On Feb. 24, four students from the high school traveled to the Loew’s Hotel in downtown Kansas City, Mo. for the Real World Learning National Conference. While Macey Chaulk, Elsie Collins, Danny Heinen, and Norah McMains, 12, have had the opportunity to serve as student ambassadors, student storytellers, and student leaders at other workshops, the scale of the event made it a particularly unique experience.
“Having people from different schools and businesses from all over the world [made the conference] feel like a big thing,” Collins said. “The table next to me in the conference room I was in had people from Pennsylvania.”
McMains took part in the Real World Learning program during the 2024-2025 school year where they were a coordinator for the RWL student magazine. This publication showcased the initiatives of various schools across the Kansas City Metropolitan area. McMains remarked about their experience coordinating the magazine.
“I loved it!” McMains exclaimed. “It was a lot more organized; every now and then, we would meet as a staff. There weren’t any physical workshops, but it was still really easy.”
This year, McMains took on the role of a workshop leader. This required them to help lead practice sessions at bi-monthly workshops at the Kauffman Foundation building. Transferring between their previous role and their current role was a large change for McMains.
“Last year, I was at a lower level. I had a lot more superiors, but I was still doing a lot of work as a team lead…. This year, I’m only leading people through workshops,” McMains said.
At the national conference, McMains was a speaker in one of the breakout sessions. The session focused on steps to implement market value assets in a school setting. These assets are typically in the form of internships, entrepreneurial experiences, client-connected projects, and college-level classes.
“I almost feel like I did less work at the national conference…. I’m not really helping to guide anyone through anything [at the conference], whereas in workshops I am actively trying to help an ambassador figure out what they want to do,” McMains said.
Collins garnered a greater understanding of the different types of initiatives schools in the area are working on.
“I was surprised by some of the things I heard from other schools…. I learned about a school’s senior projects, and how they’re trying to incorporate real world learning into K-12 classes.”
While Spring Hill students were only there for one day, the conference lasted until Feb. 25 when further breakout sessions were held.
