CEC MECA Challenge: Students tackle civil discourse.
In an age of “Keyboard Warriors” and internet debate, young people recognize that having civil discourse is an important part of their lives and future. In February 2024 Startland partnered with the Career Education Consortium (CEC) to host a MECA Challenge where students tackled the question “How might we foster civil discourse among people with conflicting views”.
Over 80 students from 5 school districts worked in teams, along with help from the design thinking process, to come up with solutions that would help their schools and communities address this issue. Students conducted interviews, worked on prototyping, and finally pitched their ideas to a group of judges all in the hopes of coming up with a viable solution.
We saw ideas ranging from social and emotional learning to apps, to bringing in Patrick Mahomes and other Chiefs players to play football with students while discussing civility and opposing opinions. At the end of the day, the team from Lee’s Summit West took home the 1st place prize with their “Indivisible” pitch where they would work with outlets to create unbiased news sources as well as work with schools to speak with students about how to have civil discourse. The team from Grandview took home 2nd with their “Chatterbox” idea, which would put resources and rooms into schools where students could work through various social and emotional issues with different types of therapy like music, art, and even dog therapy. The room would be designed specifically for students to have a calming space to discuss their world.
Events like this would be impossible without the dedication of our volunteer judges, and our amazing partnership with the CEC. We are also excited to be able to partner with the DeBruce Foundation and include their agilities toolkit in our MECA Challenges. Not only are we able to include the agilities in our programing but DeBruce also helps to sponsor prizes for our Innovation awards and Selling & Communicating awards for our MECA Challenges. If you or your organization are interested in ways to support Startland’s mission, please visit our website to learn about ways to get involved!
“It’s hard to learn public speaking skills in one setting but having the practice standing up and sharing, and seeing how other people present, my students are always talking about that on the way home.”
“Empathy skills are important so that you can be well rounded and you can understand other’s point of views before you speak an opinion that could be offensive or rude. ”
