Burrell High School community engagement, learning initiatives garner global recognition

Burrell High School’s efforts to improve students’ well-being has earned international attention.

The school’s “learner profiles,” community engagement initiatives and re-imagined high school experience landed them recognition from HundrED, a Finland-based education organization spotlighting well-being in schools.

Burrell’s projects makes them one of 34 initiatives from 71 countries earning the recognition.

“It is an honor to have our learner profiles and re-imagine high school work recognized by HundrED,” said Autumn Turk, the district’s director of curriculum and development. “At Burrell, we are dedicated to helping the whole child grow through relevant and meaningful learning experiences.

“Our learner profiles help our BHS students develop self-awareness of how they learn, what motivates them, and it connects them with career pathways and experiences aligned to their strengths and interests.”

Turk, along with representatives from the school’s Parents as Allies club, presented their family engagement initiatives at the HundrED Innovation Conference in Helsinki, Finland last fall.

Some of Burrell’s initiatives to include family engagement included a “fireside chat” held in the fall and a “community connections” event held this Spring that drew roughly 1,000 people and 60 vendors. Goals of those events were to strengthen community-school relationships, Turk said.

The high school’s learner profiles, created by Burrell’s personalized learning coach Dan Pounds, enhance self-awareness among students and provide an approach to education that caters to individual student needs, Turk said. The learner profiles asks students what motivates them, how they learn best, their strengths, what supports could help improve their learning, and possible future career pathways.

Students in the senior class also have worked with teachers to job shadow careers they’re interested in during the school day.