LIGHT is on a mission to apply the principles of adaptive reuse and CoDesign to the existing American K-12 school system, supporting the transformation of a pre-existing school space, like a classroom or library, into a humanities makerspace, where students can apply their innovative STEM/STEAM skills to meet the real and tangible humanities challenges faced by their schools and communities, whether they take the form of human rights violations (as outlined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights), hate speech, or hate crimes.
It’s clear that every school in America needs somewhere in the school where humanitarian programs, events, field trips, and projects can be coordinated, and someone, e.g. a LIGHT Coordinator, with the knowledge, authority, and support network to ensure their success, and to tell the story of the positive impact of their students’ efforts on/with the broader community.
It’s our belief that every school already has at least one educator willing and able to serve as a LIGHT Coordinator, and every school building already has 99% of what it takes to create and maintain a LIGHT Center. Though do-it-yourself LIGHT Centers exist in various forms across Southwestern Pennsylvania, our new playbook is an effort to capture the core essence of LIGHT in a physical space, with common elements and shared language, applicable to any school district in the United States, regardless of geographic location, curricula, or budget.
Though we know that the needs of our students are perpetually changing, and many of our educational spaces are stuck in a bygone era, schools should forever be a place to safely practice meaningful civic engagement, in collaboration and community, with humanitarianism at the core.
Human by design, Perkins Eastman, an international architectural and design firm, has long believed that design should have a positive impact on people’s lives and the environment. They have generously provided LIGHT with their global expertise and experience to transform our process into a playbook for creating unified and cohesive LIGHT Centers that defy school district boundaries. There is no single “right way” to create a LIGHT Center - each Center must meet a school’s unique needs, especially the needs of those they serve, while leveraging the strength and potential of the LIGHT movement, our network, and our institution - the new Tree of Life.
