It’s 3:00 PM on a chilly day in Hollister, Missouri. The school bell rings. With jackets, books, bags—and a few back-to-school jitters—students pile into Katie Schiefelbein’s Spanish classroom where she leads Tiger Academy III, the school’s 21st Century Community Learning Center for 9th-12th grade youth. Hollister High School just wrapped up its break, and students are reconnecting with the rhythms of school. They stow their stuff and find seats, three to a table.
Katie is kicking off the spring semester with the Tiger Leadership Team, a small group of teens that has co-planned programming for Tiger Academy III ever since the center adopted a youth “voice and choice” model. “It’s been awesome to watch them decide what’s going to work best for them and their peers,” Katie said. “We’ve had everything from aviation and self-defense to volunteering club. That’s one of my favorites because the kids get to choose where they volunteer and see the impact they make in the community.”
This year, the Tigers joined TRACTION, a traffic safety and leadership training program offered by the Missouri Department of Transportation. Their students took part in a summer conference on safe driving, learned about risks and seatbelt safety, and met peers from other schools across the state. “Now, using actors and real-life scenarios, our TRACTION team is creating a presentation on driving safety for the whole school,” Katie said. “This can help everyone make better decisions when driving.”
“One day the principal told me, ‘I don’t care what you get your teaching certificate in, but go back to school and be a teacher.’”
Caring about her students and their futures is what inspired Katie to pursue teaching in the first place. She had been working in Kansas City when her mother, who also teaches, urged her to become a substitute. “They were in dire need of subs,” Katie said. “So, I started a couple times a week and just kind of fell in love with the environment and the kids, and especially the high school. One day the principal told me, ‘I don’t care what you get your teaching certificate in, but go back to school and be a teacher. The kids love you. The staff loves you. You need to be a teacher.'”
Everything clicked. Katie came back to Southwest Missouri where she’d grown up, attended Missouri State University to earn her teaching certificate, and studied Spanish, a language she’d loved learning since high school. The afterschool program at Hollister needed help, so she started the Academy’s first hiking club. When the site manager retired, she passed the baton to Katie. Before gravitating to a youth leadership model, the teen volunteer club attracted five students. Today, it engages 35-40 youth—and the Academy as a whole serves 350 K-12 students each year.
“If you’re going to build a youth leadership team, you need Mizzen.”
Katie learned about Mizzen from Mark Cowsert, Associate Director of Partnerships at Missouri AfterSchool Network, a grantee of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Before joining MASN, Mark—a longtime champion of youth-centered programming—had served as program director for the Hollister 21st CCLC. “Mark had recommended that we go with a youth-led approach in the first place,” Katie noted. “He said, ‘if you’re going to build a youth leadership team, you need Mizzen.’”
“Under Traci’s leadership we’re continuing to push forward, and make sure that every student has a voice in guiding the program,” Katie said, referring to Traci Critser who now directs the Academy. “She’s ‘all in’ when it comes to making sure that the program is one hundred percent student led.”
“Through play, they find out how much they have in common, and get to know people they might not have hung out with before. This means they have a friend in another class that can help them through the school day. And they develop communication and relationship-building skills they’ll need as leaders, at work, and throughout life.”
So, she started exploring the Mizzen platform, focusing on activities that would foster her students’ well-being and sense of belonging, while growing communication skills that complemented their leadership development. She landed on a set of team-building games by !MPact Players. Each is aligned with CASEL standards, from self-awareness and relationship skills to decision-making.
Before diving into their planning agenda, the Tigers choose among a wide array of ice-breakers and team-building games. “They choose !Mpact Players games in Mizzen so often, they call them ‘Ray Games,’” (after !MPact Players co-founder, Ray Trinidad, whose high-octane demonstration videos illustrate how each game is played).
Infusing play into her program has had serious benefits. “Growing up during the pandemic, this generation of kids has gone through a lot,” Katie said. “It can be a big step to walk into a roomful of people you don’t know, and make new friends. Through play, they find out how much they have in common, and get to know people they might not have hung out with before. This means they have a friend in another class that can help them through the school day. And they develop communication and relationship-building skills they’ll need as leaders, at work, and throughout life.”
Hollister is a small city—home to 4,500 people—and Katie wants her students to be ready for a world of opportunity. “Mizzen does a good job of helping me inspire students to connect, learn, and be the best version of themselves. This helps them prepare—not just to thrive after high school—but to take some risks,” she added. “I think that's a big thing.”
“I want my students to be emotionally aware, to have the ability to build relationships with others easily and to reach their full potential,” she said. “Those are my main goals. But I also want them to be happy. I want them to find something that makes them happy.”
Try Tiger Academy’s Three Favorite Ray Games:
Evolution (Team Building) Game
By !Mpact Players
Grades 3 - 12
Evolve into a newer, larger and more animated character as you compete in a hilarious rendition of rock, paper, scissors! Learning Standards: CASEL: Self-awareness, CASEL: Social Awareness, CASEL: Self-management, CASEL: Relationship Skills.
Super Secret Handshake Society (Team Building) Game
By !Mpact Players
Grades K - 12
Meet new friends while creating secret, custom handshakes that are guaranteed to impress an audience! Learning Standards: CASEL: Self-awareness, CASEL: Responsible Decision-making, CASEL: Self-management, CASEL: Relationship Skills, CASEL: Decision-making.
Writer's Block (Team Building) Game
By !Mpact Players
Grades 3 - 12
Test your skills by completing a simple task under not-so-ordinary and hilarious conditions! Learning Standards: CASEL: Self-awareness, CASEL: Self-management, CASEL: Problem Solving.