As the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and students from across Dutchess BOCES’ component districts are learning that creating solutions takes time, dedication and input from others as part of the Student Innovation Fellowship.
Organized by BOCES’ Educational Resources (ER), the program invites students to come up with solutions that benefit everyone regarding[IG1] issues facing their school or the larger community.
“It allows them to empathize with the various stakeholders that are effected,” ER professional development specialist Cara Braun said. “We want them to become empathic, equity-focused and really think outside the box of how one issues effects people in different ways.”
During the second session of this year’s program[IG2] , held at BOCES’ Conference Center, student groups looked to their fellow students for input and came up with several solutions to the issues they focused on, which they will have to whittle down to three.
Jasmin Sanchez, a second year cosmetology student, worked with her classmates to find ways to build up a clientele willing to have their hair done to give future students more practical experience. Ultimately they decided to have small groups of people come in at a time for security reasons, with Sanchez noting that Career & Technical Institute Principal Nick Millas approves of the idea.
“It makes our group confident that we can make a change because he’s supporting us,” Sanchez said of Millas. “As a group we are coming close to reaching our goal.” 
Rhinebeck High School freshman Daphne Tamm and her classmates came up with solutions to eliminate food waste, including having a bin where students could drop off uneaten fruit and unopened milk cartons for other students to take.Tamm offered this advice to students interested in making a change.
“Don’t be scared to contribute, whatever you are doing could become true,” she said. “It’s honestly nice that our issue could be taken seriously.” 
“Anytime you can get students sharing ideas and their thinking is helpful,” professional development specialist Daniel August said. “It’s also useful not just for the students that are receiving feedback, but for the students giving feedback to see models of this process in different contexts.”
Students will later create a prototype of one solution that they can implement in their schools to test it and receive feedback from stakeholders.
“They’ll use that feedback to refine their solution and start the process of planning their final presentations,” Braun said. “A lot of these students are going to make that realization of ‘Oh wow. I can actually take what we’re doing here and we may be able to make this change in our building.’”
Those final presentations will be shared April 3 at 9:30 a.m. in the conference center for educators and administrators from across Dutchess County. Braun noted that districts that are not involved in this year’s program are welcome to attend.
“There’s no reason why they can’t come and learn more about the program,” Braun said. “We think Student Innovation Fellowship is a great opportunity.”