Principal reflects on growing collaboration

Hamline Elementary’s STEM Night with Capitol Region Watershed District was a great success! Students and families played environmentally-themed games and completed activities, including a watershed demonstration and native seed planting with the MN Seed Project. The Bell Museum of Natural History provided interactive stations, and the Math Happens Foundation provided math games. We displayed student science projects, and over 50 students participated in a school-wide STEM Challenge, finding a new use for recycled materials by creating a new object or piece of art. Thanks to families, staff, and partners for making this event fun and educational!
The Hamline to Hamline Collaboration was hard at work this month organizing unique learning experiences. Hamline Elementary second graders had one very busy day working with the business and society class to create kindness cards for neighbors in the morning, and playing a game of soccer with the women’s soccer team in the afternoon. The Hamline University theater department treated first graders to a behind-the-scenes experience at the Anne Simley Theater on campus and yoga-practicing university students led first graders through yoga poses, breathing, and balance exercises in the Hamline Elementary gym. Many thanks to all of the wonderful students, staff, and faculty who participated for making these experiences possible!
It’s exciting to see so many things happening in the collaboration this year, especially after the challenges of Covid made in-person programming harder to do.
I connected with Hamline Elementary Principal Kristin Reilly to learn more about the collaboration’s journey through Covid and what the future of the program looks like.
“Covid was a hard time for us and the maintenance of our partnership and ability to continue programming with Hamline University was hindered. It not only affected how we provided collaborative experiences for both Hamline University and Hamline Elementary students, but it was a time in which the depth of community was decreased with the decrease of in person connection. What makes our partnership thrive is the in-person programming where Hamline University students and Hamline Elementary students see themselves in the eyes of one another and share common experiences,” said Reilly.
In-person experiences that the collaboration specializes in, such as educational clinicals, fun academic and athletic partnerships and mentorship opportunities that provide play and connection all weren’t able to be carried out to the same level. However, the collaboration has been working hard to return to former numbers at full force. Principal Reilly sees the progress every day and understands its importance. “Post Covid we have worked extremely hard to get the partnership back to where it was. I watch the HU students come through our doors again each day to support in classrooms, mentor and tutor our young students. Our partnership is a huge part of our identity and what sets us apart from other schools.”
The collaboration has continued with the support and consistent help from Hamline staff, faculty, and students who work together to power these special programs. The caring workers and volunteers who share their time have proven time and again that the collaboration and the community that it relies on are stronger than the obstacles it faces.
Although the collaboration has had its ups and downs, navigating unprecedented circumstances and coming back stronger than ever before is a goal that unites this community. Principal Reilly sums it up like this: “So, yes, Covid had its impact but it did not take down the heart of this collaboration and partnership. In some ways it has made us stronger as we have realized the importance of connection and communal growth.”
Written by Hamline University student and assistant to the collaboration, Darby Comiskey.