Local Students Aim To Be Bankers To The Poor

March 2, 2009 - PRLog -- Students in Greg Lance’s junior English class at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo went far beyond merely reading John Steinbeck’s classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath—so far beyond that they hope to visit the village of San Mateo in Guatemala to see firsthand the effects of the micro-loans they are funding.

Seeking ways to make the tale of the Joad family’s epic struggle to survive during the Great Depression more real to his students, Lance partnered with the San Mateo chapter of Rotary International and with San Francisco-based Namaste-Direct in order to have students learn how some of the economic problems faced by the Joads are being dealt with in today’s world. Lance had students read news articles about the collapse of the housing market and promotion of risky loans here in the U.S., and Rotary helped bring in a panel of bankers from two local community banks. Students learned about the importance of collateral, good credit, and steady income in conventional banking practices, and the way this system can exclude those living in extreme poverty from obtaining anything but predatory loans. At the same time, they learned about the work of Grameen Bank founder and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mohammad Yunus, in providing microcredit to women in Bangladesh.

But the real story is where a group of nine students from Lance’s class have taken what they learned. Dubbing themselves “The Hillsdale Effect” these nine students started a club on campus with the aim of funding microloans, vocational training and business mentors with women in Guatemala. “We often hear about problems in the world, but wonder what we can really do about it” says Hillsdale senior, Addison Lewellen. “The Hillsdale Effect is founded on the belief that not only does the world have an effect on our school, but our school can have an effect on the world.”

The diverse students who make up the Hillsdale Effect come from a range of economic and ethnic backgrounds, including some whose parents or grandparents grew up in conditions not unlike those of the women they aim to help through their efforts. Several members are bi-lingual in Spanish and English.

“They learn from each other and from the ‘real world’ work they are doing,” says Lance. “If we can get them to Guatemala, the learning they experience there will be priceless.”
Operating as their own kind of solidarity group modeled after those to which the Guatemalan women receiving loans belong, these remarkable students met throughout the summer, over the winter break and during countless lunch breaks and afternoons to: create a PowerPoint presentation which they have given to local Rotary Clubs, design their own t-shirts to sell on campus, carry out letter-writing campaigns, create a website through which donations can be made, plan classroom presentations and recruit more students who want to be a part of “the effect.”

Ultimately, the students hope that members of The Hillsdale Effect will participate in the approval of loan applications, monitoring of interest payments and management of their own microbank under the auspices of Namaste-Direct.
The students are over half way to their goal of raising enough for each of them to fund a loan package for a woman in Guatemala and to pay for a trip co-sponsored by Namaste-Direct and San Mateo Rotary so they can all learn by seeing these loans in action. The trip is scheduled for the first week in April.

“Clearly there is a need for greater economic literacy and young people are the place to start,” notes local C.P.A. and Rotarian, Brian Sullivan. “Rotary’s interest was in seeing this and a spirit of service fostered in the young people in our community; these kids have taken that goal much farther than we ever imagined.”

The Hillsdale Effect’s next fundraising event is a taco dinner complete with salsa dancing on March 4th in the Hillsdale cafeteria. Those interested in attending or making a contribution can contact them at: thehillsdaleeffect@yahoo.com or visit their website: www.namaste-direct.org/TheHillsdaleEffect.htm



Contact Information:
Hillsdale High School, 3115 Del Monte Street, San Mateo, CA 94403; (650) 558-2699

Teacher Advisor: Greg Lance (650) 391-5485  glance@stanford.edu
Student Spokespersons: Malini Kanan 650-533-8039 and Addison Lewellen (650) 578-0157
Namaste-Direct: Kristin Houk (415) 846-6960 kristin@namaste-direct.org
San Mateo Rotary Club: Brian Sullivan (650) 703-3030 bsullivan@mcleanllc.com

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Hillsdale High School is a California Distinguished School and a Stanford University education partner. With the Small Learning Community (SLC) grants to further its work, Hillsdale has become a national model for comprehensive high school reform.