Community
The Rainshadow Community
Our name, Rainshadow Community Charter High School, and our mission statement, “Creating empowered community members through real-world education”, contain the word community because the concept of community is important to us on several different levels.
Community gives a person roots. Many of our students have been adrift in a world they don't feel they belong to. At Rainshadow, students find a sense of belonging. We have found students participate more enthusiastically and learn more effectively when they have that sense of belonging to a community that is inviting, energizing, supportive and safe. You have to want to come to school first, and when you get here, you must then begin to want to learn.
Our school community is an environment providing a safe and supervised place to socialize, get acquainted and take risks being who you really are. It is the springboard from which students can begin looking at education as something they not only need, but also a process they really want to participate in. Everyone is accepted and respected as they are, but sometimes behaviors have to be shaped to allow everyone to function together and support a true learning environment. Being a part of the school community helps students realize the value of the larger community they live in and ultimately the world community they are rapidly becoming responsible for.
In our small school community, students can take risks, make mistakes and challenge their previous beliefs about themselves, other adults and the world in general. Students can begin having success on a regular basis until that forms an identity of strength and competence. Students are taught to self-advocate and to value their own beliefs while learning from others. Students have the opportunity to take what they are learning and see how it fits by going into the local community through field trips, projects, volunteer work and paid employment. Through the use of the Internet, our students are also connecting with the world at large and learning directly and indirectly from other people in different countries.
We partner with other local groups and organizations to give our students a broader base to work from and expand the resources we can offer each student. The community at large has been very supportive of Rainshadow and our students, and it is our goal to always give back through our art, poetry, music, service work and other creative endeavors of our students. Most of all, we want to give back by turning out well-educated students who graduate and feel empowered to take on the challenges that await them, not always knowing all the answers, but having the courage to ask the important questions.
