with organizations outside the academic bubble, Cincinnati students are seeing, hearing, and experiencing the real world firsthand. “Students get so much more from their education when we can tie classroom learning to real-life experiences,” says Cincinnati Public Schools Superintendent Laura Mitchell. “Being able to see professionals who look like them and who can offer real stories about what it takes to achieve what they have is invaluable.” In the following stories, we highlight just a handful of the area’s smartest collaborations. —ELIZABETH MILLER WOOD
ILLU STR ATI O N S BY DA N Z ET T WO C H
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