St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland participates in the Red Chair Project

This past November, at Saint Ignatius High School (Cleveland, OH), our student justice group, Ignatians for Peace and Justice has taken part in the Red Chair (“La Silla Roja”) Project for the second time in three years.  Students made signs, wrote articles, painted and displayed 11 red chairs around the school with facts about global education, created a scavenger hunt for individual students (with prize money for the cafeteria), and a homeroom quiz (with the winning homeroom getting fair trade hot cocoa delivered to their classroom one morning after being lovingly prepared by members of IPJ before school), and held an all-school mission collection.

Originally, we had learned about the Red Chair Project after our students had met representatives of the Fe y Alegría schools network at the Ignatian Family Teach-In a few years ago and then learned more about it when some students visited a Fe y Alegría school on a mission trip to Nicaragua and then two representatives from that school visited Saint Ignatius to talk with some of our students in IPJ.

Additionally, in our school dining hall, we have a huge map of all of the Jesuit High Schools throughout the world.  On this map, IPJ reps cut out little Fe y Alegría heart logos and taped them up on the map on the countries where the Fe y Alegría schools network is located to raise awareness of the good work of these schools in providing educational opportunities to those in need.

Our students from IPJ also led our daily morning prayers and daily Examen prayers that week with education and justice themes, as well as chalked our mall, an outdoor commons running through the campus, with facts and figures about the lack of opportunity for education that children face throughout the world.

Lastly, our school also has a close relationship with students from schools in our surrounding neighborhood through our extensive Arrupe Neighborhood Partnership Program, many of whom face economic or social challenges to getting a good education, like the students of Fe y Alegría schools.  Our IPJ members shared about the Red Chair Project with students in an afterschool program, and invited them to create some artwork that we posted near the large map in our dining hall to make the connections to global education issues more local and concrete to our community.

Written by Augie Pacetti, Director of Campus Ministry

Resources:

Ignatians for Peace and Justice Twitter Account
Example: Red Chair Project Scavenger Hunt 

If you would like to implement the Red Chair project in your school, contact Erika Meyer at [email protected] for more information.

VIDEO | La Silla Roja Project: Building a Global Education Movement

“To me, the Silla Roja represents all the work we have to do and the steps we have to take for those 263 million youth that don’t go to school.”

– A Georgetown Prep High School Student

This year, 8 Jesuit schools across the United States participated in La Silla Roja project, learning about the importance of the right to education and raising awareness in their school communities. La Silla Roja is a campaign that was initially launched by our partners, Entreculturas – Fe y Alegría Spain in 2012 and has since spread to several countries. The goal of the campaign is to highlight the 263 million children and youth around the world who are still unable to attend school.  

Here’s a video that we prepared to say thank you to all who made this year a success:

Entreculturas, together with our partners at Educate Magis helped support the spread of this campaign to new schools, engaging their extensive online network. As a result, more schools in Spain, Malta, Italy, Ireland, United States, Canada, Ecuador, Argentina and Zimbabwe joined this growing global education campaign. The “Global Red Chair Project” was also promoted through regional and international Jesuit education networks, such as Jesuit Schools Network in the U.S., and it was the second most discussed conversation on Educate Magis’ website. A badge was even created to recognize and thank the schools that participated in the project.

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We are getting ready for next year and looking forward to reaching even more schools in the U.S. If you are interested in learning more about how to participate from the United States, write Erika Meyer ([email protected]) and check out the materials available on our website.

To all La Silla Roja volunteers: Happy Day!

On December 5th, International Volunteer Day, we not only celebrate volunteerism in all its facets – but we also pay special tribute to volunteers working to strengthen the global education community in schools around the United States by working with us on La Silla Roja. Through volunteerism, individuals can impact their students and schools by raising awareness with their actions on the importance of defending and promoting the right to education for everyone.

La Silla Roja campaign was founded to defend the right to education of the 61 million children around the world who are still unable to attend school. The red chair represents the importance of quality, inclusive education, which seeks to attend to the needs of each person and take into account their right to be different.

Throughout this year, we have seen multiple individuals dedicating their time to defending the right to education and we therefore invite you to join us in recognizing these individuals who are engaged in volunteering their time, energies, and skills to change the world for a better future. Thank you to each and everyone of you!

If you are thinking of taking action, don’t hesitate and become a part of the movement! As the new United Nations Sustainable Development agenda begins to take root, we invite you to join us in continuing the struggle for “inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

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For more information, please visit www.feyalegria.us/our-work/la-silla-roja