Making it in the city
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 4, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
Daevon Lewis, left, conducts business with “bank manager” Ramon Gomez. At center is Casondra Darosa. All are from Providence.
PROVIDENCE
Imagine the set of Our Town plopped down in the middle of a former factory that once was home to Kaiser Shipbuilders.
Now populate this ersatz village with teenagers who run the newspaper and radio station, staff City Hall, police the citizens, and serve up sandwiches and popcorn at the local deli. Put it all together and you have Exchange City, a hands-on entrepreneurial program for middle and high school students.
Yesterday, Exchange City opened on the second floor of the Paramount Building, part of Johnson & Wales’ Harborside campus. The university donated 30,000 square feet of space and installed new floors, walls and utilities to the tune of $800,000.
The Rhode Island program will be run by Ken E. Fish, who recently retired from the Rhode Island Department of Education, where he was the director of high school reform. Building Exchange City called for a huge leap of faith, he said, adding that the space just received its occupancy permit yesterday.
“This is learning by doing,” Fish said. “And Johnson & Wales is America’s career university, so there’s a natural confluence here. Teachers commonly tell me, ‘Look at this child. Look how engaged he is.’ ”
The original Exchange City was the brainchild of a group of teachers in Kansas City, who launched the prototype 25 years ago. Since then, it has spread to about two dozen cities across the country.
Exchange City provides a specific curriculum — about 30 hours of instruction — that prepares students for the day when they run their own city. In class, students learn about banking, personal finance, advertising, and price setting. They study the stock market, discuss how to start a small business, and establish the laws that govern Exchange City. The students also appoint their own mayor.
The first students to participate in Exchange City came from the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, an alternative high school that serves teenagers who have repeated at least one grade and are at risk for dropping out. The school, which takes teenagers from Providence, Cranston and Central Falls, offers an accelerated promotion schedule so students are able to return to their regular high schools with the academic and social skills they need to graduate.
Yesterday, Exchange City was a study in organized chaos. During the first of three seven-minute breaks, students rushed around, trying to get their checks cashed and grab a bite to eat. The City Hall employees were swamped when half their staff went on break.
“Once you run out of cash, you have to start writing checks,” a teacher told them. “Check your check register to document what you’ve spent.”
A small squabble broke out in front of a technology shop. One student accused another of punching him in the arm. They were both brought before Judge Diaz, who heard their stories, then asked whether there were any witnesses.
During an earlier speech, Avery Diaz, sounding like a sheriff from the Wild West, promised to keep his town safe even if he died trying.
“Before I ran for judge, people stereotyped me,” Diaz said yesterday. “One girl said I was too short to become a judge, and then all her friends voted for me. I’m here to do my job and keep everyone safe.”
Down the street, Alec Dombchik was trying to put out a newspaper with the slogan “Don’t be a pest. Buy our paper. It’s better than the rest.”
“It’s been stressful,” he said. “The banks want their money already, and I’ve got people bringing me bills and my reporters don’t know how to use the printer yet.”
Outside, Carey DeLauder, a UCAP teacher, said, “It’s great seeing these kids be so responsible and getting real-world experiences.”
During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline shared the honors with the mayor of Exchange City, Livanne Sandoval, a ninth-grader who welcomed Governor Carcieri’s “beautiful wife, Sue, the honorable mayor and members of the General Assembly.”
When someone referred to her as Livanne, Cicilline corrected the speaker and said, “That’s Mayor Sandoval.”
“I hope you include a State House in your city,” Cicilline joked, “because we all know how important the General Assembly is.”
On a more serious note, the mayor said that the more often students have positive experience with a college campus, the more likely they’re able to imagine themselves attending a college or university.
“This is experiential learning at its finest,” said Irving Schneider, president of Johnson & Wales’ Providence campus. “We do that at the college level. We recognize the symbiotic relationship that our campus will share with Exchange City.”
Experiencia Inc., based in Chicago, is the creator and owner of Exchange City, and it has partnered with the Cody Foundation and Johnson & Wales to bring this program to Rhode Island. Schools pay $30 per student to enroll in the program, which has received major financial support from the Champlin Foundations and The United Way of Rhode Island.
Exchange City is booked until the end of the school year, and Fish said that as many as 15,000 students were expected to visit annually from Rhode Island and its neighbors.
lborg@projo.com
