Mary Dodaro, a Language Arts teacher at Monessen High School, saw opportunities to incorporate the project in her writing classes and use it in eliciting response and reflection on reading assignments.  But she also envisioned possibilities for reaching beyond the classroom to address problems facing education or students struggling with socioeconomic and emotional problems. “I’m obsessed with dropout rates and I’d love to hear the stories of students who are contemplating dropout or who already have dropped out” as a means of bringing regional insight about the causes and consequences, she said. “The possibilities at this point are wide open. This could give us the chance to have a whole new picture painted for our region in terms of what we need to do to make it a good place for kids.”

“There are myriad ways for our school partners to involve their students,” said The Consortium’s Associate Executive Director, Steve Seliy, who also is overseeing participation in the Hear Me! project. “This is a wonderful springboard for classroom dialogue and also it can give kids a sense of participation in a community-wide effort that is likely to gain national recognition as CMU begins showcasing their work.”

CMU’s CREATE Lab team is creating a technology platform to collect, sort and disseminate all of the content collected through the Hear Me! project.It also plans to distribute much of it in creative ways to public venues across southwestern Pennsylvania. Distribution channels are expected to take many forms, from wrappers around take-out coffee cups to electronic “story boxes” and tiny MP3 players that deliver audio to people gathered at bus stops or in office lobbies.

The intent, said Jennifer Saffron, CMU’s education coordinator for the project, is “to use technology to connect what kids are saying to a broader audience.”

For information about participating in Hear Me!, contact Steve Seliy at 412-389-3003 or sseliy@tcfpe.org