COMMUNITY & COLLABORATION: A Cornerstone of EAST

Lexi Jarrett: 3 years in EAST, 9th Grade

Macie McCommon: 2.5 years in EAST, 9th Grade

Ciara Stephens: 3 years in EAST, 9th Grade

Drew Sides: 5 years in EAST, 11th Grade

Gabee Hively: 4 years in EAST, 12th Grade

Jonia Patterson: 2 years in EAST, 8th Grade

Kale Searcy: 1 year in EAST, 7th Grade

Bo Cook: 2 years in EAST, 9th Grade

Meet the EAST Conference team of Cross County High School, the Cornerstone Community and Collaboration award recipients for 2021. What does that mean, you ask? It means that these students have demonstrated excellence through projects and service that have enhanced their learning and the lives of the members of their community. Here’s what they had to say about telling their story this year!

We didn’t really select a category; we just focused on telling our story and let the judges interpret that part. After receiving notice, we were awarded the Community and Collaboration Cornerstone. We rewatched our submission video. It was immediately clear to us that it was definitely the story we told.

Possibly Student Growth. This year we were a very young program, and 70% of our students were first-year EAST students; partly because of the options for virtual learning and seniors having the ability to leave school early. Once our first years were onboarded, so to speak, we really pushed some of them to get out of their comfort zone quickly. Our few veteran EAST students were propelled into leadership roles and had to learn quickly, not only for their projects, but to help others develop and grow.

It took a ton of stress off of preparing for EAST Conference. We have won a Cornerstone award in the past and have been finalists in more than one Cornerstone competition area in the same year. Preparing for that can be a struggle. Knowing ahead of time allowed our students to enjoy the EAST Conference instead of being nervous or tied up working on their presentations.

When we found out that we won, we were actually in the middle of an almost twoweek snow break. Even though that meant we weren’t at school together to celebrate, we were able to let our families watch the announcement and celebrate with us. Our school administrators congratulated us before we had the opportunity to tell them! Our community partners were beyond proud. Almost every community partner we worked with this year were businesses or organizations we have worked with in the past. When we won this award, most partners were proud they got to work with us and were glad to see how the work we did with them throughout the year paid off.

Probably our Waterways Project; that project really took off this year and we have really had fun celebrating that with our community and with EAST. We were really excited that this project was completed and was able to serve its purpose to help teach virtually. EAST at Cross County High School

As our younger students mature and gain experience, we should start seeing our projects do the same. We have some great community partners and sponsors who help us anytime we need, but we try to reserve those requests until absolutely necessary. We have students working on several projects currently that may, over the summer and into fall, grow in a way that will push beyond where many of our projects reached this year.

Absolutely! We have been fortunate in our successes with the Cornerstone and Founder’s application process over the past several years. We reached the Founder’s Circle our first year applying (this was the last year they chose one overall winner) and have since won the Student Growth and the Community and Collaboration Cornerstones, and have been a finalist several times. While the goal isn’t to win, the idea that it’s possible has definitely contributed to our students’ drive to work and develop great projects. The goal isn’t to win every year but to push ourselves to that place in our work and be excited to celebrate it.

To learn more about EAST @CCHS, follow them on social media!

Facebook: EAST at Cross County High School