Bonlieu
Ishak Afrit (SciencesPo), Xue (Snow) Dong (Harvard), Matthew Li (Harvard), Lara Narbona Sabaté (CRI)
Absenteeism, unemployment, and social exclusion are major issues among suburban youth. As a result, these teenagers often they lack the opportunity to access fundamental skills needed to succeed in modern society. Despite their willingness to improve their situation and the interventions of other groups, they still suffer from deprivations.
The Bonlieu summer program aims to break this vicious cycle through a parallel education program. Implemented during the summer in suburban high schools, it recruits motivated and passionate student teachers from Parisian universities. Bonlieu seeks to foster a spirit of ambition and academic success by teaching skills and showing a vision of a different reality.
This program features a new, unconventional approach to learning, with an emphasis on creativity. Students are given the opportunity to pursue creative projects, using high-tech fabrication labs, that culminate in the creation of a Smart Garden (a community learning space centered around greenery) and a social entrepreneurship project in their community. Through these endeavors, students learn fundamental extracurricular skills needed in modern society, such as public speaking, writing, and job skills.
